Highway tolls and gas tax plan draws criticism

CTPOST

HARTFORD – A plan to slap tolls on state highways and increase gas taxes and other fees is hitting a wall of opposition and raising doubts about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s $100 billion vision to upgrade Connecticut’s transportation system.

“They want a gas tax hike, a sales tax hike and higher fees,” said State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton and ranking member on the General Assembly’s transportation committee.

“And they want tolls in Connecticut. How predictable,” said Boucher, an avowed opponent of tolls.

Malloy’s transportation funding panel last week released a long awaited report on how to fund the governor’s bold, 30-year transportation plan over the next 15 years. The report relies heavily on new fees, including raising $8 billion through electronic congestion tolls on I-95 between Greenwich to Stonington, and I-84 from New Haven to Danbury.

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Along with additional borrowing, the panel proposed raising the gas tax by 14 cents over seven years, to 39 cents a gallon, increasing motor vehicle fees, rail and bus fares and boosting the sales tax by one-half percent over 15 years.
The billions in revenue raised would be used to widen I-95 between Greenwich and New Haven, build a new Hartford viaduct, increase volume on Metro-North and create tens of thousands of construction jobs. Toll rates would vary during the day, with higher fees during rush hour.
“One thing has become abundantly clear: Connecticut cannot afford to wait any longer to modernize our transportation system,” Malloy said.
“If we want to compete, we have to invest,” the governor added “If we want to be an attractive place to do business, we need to upgrade our infrastructure. In a global economy, a state’s success hinges on the quality of their infrastructure.”
Delay the vote

The panel’s tax and toll recommendations came days after General Electric announced it was leaving Fairfield for a new headquarters in Boston, in part because Connecticut’s high taxes but also because of a technology hub in New England’s largest city.
More Information

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s transportation plan:

$100 billion over 30 years to improve Metro-North, widen I-95 and repair Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure

$66 billion to maintain the system over the next thirty years.

$34 billion to reduce congestion and create more access to rail and transit systems.

Enact a Constitutional Amendment to protect transportation funds

How to pay for it:

Increase motor vehicle fees, raising $1.3 billion over 15 years

Increase gas tax by 14 cents, to 39 cents per gallon, raising 2 billion over 15 years

Increase rail and bus fares and parking rates by 2.5 percent annually, raising $678 million from by 2030.

Install electronic congestion tolls on I-95 and I-84, raising $8 billion

Raise sales tax by one-half percent

Borrow $9 billion over 15 years

The General Assembly’s Democratic majority quickly declared no tolls or higher user fees or taxes would be considered this year – an election year.
Instead, Democrats said they will focus on the more popular idea of placing a constitutional lock box on the state’s transportation fund to prevent future raids by lawmakers, which must eventually go before voters.

“They don’t want to vote, because they know that their votes supporting new taxes are not what the people of Connecticut want to see,” said state Senate Minority Leader Fasano, R-North Haven. “Their intention is to purposely stay silent, get elected, and then raise taxes — just like we saw after the last election.”

Republicans have released a transportation funding plan that, while smaller than Malloy’s vision, relies only on borrowing money.

Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said everyone knows what it’s going to take to pay for the transportation plan.

“Before we ask Connecticut residents to commit to funding transportation infrastructure, the constitutional lockbox — that was passed unanimously by the Senate but failed to garner enough support in the House to be placed on the ballot — must be approved by Connecticut’s voters,” Looney said.

In releasing its funding blueprint, the transportation panel pointed out 41 percent of state and local roads are in “poor” condition and that leads to $661 a year in extra yearly costs for drivers.

They noted 35 percent of Connecticut’s bridges are functionally obsolete or structurally deficient, 70 percent of state-maintained bridges were built before 1970 and the four movable rail bridges along the New Haven rail line are over 100 years old.

“We have provided a report that delivers, what we believe to be, the most prudent and cost effective way to fund the state’s transportation infrastructure for the mid-term, the first 15 years of the plan,” the panel said.

Insatiable

The National Federation of Independent Business slammed the plan as representing an “insatiable appetite for spending”
“Our state economy is struggling and we are losing businesses to environments with fewer taxes and regulations,” said Andrew Markowski, NFIB Connecticut director.

“Gov. Malloy needs to send this panel back to the drawing board and demand solutions that do not include punishing the hard working people of Connecticut,” Markowski said.

“The fact that they would even float the idea of a hike in the gas tax and sales tax when we are already uncompetitive with surrounding states in those regards just shows how bad things have gotten among policymakers in Hartford,” Markowski added.

State Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, said tolls hurt working people and represent an unfair tax.

“I’m getting tired of the attitude that the middle class does not count,” Godfrey said. “It’s another attack on working class families and an evasive way to raise money.”

Still, Karen Burnaska, director of Transit for Connecticut, said the report makes it clear that revenue has to be raised in order to improve a deteriorating transportation system.