Lived in CT from 1979 to 1989. The politics there was bizarre. They had a Democrat Senator (Liebermann) who often acted like a Republican, and a Republican Governor (Weickert) who often acted like a Democrat.
Posted on 06/25/2019 1:11:05 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Cash-strapped Connecticut is grappling with how to pay for transportation investments to prevent more than half of its roads and highways from falling into disrepair in the next decade.
The answer, according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration, is highway tolls.
Like most states in the Northeast, Connecticut previously used highway tolls to raise revenue. The state removed all tolls in the 1980s following a crash at a toll plaza that killed seven people.
Now Mr. Lamont, a Democrat, is attempting to persuade a skeptical state Legislature to bring them back. Lawmakers declined to vote on tolls during this year’s legislative session, but the governor said he is confident the measure would get a vote during a special session, which hasn’t been scheduled. Mr. Lamont plans to meet with legislative leaders in July to continue making the case for tolls, his office said.
“I don’t think anybody’s arguing against the need for infrastructure investment,” said Joe Giulietti, commissioner of the state’s Department of Transportation, who supports tolls. “It’s all an argument over how that infrastructure investment is going to be paid.”
The state currently needs $1.2 billion annually for upkeep alone, officials said. And Connecticut’s special transportation fund, which is supported with gas taxes, is projected to begin running deficits starting in fiscal year 2022 if it keeps on its current path.
That fund’s dire condition is another symptom of Connecticut’s fiscal struggles as the state continues its weak recovery from the last economic downturn. The dispute over tolls also demonstrates the breadth of the political divide over how to get the state back on track.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I’ll be leaving soon!
Why are they “cash strapped”?
Because their taxes aren't high enough. Isn't that obvious?
Because like all Communist Demonrat governments, they can’t stop spending.
CT raised gas taxes to replace tolls. I assume they will reduce gas tax when they bring tolls back.
Seems dead wrong that citizens are taxed to build roads, and then taxed to use the roads they themselves funded. Double whammy. I’d be PO-ed and voting with my feet, taking my tax dollars with me.
So none of that “spending” is on roads then right?
They gots ta pay off the union thugs foist. Roads, schmoads.
“The answer is...highway tolls.”
The answer is to eliminate social programs.
Thems is some nice roads (schools, goobermint buildings, etc.). Be a shame if something happened to them.
The ultimate Democrat plan is to mandate every vehicle be equipped with GPS transponders and charge you for every mile you drive.
I don’t know what has happened to Connecticut.
When I was a kid in NYC, people moved there because there was no income tax and everybody was a Republican.
I moved to New England in 1980, but frequently traveled to visit left behind family for the next 35 years.
Every year it got worse. Nice little rest areas along I-84 and I-91, or the Merritt Parkway, became ghetto. Stop in Vernon for lunch? No way. Downtown Hartford, where my grandpa and uncle used to do insurance? Forget it.
How did this happen???
Lived in CT from 1979 to 1989. The politics there was bizarre. They had a Democrat Senator (Liebermann) who often acted like a Republican, and a Republican Governor (Weickert) who often acted like a Democrat.
The money will never make to road repair.
NY has been scamming people out of money for the thruway for decades longer than it was supposed to.
It’s too much of a cash cow to pass up.
Looks like you got out just in time!
When Congress created the Interstate Highway System in 1956, states were prohibited from tolling the interstates, with the exception of states that already had tolls in place.
But lawmakers have slowly chipped away at the ban. Tolling is now allowed to add new capacity to an interstate highway or to reconstruct a bridge.
Congress also created a pilot program in a 1998 highway bill that allows three states to explore tolling on their interstates, though none of them have yet utilized the program.
If tolls are illegally added to any such road, the federal highway money is GONE and needs to be factored in to the CT revenue projections.
“I’ll be leaving soon!”
You’re late. I left 13 years ago. Never looked back.
Yep, that’s about when I arrived there!
The Dems cheated their way into power after the GOP corrupted itself out.
And Northeast suburban moms especially are now hopelessly liberal bots.
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