Democrats have given tolls their best shot. They’ve floated every toll idea under the sun. They proposed tolls on all cars, and just trucks. They offered resident discounts. They went from 85 toll locations down to 50 and now 12.

The reality is there’s no toll plan that can make it across the finish line.

The residents of our state don’t trust our Democratic leaders. We’ve seen far too many promises broken to trust government with a new taxing mechanism no matter the “protections.” Tolls cannot be the solution to transportation problems for many reasons, but first and foremost because tolls cannot be passed.

Democratic leaders and the governor continue to waste time arguing amongst themselves. Instead of exploring alternatives, they go in circles with no action. Every day they spin their wheels on tolls, transportation is getting worse and we are not talking about policies that actually could be passed and immediately start improving our state.

If improving transportation is your goal, you shouldn’t be frozen on tolls, you should be supportive of solutions.

Republicans have offered a solution, FASTR CT , that would invest as much in transportation as the Democrats’ latest toll plan, but it works without tolls, without tax increases and with significantly less borrowing.

  • FASTR CT brings certainty to fixing transportation. Meanwhile, tolling will entice a lawsuit from the trucking industry, challenges from New York, and constitutional questions about giving taxing authority to the Department of Transportation to set toll rates.
  • FASTR CT has less borrowing than any of Gov. Lamont’s toll proposals. It requires multiple financial and performance audits to better manage transportation dollars to yield the best results for taxpayers.
  • FASTR CT pays down unfunded pension liabilities to reduce debt and create savings that can be applied to transportation. It would take a portion of funds currently in the state’s rainy day fund that taxpayers have already paid and use those dollars to pay down on unfunded pension liabilities. This is fiscally prudent. Much like using money in your personal savings account earning little interest to pay down on your credit card debt that has huge interest, this would create long-term savings.

Does FASTR CT put our rainy day fund at risk if a recession hits? No. FASTR CT puts us on better footing to weather any future storm by creating jobs and maintaining a historic amount in our rainy day fund.

Jobs. FASTR CT would create approximately 23,000 good-paying jobs and begin road improvements immediately to help carry our economy through a recession generating nearly $38 billion in economic activity.

Robust rainy day fund. Under FASTR CT $1.3 billion will remain in the rainy day fund this year and by 2021 that will grow to $1.7 billion, which is a historic cushion for any potential recession. Those who argue we need more than that in the rainy day fund to weather a recession are suggesting the state use a record-breaking amount of one-time revenue to fix an ongoing problem. That strategy has failed us in the past and led us into the financial problems we face today.

Timing. Goldman Sachs estimates that there is less than a 25 percent chance that the economy will plunge into a recession in the next 12 months. Even if a recession does occur by 2021, we will have already rebuilt the needed cushion by then, thanks to the strong rainy day protections defined in the 2018/2019 bipartisan budget.

Strengthens state finances. FASTR CT makes a down payment on the biggest financial problem our state is facing: our unfunded liabilities. It also eliminates a large amount of high-interest state borrowing. By reducing debt, we are providing relief from one of our most crushing burdens in both the short and long term.

Certainty and immediacy. We don’t need to wait for tolls or future approvals and there is no threat of lawsuits or challenges by other states. FASTR CT means we can work on shovel-ready projects to move Connecticut forward immediately.

If a toll bill is not passed by the end of the month, Democrats won’t act until after the next election. Connecticut cannot wait that long to fix our transportation system.

Tolls are not going to happen this year. The sooner Democrats accept that, the closer we can get to a real solution. Learn more at CTSenateRepublicans.com/FASTRCT.