Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced this week that his state would be standing down from their plan to implement truck only tolls. The move by Lamont came as a surprise even to those in his own party. But while the tolls are gone for now, some lawmakers expect that they’ll be back again soon.
Lamont campaigned on a promise to toll trucks as a way of filling the holes in the state’s infrastructure funding. While he waffled back and forth on whether the tolls would be for cars and trucks, just trucks, or mostly trucks, the most recent plan was to force truckers to be solely responsible for financing $19.4 billion in infrastructure investment.
During a press conference on Wednesday, February 19th, Lamont announced that he was abandoning the plan. Lamont placed the blame for the decision squarely on the shoulders of state lawmakers. The governor told reporters that he was tired of waiting for the state Legislature to give him the votes he needed for the bill.
“I think it’s time to take a pause,” Lamont said according to Transport Topics. “I’ve got a Legislature that doesn’t want to make a choice. This is a place that specializes in kicking the can down the road, and I don’t accept it.”
State lawmakers meanwhile told reporters that they were about five days out from holding the vote that Lamont had been waiting for. They even said that they were confident that they had the votes to pass the truck-only tolling legislation.
Instead of pursuing tolling, Lamont plans to pay for $200 million in transportation infrastructure repairs by taking on debt through bonding.
But $200 million is a far cry from $19.4 billion. And just because the tolls are dead for now, doesn’t mean they won’t come back.
“Nothing’s dead in this building,” Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano said according to NBC New York. “Back up again this session? I might be a little bit surprised. Back up again in 2021, I think you could probably bank on it.”
Source: ttnews, wfsb, nbcnewyork
Somebody above my pay grade needs to organize some sort of protest against tolls that these idiots hear, loud and clear. Like a one day boycott for out of state trucks, or a one day boycott of the highways putting ALL the trucks on city and town roads overwhelming them. Can’t just lay down for this.
Their shelves can go empty I never driver in the Northeast the most trucker unfriendly area in the country.
Just another example of government pitting the general public against a specific group in order to fleece that specific group. Lamont knows the lunatics with cars in CT hate trucks, so it’s easy to convince them that trucks are the problem. Meanwhile, the real problem is government mismanagement of the revenue the state already takes in from fuel taxes, user fees, registrations, etc. Every year, it’s the same old story: if we just raise this fee or that tax, we’ll have enough to fix the roads. Pure nonsense.
I do not spend my money in states that are not trucker friendly.
I do not spend my $75,000 year disposable income in California, New Mexico, or Illinois, or other states with truck specific issues.
Truckers, you need to put your money where it is appreciated.
Understand ?
I’ll tell me why you don’t do New Mexico California I could see Texas Illinois Oklahoma Florida and anything above 40 has toll roads so I exist on any of those
It was supposed to say tell me why you don’t do New Mexico I can see California Oklahoma parts of Texas Florida Illinois and anything way above 40 for all their toll roads
You cannot make an existing road into a toll road it has been paid by taxpayers money the only way to get a toll road is to build a new road
Oh now, maybe you can explain why Rhode Island has been getting away with it for some time now? I dont believe they built a new road up there in over 10 years.