Connecticut is again weighing the restoration of highway tolls against a backdrop of budgetary struggles, a raided transportation maintenance fund and less available federal funding down the road.
Bills are pending in the General Assembly in Hartford that would collect money from drivers along Interstate routes, something Connecticut hasn’t done since 1985.
“With the climate we’re in now, more individuals are jumping on the bandwagon,” said state Sen. Anthony Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, who has filed bills the past four years calling for the resumption of tolls. Guerrera’s Democratic colleague, Rep. Patricia Dillon from New Haven, has also submitted legislation.
“It’s very important that we start the discussion on tolls,” said Donald Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association and co-chairman of the U.S. Tolling Coalition, a Madison, Wis.-group of public and private sector transportation interests urging Congress to allow states more flexibility in tolling their Interstate highways.
Federal permission is now necessary to charge a toll on an Interstate, and such revenue must go toward transportation projects.
Even tolling opponents within the state, mostly along border communities, admit the proposals have a shot this time.
“There’s a greater chance of certainty” of passage, said state Sen. Scott Frantz, a Republican who dislikes tolls and whose Greenwich district abuts New York State.
Connecticut’s hovering budget problems cast shadows over discussions of tolls. In December, a special legislative session had to approve funds to plug a $365 million deficit, ending a year that began with a general obligation downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service to Aa3 from Aa2.
Also in 2012, Hartford-based asset manager Conning Inc. ranked Connecticut last among the 50 states in credit quality, citing a high debt and expenditure burden, weak employment growth and declining home values.
According to statistics released by Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes, projections for the state’s Special Transportation Fund, established nearly 30 years ago after a high-profile fatal bridge collapse, show the fund with operating deficits of $60.3 million and $85.3 million in fiscal 2015 and 2016, respectively. Those statistics still show an overall cumulative surplus of $18.8 million at the end of 2016.
“When deficits from the recession occurred, they began robbing from that pot. Now we’re paying the price,” said Guerrera. “Our infrastructure is in need of repair, and the gasoline tax is no longer reliable because people drive more efficient cars. We have to look at other resources to fix our roads and bridges.”
In addition, a transportation bill that Congress approved this year will expire after 2014, leaving the future of federal funding in question.
Tolls and highway maintenance policies in Connecticut are linked to two 1983 tragedies: the Stratford tollgate crash that killed seven people in January, and the Mianus River Bridge collapse in June, when a 100-foot chunk of northbound Interstate 95 in Greenwich fell off and created an open pit, killing three motorists who fell 70 feet below into the water. Only the timing of the latter catastrophe — around 1:30 a.m. — minimized the death toll.
In the Stratford crash, a truck carrying sweet potatoes in broad daylight plowed into cars waiting to pay tolls and triggered an explosion that burned six of the seven victims beyond recognition. The accident happened one year after a motion to abolish the tolls failed in the General Assembly by one vote.
After the crash, lawmakers approved the dismantling of tolls and the gates came down in 1985. Tolling areas included the Connecticut Turnpike, which ran on I-95 along the shoreline from New York to Rhode Island; the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways; and the Charter Oak and Putnam bridges across the Connecticut River in the Hartford area.
Following the Mianus tragedy, which the National Safety and Transportation Board blamed on a bad pin-and-hanger assembly and shoddy inspection procedures, the state established the Special Transportation Fund for bridge and road maintenance. But to cover deficits over the years, Connecticut transferred money out of that account into its general fund.
“A lot of us didn’t know until after the fact. The state’s budgeting process is so loose. If the state had left the Special Transportation Fund alone and run Connecticut more prudently, we wouldn’t be in this situation today,” said Frantz, the ranking Republican on the legislative Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and also the newest member of the Connecticut Bond Commission. “It concerns me that we’re rated at the bottom of the pile with respect to how we manage our financial affairs, and we need to change that.
“Tolls are not a good thing. They don’t give the state a good image,” said Frantz, who also worries about the traffic impact on cities and towns. “I remember the days when you pitched your quarter into the toll basket. A lot of people sought to avoid the tolls by driving on local roads.”
Discussions about tolling locations frequently revolve around border areas, although Gov. Dannel Malloy, speaking last month at a business breakfast meeting in Danbury — 10 miles from the New York State line — cautioned about border tolls.
“While not something you can take off the table entirely, the governor has no plans to implement tolls on a widespread basis in Connecticut,” Malloy's communications director, Andrew Doba, said late Friday.
The rising trend of electronic tolling in place of tollgates assuage safety concerns that the gruesome Stratford crash scene highlighted. Also, Fitch Ratings in a report last year said, “electronic tolling … does tend to desensitize drivers to rate increases.”
“Tolls are much more visceral” as a political issue, said Neil Gray, director of government affairs for the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, which three weeks ago launched a campaign to promote the role of tolling in transportation funding. “Certainly Connecticut has its history, but Connecticut is not alone.”
What’s different now is technology, according to Gray.
“Any future toll roads will be about open roads,” he said. “You’ll never have a new tollgate on a highway, though you might have one on an exit ramp with a swipe card. You’ll still have the occasional motorist who gets on and didn’t know it was a toll road and says, ‘Oh my gosh, how am I going to pay?’ ”
Guerrera, whose district covers suburbs south of capital city Hartford, said an electronic system that helps lighten congestion would offset concerns about drivers having to pay up.
“That’s always going to be an issue, but let’s be honest, it would make sense if we had some type of electronic system. Then there would be no need for any toll booths of any time. And the public would start to see traffic move more clearly. I think people would then say it’s a good thing,” Guerrera said.
“We have to realize if we don’t make changes, we would be behind the 8-ball. We don’t want another Mianus,” he added. “I look at it not so much as a revenue issue because it’s a public safety issue, too. But the rating agencies could see this as part of the larger picture in supporting our finances.”
Fitch, Standard & Poor’s and the Kroll Bond Rating Agency — the latter began rating Connecticut last year — each rate the state double-A.
Guerrera also recommends a toll system that gives in-state residents a break. He cited the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge in neighboring Rhode Island, where residents with E-ZPass transponders pay 83 cents per crossing; drivers with out-of-state transponders or paying cash pay $4.
“You can look at it as a form of congestion pricing,” said Anthony Figliola, the vice president of Empire Government Strategies in Uniondale, N.Y. “[Mayor Michael] Bloomberg tried it in New York City and didn’t get far with it, but [candidate] Joe Lhota may bring it back if he becomes mayor.”
He added: “Speaking as an outsider, if it lessens congestion, then people will go for it.”
