A transportation working group formed by Gov.-elect Ned Lamont on Wednesday recommended the adoption of tolls for passenger vehicles as well as tractor-trailers to help pay for state transportation projects.
The policy would conflict with Lamont’s promises during the 2018 gubernatorial campaign to only adopt highway tolls for tractor-trailers.
An email to Lamont’s transition team inquiring about whether the governor-elect supports a more expansive tolls plan was not immediately answered Wednesday afternoon.
The state Department of Transportation last month released a study that found installing 82 tolling gantries across the state could net $1 billion per year in revenue, if the fees were applied to all vehicles.
“Vehicles passing through Connecticut are getting a free ride on our roads,” said Melissa Kaplan-Macey, co-chair of the group and Connecticut director of the Regional Plan Association in Stamford. “We agree that it’s a conversation that our state needs to have.”
The possibility of broad tolling and talk during the meeting of the importance of the state fuel tax to paying for transportation projects drew a rebuke from Len Fasano, the state Senate Republican president pro tempore.
“I’m trying very hard to give Governor-elect Lamont the benefit of the doubt and not rush to judgement. However, the policy proposals that have emerged from many of his transition team meetings, including today’s proposal to toll all cars and increase the gas tax, are extremely concerning,” Fasano said in an email statement. “These ideas look like (Gov.) Dan Malloy 2.0 and then some.”
The 21-member panel of stakeholders co-chaired by Kaplan-Macey and Kevin Dillon, executive director of the quasi-public Connecticut Airport Authority — which oversees Bradley International Airport — began meeting at the beginning of December.
Top priorities the group identified for the state’s transportation system are highway infrastructure projects, modernizing the rail system and increasing communication and interconnectivity between different modes of public transportation.
Additionally, Dillon proposed the formation of a quasi-public Transit Corridor Development Authority, which would oversee transit-oriented development projects and work with towns on planning land use around transportation.
“We really have to make sure that we’re achieving the highest return on our investments by maximizing (transit-oriented development),” Dillon said. “We’re going to have to improve coordination.”
