Connecticut may be the next state to try and use truckers as a rolling piggy bank. Governor-elect Ned Lamont campaigned on using truck-only tolls to try and plug the deficit in their budget.
According to Lamont, the tolls could bring in anywhere from $100 million to $250 million a year, but did not offer any data to back up where those estimates came from. The tolls would be used to plug the state’s funding deficit.
While a truck-only toll plan isn’t set in stone yet, Lamont says that he doesn’t see a better option.
“I’ve got to pay for public infrastructure some way,” said Lamont according to the Journal Inquirer. “I haven’t heard a better way of paying for anything, except more borrowing or jacking up the gas tax.”
On the campaign trail, Lamont proposed imposing a truck-only toll on only out-of-state truckers. According to Lamont, out-of-state truckers “use our roads toll-free and create significant wear-and-tear.”
In reality, tolling only out-of-state trucks is likely a non-starter as it would be an apparent violation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Commerce Clause makes it illegal for states to pass legislation that discriminates against or excessively burdens interstate commerce.
Lamont previously left open the possibility that the state would begin tolling all vehicles, not just trucks. He also proposed that truckers could get a discount on truck-only tolls by driving during off-peak traffic hours.
The Motor Transport Association of Connecticut has promised to fight back against any truck-only toll plan put forward by Lamont. Joe Sculley, president of the MTAC, said raising the sort of money Lamont is talking about solely from truckers “could double our tax burden overnight.”
Lamont may have gotten the inspiration for his truck-only tolls from Rhode Island’s program. Critics of that program warned that if Rhode Island’s tolls went unchallenged, truck-only tolls would spread across the country to other states. Despite lawsuits filed against the state, it seems like that’s exactly what’s started to happen.
Lamont has reportedly stated that he’ll wait to see how the lawsuit filed against Rhode Island is decided before putting out a formal proposal for Connecticut.
Source: overdrive, journalinquirer, ctpost, wtnh, ctnewsjunkie, cornelllaw
Ken says
How about that out of state trucks.well then there should be a 500 doller.state delivery fee.this would mean that a shipper or reciver.would pay a 500 dollar extra fee.for there goods. Then companies would have a little more pull.to not pay it.its like little kids at the dinner table you’ll set there till you eat it.well you get your stuff when you the shipper/recover pay it.
Rj says
There’s a lot of freight moving everywhere else other than Connecticut
A trucker says
And when trucks stop delivering in Connecticut because of this, how will y’all survive? 😂😂
Andrew H says
Dang. So much for the Rhode Island bypass. I boycotted the Northeast when I was over the road (as well as Cali), this would’ve only solidified my boycott.
Paul Bierlein says
Trucks need to stop delivering in his state and he would change his mind when he get hungry.
Craig Carter says
Have they lost their minds, when they had the tolls every ten miles on the interstate it put a lot of people in danger and in the end a bridge on same interstate collapsed and the money made by the dangerous tolls were never accounted for. Over quarter billion dollars worth.
Inanyminet says
The bridge in Connecticut that collapsed was due to illegal dumping of tankers going up the highway during rainy weather because an extra structure of that bridge to decayed. It is true though that none of that money went as intended otherwise I would have caught that problem with the bridge long before it collapsed
Douglas Kirk says
That’s the most moronic statement I’ve heard in a long time
Lawrence Fessler says
that’s been noted before years ago about tankers from NY and Long Island and NJ dumping hazedous waste on a rainy night when no one would see it and A NY Trooper pull one over for light problems and his shoes started melt from the acid they were dumping
Jon says
He didn’t explain it well, but u go & name call first, what does that make you? Sounded funny at first, but check a few more posts,
U might not have to resort to insults.
Ed Harrop says
First of all, it’s illegal. If this continues, truckers are going to revolt. Put your glasses on , get a big shovel and a pair of scissors and cut all the crap out of the budget.The truckers are just barely making it as it is. All goods and services and basically everything in this country relies on the trucking industry. So, how do you think they are going to get the cash to pay your tolls?(guess who) They can’t cut their budget ! FIND ANOTHER WAY !!
Jon says
Just another way of kicking the can down the road, fix his deficit by dropping it on the citizenry when trucks insist on a surcharge
In those states and goods rise in price as a result.
Like you say, do your job jerk, make the hard choices, don’t pick on people with little voice and not expect it to catch up with you.
Orland says
Welcome to communist USA, where politicians pass criminal laws to kill the little working man and the citizens do nothing about it other than bend over and get nail in the ( you know what), if they do that in any other country truckers will be on strike in minutes, not here in silented USA,I don’t see any difference between the USA and China, Cuba etc, same communist régimen same coward citizens, welcome to the land of the free.
Jon says
No way Truckers should have lost the unions, we need that voice, but those leaders were politicians too, they got too fat, demanded too much, and got the shippers hopping mad. Shippers had more clout, drivers were the big losers.
There would be no Swift, changing the drivers that drive the trucks faster than they change tires on the trucks, AND the drivers would be safer & better trained. That CSA2010 bullshit, what a corporate/government scam, just made driver turnover the next corporate mantra. Smashed equipment? Tax Right off. 50 drivers every week from Fontana, by years end maybe 2 from each class would still be driving…..96% turnover!!??!!
How do a bunch of rookie untrained fools, smashing up trucks & trailers, constitute better safety for the general public?
My 2nd trainer was great, a talented guy. But He had
6 months TOTAL OTR experience
To my 3 years. Got paid all my miles + His, @ HIS rate!. When they realized his trainee (me) had previous experience they drove us like air freight; surplus Fed-x, LAX to NJ & back, highs dollar electronics (truck don’t stop, period, from PU to delivery.)
He was doing so well, he basically didn’t work weekends…imagine that!
I was getting $50 a week, & my training took forever.
Use you, set you up to fail, throw you out. Only now is the drivers shortage getting critical for them, so they are paying up….for now.
But I was a doubles guy, I needed to back up, ALL we did was drop & hook. They didn’t train me for shit.
D says
Yup.
Ron says
This Lamont guy doesn’t realize that we pass the buck to the seller who in turn passes the buck to the buyer who in turn passes that same buck plus fees unto the consumer. So I’m fact while it raises the money needed for infrastructure the people who buy the goods we bring still paid for it. Also we don’t ride on the road toll free we have to pay our share of fuel taxes even if we didn’t buy fuel in that state. It’s part of ifta
Taylor says
“Out of state trucks use our roads toll free”… Guess that idiot never heard of IFTA?
“Truckers could get a discount on tolls by driving off peak hours” … Gues he never heard of HOS including the 14 hour rule?
He also said trucks are responsible for significant damage to roads. Yet, by giving toll discounts for driving off peak hours, that will somehow lessen the perceived damage to the roads???
Mrs. C says
Taylor don’t forget about tthe heavy highway tax!!
Pamela J Bramhall says
Perhaps trucks won’t go to Connecticut and they can figure out how to get the materials to fix their infrastructure without a truck to bring it to them. Truckers already pay so much in taxes for infrastructure, this is ridiculous.
Rufus says
The product in my trailer weighs more than my truck. How about toll on them?
Mrs. C says
Exactly!!
Bryan says
I guess that the Governor-Elect of Connecticut don’t like Truck Drivers, but he may have forgotten that everything he owns came from Truck Drivers delivering to the local establishments up there..
Leave the Tolls for Trucks out of your first bill signing please or we may have boycott your state..
Inanyminet says
One of three things will happen if this is implemented. 1 truckers will look for other roads to get around the toll roads. 2 Truckers will refuse to take things to Connecticut. Final truckers will increase their rates to go to Connecticut and we call now who will pay in the end, the consumer.
Douglas Kirk says
There are almost no other roads to use in CT. They will just do like NJ and outlaw trucks on almost every road
Catbirdkirby says
Maybe the Connecticut government higher ups need to take their hands out of the state monies. Sell the overabundance they have and take a pay cut. Live with only $60k or 70k like their constituents. Maybe then Connecticut will have enough money to pay for repairs instead of taxing the crap out of the people, us included.
Lawrence Fessler says
yeah and the same should apply too PA too
Steve says
It’s discriminatory to toll only trucks only and not the cars. This was supposed to be a freedom of mobility country. It’s not free mobility if you have to pay to go from point a to point b. Truckers and trucking companies pay for the IFTA and there is a fuel tax at the pump that is supposedly used for highway maintenance. It’s only going to crowd out of route highways. If the governors want the freight delivered to their states and have a growing state economy, they need to reconsider tolling trucks only. Bottom line is for the trucking industry to halt freight in those truck only tolling states.
Constance says
Truckers are already sucked dri. Ifta, 2290, higher fuel prices, 14hos etc…………….. TRUCKS NEED TO SHUT DOWN ALL ACROSS AMERICA!!!!
Kevin says
I’m with you 100%…as I’m a driver myself….us drivers NEED to organize….fact is we make this country….if 1/2 of drivers took 1 week vacation at the same time it would cripple the entire country
Douglas Kirk says
Time to use some of our almost unlimited economic clout and shut down. The only way all this theft and extortion will ever end is when the trucks stop rolling
You will never see my truck in CT or RI
Earle Dubee says
I agree, I myself don’t run RI. Now it looks like I might not be running CT.
Don Sterfan says
Ever hear of cutting spending. Every driver, every person has to do that to survive anymore. I pay taxes in every state through IFTA and my apportioned registration whether i drive that state or not.
I’ve made my last trip to that part of the country. Too many high priced tolls. No truck stops. No available alternate overnight parking. If you don’t want me in your state, just say so. Your residents can pay higher prices for goods due to non competitive pricing on loads coming in.
art says
Folks,
Charge the customers/shippers for whatever tolls cost to deliver their product.
Might as well tax everyone to alliveate the extreme highway congestion in CT. Would probably be wrlvome by carrers for time saved. time is money. Rich CT NY folks also would appreciate it.
Thanks
Glorifyedtrucker says
A few months ago I read a story about Rhode island doing this very thing and now Connecticut is doing it…shame shame shame …Drivers I really think and feel that it is time we ban together and protest …..I for one am very tired of being blamed for all the road conditions and road faults that has happened….when have you ever read in a story that a truck rolled over because a private car driver who was texting on their cellphone cut off the path of an on coming truck …or when have you ever read a story about a big rig rolls over a private vehicle because the driver of the private vehicle was checking their brakes…..I dont like driving on some roads that is in such disrepair because that state can’t afford to repair the roads …but they sure can waist their money on new high rise overpasses or adding another lane …we the truck driver who has to carry the product across the land are the blood line of this nation ….so if we were to park our trucks for a month we could give this nation one hell of a heart attack…and we would do this protesting the unfairness of tolls
Philly pete says
Right on I agree,but thus no longer trucking it’s political transportation
Mark Jett says
Tolls on truckers is rediculous, why would you punish the ppl who make your states economy possible?
Sean says
we as truckers should just start boycotting these states and then the states will see that truck only taxes don’t work.
Why don’t the states just do with sales tax what they have done with ifta.
Better to get a little at a time rather than nothing.
Ed Harrop says
Looks like the revolution has begun, but the problem is the big freight companies have to much to lose and they probably won’t join the fight and l’m sure there’s politics involved. The independent truckers can’t do this alone.Remember the late 70’s when Diesel $1:00. That’s why we need to do all we can to make the big trucking companies join the fight to stop this guy or else the other states will follow suit, then we’re all screwed.
Kevin says
That’s why we need to organize as drivers…not by carriers….these mega carriers are half of the problems with this industry….drivers are just meat behind the wheel…
Ed Harrop says
In regards to Mr Kirk . How long can you shut down. It will only work if you all get together. Do I hear Union?. Yeah. It’s the only way it will work. The shutdown will have to be 100% . The result will be it will show these politicians who there messing with and it might give the trucking industry some clout in the future
Brian says
Business better step in and say no,O for one will just raise rates or stay away from there
Ginger says
Guess I won’t be running Connecticut then…that’s definitely discrimination!!
Walter Larkin says
I now live in Florida, when they started truck only in RI I stopped going. Does not hurt me if I don’t deliver in Connecticut .