"Does anybody have a dime? Somebody's gotta go back and get a s___load of dimes!"
Posted on 01/25/2018 7:06:05 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
SOUTHINGTON, CT — In alphabetical order, a majority of Democratic and one unaffiliated candidates for governor endorsed the idea of installing electronic tolls on Connecticut’s highways and received applause for it.
The nine candidates participated in a forum Friday sponsored by the Connecticut Construction Industries Association. The same group sponsored a similar forum in December for the Republican gubernatorial candidates as well.
None of the candidates who are still in the “exploratory” phase of their campaigns for governor were invited to either forum — only the declared candidates.
The problem: Connecticut’s special transportation fund will start running a deficit in 2019 if the state fails to take any action. As recently as Jan. 10, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who is not seeking re-election, released a list of $4.3 billion in transportation projects that would be postponed indefinitely until new revenue is appropriated for the Special Transportation Fund.
“The solvency of the Special Transportation Fund is in doubt without new revenues,” Transportation Commissioner James Redeker has said.
Traditional forms of revenue that get deposited into the Special Transportation Fund are the gas tax and the gross receipts tax. Connecticut removed tolls from its highways in 1984 following several accidents, including one that claimed seven lives at the Stratford toll plaza on I-95.
R. Nelson ‘Oz’ Griebel, one of the unaffiliated candidates on the stage Friday, said he would support tolls, an increase in the gas tax until they are installed, and even congestion pricing, which would allow the amount of tolls to increase during peak travel hours.
Griebel, who was chairman of the state’s Transportation Strategy Board for five years, may have had an unfair advantage on the topic having previously immersed himself in the subject area.
Griebel said at the time they recommended restoring the 15 cents to the gas tax. He said he believes the gas tax has to be restored at some higher level “if we are going to make progress.”
The comment received applause from the more than 330 construction workers and engineers in the audience whose livelihoods depend on transportation projects that are funded with this money.
He said they also proposed a small surcharge on the sales tax to be deposited into the Special Transportation Fund to help pay for the projects.
“Of course none of this was done,” Griebel said.
Griebel said he also supports electronic tolls, but even if “we were to say ‘go’ today, it probably would be three to five years before they are established.” He said that’s why they need to look at increasing the gas tax as a temporary measure.
He also said he supports the use of technology to help the state collect revenues.
The newest Democratic candidate to enter the race this week, Ned Lamont, said he also supports tolls.
“What we need is a reliable revenue stream for our overall budget and in particular for transportation infrastructure,” Lamont said.
The comment received applause.
Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim didn’t specifically mention tolls when he spoke about his desire to invest in transportation infrastructure, but after the forum he said he absolutely supports tolls.
Guy Smith of Greenwich said he also supports electronic tolls and would give residents a MasterCard that they could use to pay both the tolls and for gasoline. Smith said those credit card reports would be submitted to the Department of Revenue Services and residents would receive a tax credit on what they had spent on Connecticut’s roads.
Sean Connolly of Hebron, a Democratic candidate, said congestion on Connecticut’s highways comes with a cost and hinders economic growth. He said he supports tolls to help pay for improvements to Connecticut’s roads and bridges.
“Without tolls we are currently subsidizing others driving through our state,” Connolly said. “We’re paying. They’re not.”
Connolly, the first to address the audience of more than 300 construction workers, said transportation is tied to Connecticut’s economic future.
“Failure to invest in our transportation infrastructure will costs thousands and thousands of jobs,” Connolly said.
Mark Stewart, Micah Welintunkonis, Lee Whitnum, and Jacey Wyatt also participated in the forum. Welintunkonis is an unaffiliated candidate and the rest are seeking the Democratic Party nomination.
After the forum, Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, said it was “nice to hear them talk about how they’re going to pay for it.”
The General Assembly was unable to find enough votes to approve electronic tolls last year and attempts to create a bureaucratic structure to do it without legislative approval were also scrapped.
It’s unclear if there’s enough support for electronic tolls in the legislature to get it passed before voters decide on a constitutional lockbox in November. The lockbox, according to proponents, would prevent lawmakers from raiding the revenue earmarked for the Special Transportation Fund.
Toll proponents had hoped to get a lockbox in place before moving forward with the idea, but that didn’t happen.
The forum was held at the Aqua Turf and sponsored by the Connecticut Construction Industries Association Inc.
Rent-seekers of the world, unite!
So we are supposed to be impressed by greedy unions cheering for squeezing still more money from the taxpayers?
If tolls paid for highways and nothing else there would be a logic to them.
However, the CT legislature could never keep their sticky fingers out of a box of chocolates. :-)
All as$holes without a clue. Tax and spend. Toll is a tax.
Tolls are a good way to keep the poor unwashed masses off the roads and out of the way of the elitist. They are a excellent form of discrimination.
Tolls are a good way to keep the poor unwashed masses off the roads and out of the way of the elitist. They are a excellent form of discrimination.
“If tolls paid for highways and nothing else there would be a logic to them.”
Yeah, but as we have learned here in California, they pass new taxes for road construction then, build bike lanes and pay for illegals with the money, then come back at the driving public with another bite saying the last bite “wasn’t enough.” The RATs here are already running on borrowed time. California will collapse financially, because the great unwashed illegal cadre here is now being allowed to vote, and they will vote the state into insolvency in the next few years.
Boy, I read this and immediately thought the same thing.
I would not trust those people to use those funds only for highway maintenance.
I fully expect them to fund gold-plated healthcare and outrageously generous pension benefits to unionized state workers.
Count on it.
Makes your blood boil.
And they wonder why working class Americans who pay taxes hold their legislators in such utter contempt.
Let’s be honest. They lie about toll money and gas tax money. It goes in the general budget and does not get spent on highways and bridges.
I had a lengthy post ( which I sometimes repost) where I wanted to see where the “stimulus” funds in my state were going back in 2010 because they had set up websites for “transparency”, though I am certain they thought that either nobody would access them (I did) or that data would be so obfuscated and the interface so unwieldy that people would give up (I didn’t)
In my investigation, I found that millions of dollars were being taken from the stimulus “funds” and used by states and localities to pay for gold-plated teacher’s union healthcare. And this was just in ONE community, and one of the wealthiest ones in the state at that.
I can’t see one of those “American Reinvestment and Recovery” signs without having my blood pressure spike and spitting on the ground. Still makes me angry.
Taking money from taxpayers and throwing it into these open state coffers guarantees that kind of thing will happen.
Legislators? Highwaymen? Both call out “Stand and deliver!” and use force to accomplish the deed. I see no difference between them other than we elect the former.
“Taking money from taxpayers and throwing it into these open state coffers guarantees that kind of thing will happen.”
This is why all government employee unions should be outlawed. They have morphed into special interest groups who lobby the government and are given taxpayer dollars to do so. The RAT/RAT Union nexus has gotten to the point that is it self-sustaining by use of the government tit.
Agreed...”Stand and Deliver” indeed.
I bypass CD now heading to Mass. This gives me more incentive!
The construction industry cheers guaranteed revenues to their bank accounts. Big surprise there...
Of course I hope they realize that they can put tolls on state roads all they want but you can’t toll an interstate without federal permission
Oh, and sound walls. Can’t see the scenery from the freeway, anymore, because they build cinder block walls down both sides that turn the whole thing into a concrete canyon.
Oh, and “Express Lanes”; tax everyone to add another lane, then restrict access on a pay-to-play basis — as if everyone else wasn’t taxed out the wazoo to build the f*g thing.
Leftists who get angry about discrimination haven’t got jack to say about this form of it.
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