Posted on 06/22/2019 3:36:59 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Just last week, House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz dismissed toll opponents as “emotional.” He claimed that they cling unthinkingly to “perceived details” such as that the number of gantries remain unfixed and the amount of revenue actually to be obtained from out-of-staters remains not only undetermined, but undeterminable.
He did not mention, but could have, opponents’ continuing concerns about the eventual rate of tolls; about whether a state-wide, shared-sacrifice tolling structure will be authorized by the U.S. D.O.T. as promised, and what happens if it isn’t; and how much gross revenue from tolling will be eaten up by costs, which have thus far – by every available historical measure – been radically low-balled.
These concerns are not just emotional clinging to nonsense, though. They are the rational and clear-eyed implications of everything we know about the federal law and policy controlling Connecticut’s tolling plan and the state’s past patterns and practices in revenue generation, as well as the texts of all previous iterations of tolling bills.
Gov. Ned Lamont’s new draft toll text, the one that will presumably inform debate in these waning days of the 2019 session, confirms these toll opponents’ fears.
Consider, for instance, the supposed “promise” about how high tolls rates will go.
In this draft, the rates will start at 3.5 to 5.72 cents a mile. After three years, though, they will be free to rise. Their rise will occur not at the discretion of the legislature, which has to report to voters, but will be set by a largely unelected and non-representative commission. The commission would set tolls “at the lowest amount necessary to achieve congestion reduction and to provide sufficient funding to operate the tolled highways.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yankeeinstitute.org ...
Full title:
Policy Corner: Gov. Ned Lamont’s New Tolls Bill Reveals More Gaps between Empty Promises and Bill-Text Realities
The current federal regulations regarding interstate highways means that EVERY interstate that gets a toll placed on it will then be EXEMPT from federal highway funds coming into the state. Federal highway funds all citizens of CT pay into with their federal taxes and will now get zero return. Instead they still pay the feds and atop that they pay the state o.
Not well thought out financially. Not emotional at all.
No longer true. That provision was repealed by Congress well over a decade ago.
I was an original member of the Ban All Tolls movement in Ct. I drove 95 and the Merritt and paid four tolls every day. Waiting in long lines to pay a tax four times a day for fifteen years drove me crazy.
During the campaign to end all tolls, a trucker killed seven people at the Stratford tolls. The tolls came down in 90 days.
Ct is desperate for revenue. The public employee unions are wringing the last buck they can out of the taxpayers. One of the happiest days of my life was putting Ct in my rear view heading to paradise in SC.
No longer true. That provision was repealed by Congress well over a decade ago.
Maybe you could lead me to that change since I got my info from my oldest daughter who ran for CT House seat in 2008 and has been neck deep in CT law ever since and she said this was still on. I'll research with her on this end.
I would pay a toll to drive through CT on my trips north, under one condition: they fix the ramp from 91N to 84E. I’m not going to ask for a fix for 84 through Hartford, that’s a lost cause.
I’m familiar with that area, especially in the snow. Loads of laughs!
As soon as the technology is perfected, taxes will be assessed for every mile of travel your inboard car computer records.
Single lane, uphill ramp where people sometimes stop at the end (even though they don’t need to). I’ve never done it in the snow and I’m not going to.
What a pathetic excuse of a governor.
So, he, in effect, negotiates union deals with himself. "Lovely state you got there - be a shame if anything happened to it...."
This will be a really bad unintended consequence:
Nobody will be driving on 95, 84 and other interstates WHERE ALL THE SHOPPING AND MALLS ARE OFF and pay an extra $5 or $10 toll when they can just use Amazon or other such delivery.
Goodbye businesses. MANY businesses and stores.
Son-in-law working for a company off 95 has been told OFFICIALLY that the company WILL MOVE and WORKING FROM HOME will be utilized as much as possible.
All these facts mean the projections of revenues based on current traffic flow will be light years off. The short-sighted Democrats will be scratching their head: “waa happa, doy, doy, doy”
That means good bye brick and mortar stores, hello Amazon and other delivery servicing businesses. Good bye travel for fun and tourism, motels will close, attractions will convert to private farms and companies serving mail order deliveries.
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