The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Democrats: GOP leaning toward tolls
Republicans say caucus remains united against proposal
HARTFORD — Majority leaders of the House of Representatives on Monday said they see a potential silver lining in Republican opposition to electronic highway toll legislation.
But their GOP counterpart said her caucus remains unified against tolls, charging that Democrats are so challenged in coming up with enough votes to pass Gov. Ned Lamont’s signature legislation that the issue could be delayed until after the June 5 adjournment, prompting a special General Assembly session on the issue.
Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matt Ritter told reporters before the day’s business session that in offering a proposal last week to focus repairs on five major bridges, Republicans took a step toward some kind of eventual compromise on tolls to raise needed infrastructure revenue.
“Look, the minority leaders of the Senate and House have now come to the table with an offer,” Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said, noting that he takes the GOP proposal on Friday to purchase an additional $375 million in bonds over the next five years as an overture to toll certain highway bridges. “Is it a take-it-or-leave-it offer? I always say we do our best work in a bipartisan way.”
“We stand 100 percent against any tolls in the state of Connecticut,” replied House Minority Leader Themis Klarides a few minutes later.
“What we’re saying is, have DOT pick five bridges that are in the worst disrepair in the state of Connecticut,” she said. “Go down to Washington and have a conversation with them in regard to how much money they will give us to fund the repair of those bridges. Now clearly in the Democrats’ minds, which is almost laughable to me, that means, ‘Oh maybe we can fund them with tolls.’ In their mind, once again, they can’t get off of tolling the people of the state of Connecticut to fund anything.”
She said the toll legislation, which has yet to be revealed in a final form, seems to change shape on a regular basis, in apparent response to criticism from balky Democrats who are being asked to approve an eventual bill.
“Every day there is a little bit of a change,” Klarides, R-Derby, told reporters after the House leaders’ daily news conference. “Now it’s a one-cent gas tax. Last week it was going to fix asthma. This is just a scam on the Democrat leadership’s part and the governor’s part to convince people to do what they know is not right.”
Ritter and Aresimowicz said the crowd estimated by Capitol Police at between
1,500 and 2,100 antitoll protesters who demonstrated at the Capitol on Saturday, was not exactly a large group.
“I don’t think that was much of a rally,” said Ritter, D-Hartford. “This issue has been around so long. Do I think people were surprised by the low turnout? Yes, I do. It was a low number but I don’t think the needle moves too much, anyway.”
“I don’t know that it will have much of an effect,” Aresimowicz said. “It’s the same group of people, and we’re grappling with a major decision on what we do for the transportation infrastructure for the state.”
He said the prospects of a special session on the issue remain active. “Being able to focus on a sole issue isn’t necessarily a bad
thing,” Aresimowicz said. “The draft of the bill that came out starts to fill in some of the question marks and some of the blanks, but we’re not there yet.”
The Democrats said it is still too soon to determine toll discount rates and locations of gantries because federal authorities are required to first approve plans.
“You have to do something,” Ritter said. “We all agree on that. At some point there will be a vote on making our transportation fund solvent and how best to do that. Right now if the feds did a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, we might be unable to apply and receive any money because of it. Nobody wants to borrow $700 million and put it on the state credit card.”