Not So Fast: Breaking Through the Transportation Impasse

Given the many issues with our commuter rail service, the congestion of our highways, and the poor condition of our roads and bridges, the General Assembly’s focus on transportation during this legislative session is welcome news to most people. But what is to be accomplished, and where are we in the process?

There are two components of what is happening with transportation in Hartford. One is establishing an infrastructure plan, an area where Governor Malloy has taken ownership. The other is determining how to pay for it, a task he has left to the legislature.

The Infrastructure Plan

Last month, the administration released its transportation plan, called “Let’s Go CT”, in two booklets that resemble marketing brochures. One, Connecticut’s 5-Year Transportation Ramp-Up Plan, provides a list of  “immediate short-term investments,” with costs for each, and a total budget of $2.8 billion for the five years, to be spent on top of the baseline DOT budget. The other booklet, Connecticut’s Bold Vision for a Transportation Future, provides “the long-term 30-year vision for Connecticut transportation.” The budget estimate for the 30-year plan is $100 billion.

The booklets include cost estimates, but do not speak to funding sources.

Funding Options

Several types of mechanisms for funding transportation infrastructure in general are being discussed in the legislature, but they are not attached to particular projects.

  • Transportation Lockbox. While a law passed last year is meant to protect transportation funds from being diverted for other purposes, it’s generally accepted that the language needs to be stronger. The administration and most legislators are supporting more rigorous statutory language, as well as a constitutional amendment, to ensure that funds budgeted for transportation are used for nothing else.
  • Long-Term Bonding. House and Senate Republicans have made a detailed proposal for reallocating a portion of the state’s projected general obligation bonding every year to transportation, in order to make available $1 billion annually for transportation infrastructure over a 30-year period. The proposal includes no new taxes, tolls, or borrowing increases.
  • Tolls. The Transportation Committee has held a public hearing on a bill allowing border tolls on highways. Federal restrictions on ordinary tolls and low revenue potential may well kill the bill if public opposition doesn’t do it first. Although there are no other bills suggesting alternatives like tolled express lanes that drivers can choose to take or not, or congestion pricing, which involves higher tolls during rush hours and lower or no tolls at other times, options like these are also on the table and may be considered later in the session, through an amendment or another process. While the same federal restrictions don’t apply to these mechanisms, the revenue potential still appears limited.

What’s the Bottom Line?

A plan for the five-year “ramp-up” period, with a sequence and order of priority, exists, and the governor’s proposed budget includes an $800 million bonding provision to fund the first two years of it, along with appropriations to pay for the debt service.

A bill now under consideration proposes a $2 billion bond authorization for years 3-5 of the plan, but there is no anticipated funding stream to pay the estimated $800 million in debt service.

The list of initiatives for the last 25 years of the 30-year plan is not organized by priority, and has no time sequence. There is no projected funding source. It is, today, a wish list without much structure or certainty of fulfillment.

Finding the funds to pay for any or all of the plan is no small thing, because the legislature is wrestling with a budget mess of considerable magnitude: a current-year deficit of $100 million and a $2.8 billion deficit for the next two years. This situation casts something of a pall over ambitious future spending plans, even when they focus on an area as critical as transportation infrastructure.

The truth is that it’s probably not time yet to be either too excited or too worried about any initiatives in the transportation plan beyond the next two years. Until the state’s finances are in order, it may be difficult to break through Connecticut’s transportation impasse.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to discuss transportation, or any other issue, further. I always appreciate hearing from you.

W
Submitted by Wilton, CT

Become a Local Voice in Your Community!

HamletHub invites you to contribute stories, events, and more to keep your neighbors informed and connected.

Read Next