Saturday, March 02, 2019

Connecticut's Created Toll Crisis

The Connecticut Democrat Party and Governor Lamont have now created a toll crisis in the state.   Governor Lamont obviously did not understand the tolls question in his campaign.  The issue of tolls has now become the tax savior to solve all of the transportation problems in the state.  Just like the state income tax was supposed to solve all of the financial problems in the state and just like all of the tax hikes during the failed Malloy Administration was supposed to solve all of the financial problems in the state.  Nothing has worked nor will tolls work.
Connecticut has a major problem in how much it spends especially in transportation.
The toll debate has been one sided with poor information being given by those in favor of tolls.  One issue that should be explained is why does Connecticut rank 44th in total disbursements per mile and 50th (last in the country) in administrative disbursements per mile (nearly $100,000 per mile) according to recent studies by the Reason Foundation-reason.org.  Why are we spending this much money on administration of our transportation systems in Connecticut?  Has there ever been an audit of this spending and agency as former Gubernatorial candidate Tim Herbst has requested? What are the actual rates that Connecticut drivers will pay in these tolls?  The numbers change constantly.  What happens if the toll revenues do not make up for the loss of over $725 million dollars that the state currently gets from the Federal Government in lieu of tolls?  Just keep raising the tolls? Has there ever been a discussion in cutting administrative costs in the Department of Transportation and putting that savings into actual maintenance and repair of our outdated road and bridge system?  I also have not read any plans as to how this toll money will be spent to repair all of the problem roads and bridges in the state or is the money just going to continue the status quo of Connecticut's rank of 44th in total disbursements per mile and 50th (last in the country) in administrative disbursements per mile (nearly $100,000 per mile)?  Where do the costs of over $300 million dollars to implement tolls along with $100 million dollars a year to run the tolls program come from and why are they so high?  What is proven economically by being the highest tolled state in the country? How does tolls help us economically by taxing us even more than what we are taxed already?
Tolls will not set us up economically for the future.  Tolls will only set us up for even more economic failures in the future.   Get ready for it.

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