Godfrey doubts Lamont has votes for commercial truck tolls plan

By Scott Benjamin

DANBURY – State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) says he doesn’t think that Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) has enough votes to get his plan for tolls on commercial trucks approved at a January special session because of his inconsistency on funding transportation infrastructure improvements and the threat that the plan will be ruled unconstitutional.

“My colleagues are uncomfortable because every time you turn around it’s a different proposal,” said Godfrey of Danbury, who was initially elected to the state House in 1988 and currently serves as deputy speaker pro tempore.

Lamont told Patch.com in a February 2018 phone interview – about five weeks after formally entering the gubernatorial race – that he supported a tolls plan for all vehicles. Then during the primary and general election campaigns he said that he would support tolls only for commercial trucks.

In February 2019, he wrote a column for CT Hearst endorsing a plan to toll all vehicles. That plan didn’t come to a vote during the regular session and there were discussions about considering it during a special session in the summer.

With that plan thwarted, he met with federal officials to seek low-interest loans and this fall unveiled a modified plan that would have had just 14 gantries – instead of 50 or more – that would be dedicated to 14 bridges across Connecticut.

Lamont said that his proposal would address the major traffic congestion choke points. For example, some real estate agents in Stamford won’t show homes to prospective buyers during the rush hour because of the congestion on Interstate-95.

News reports have indicated that some Senate Democrats were reluctant to vote for the plan because it might imperil their 2020 re-election because of the rallies being held across the state by the No Tolls organization.

When the Senate Democratic caucus announced it didn’t have the votes to approve that plan, the Republican state Senate caucus offered a proposal to take money from the Rainy Day Fund, use it to pay down part of the state’s massive retirement costs and then apply those savings to fund the transportation infrastructure improvements.

Lamont called that plan “risky” since the state has been rebuilding the rainy day fund to try to boost its bond rating. He also had rejected an earlier plan endorsed by both Republican caucuses to use bond funding to pay for the road and bridge upgrades.

On November 26, Lamont and House and Senate Democratic leaders announced their support for the commercial trucks tolling plan, which is the proposal that Lamont had campaigned on a year ago when he defeated Madison financial executive Bob Stefanowski by about 44,000 votes. On December 10 Lamont and legislative leaders said they intended to have the commercial trucks tolls plan considered in January during a special session.

However, CT Mirror reported in February that at that time, Lamont had abandoned the commercial trucks plan because it wouldn’t generate enough revenue to fund transportation improvements. Now he has reverted to the commercial trucks plan.

“I think people and legislators don’t trust Gov. Lamont and his proposals,” Godfrey said in an interview. “I think that’s a real issue in people’s opposition to his proposal.”

State Rep. Themis Klarides (R-114) of Derby, the state House Minority Leader, recently told Patch.com that the public, in general, has a “lack of trust” in state government for reasons ranging the tolls proposals to unfunded pension liabilities.

Godfrey said the commercial trucks tolls will make consumer items “more expensive” as a result of the additional costs.

He said he also doesn’t think the package is “constitutionally viable” since a similar program in Rhode Island is currently being challenged in federal court.

Lamont has said the plan would cost $19.4 billion with some of the funding coming from the low-interest federal loans.

“It’s been handled badly from the beginning,” Godfrey remarked. “There’s been no consistency.”

He goes back to the second term of Lamont’s immediate predecessor, former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex), who discussed placing tolls only at random points near the Connecticut border.

He complained that Malloy never held a “listening tour” to determine the impact of that proposal.

Even Lamont's revised proposal would be the largest increase in transportation infrastructure funding in Connecticut since former Gov. William O'Neill (D-East Hampton) signed a package in the mid-1980s to address improvements following the 1983 collapse of the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich.

Godfrey said some legislators think that Lamont invoked a debt diet as a way to secure votes for his tolls plans. There were only four meetings of the state Bond Commission during 2019, instead of the usual once-a-month sessions.

Lamont has indicated that he wants to reduce state bonding by about $700 million a year to help improve the state’s credit rating.

For example, the state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness reported in March 2018 that the pensions for the state employees were only 29 percent funded.

However, Godfrey declared that trying to use the debt diet as leverage probably hasn’t changed one vote for the tolls proposals.

He complained that the delay in approving state bonding has impacted municipal road improvements and could eventually impact costs for towns and cities for snow removal following a big storm.

About the only thing that the public and the legislators apparently agree on is that transportation infrastructure improvements are overdue. CT Mirror has reported that Lamont said in February that he consistently heard from business leaders, for example, that traffic congestion was hurting their companies.

Stefanowski told WTIC radio in Hartford this fall that Lamont should have each of his commissioners reduce their budget by one percent per year, which would net more than $200 million. Lamont has indicated that the commercial truck tolls would generate about $187 million annually toward the improvements, with additional funds coming through the low-interest federal loans.

Godfrey exclaimed, “If you cut one percent of health care, who loses their health care. If you reduce the Corrections budget by one percent, what happens to some of those facilities.”

State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose district includes a slice of northern Danbury, has said he believes that Stefanowski’s plan is viable, although some departments could be cut more than one percent and others might not be able to make a one percent reduction.

Godfrey, whose district includes a large portion of downtown Danbury, said Lamont has been “totally focused on tolls” and hasn’t talked about other alternatives.

He said the Office of Fiscal Analysis, the General Assembly’s budget arm, has indicated that the gasoline tax, which was reduced twice in the late 1990s and early 2000s –bringing it down from 39 cents a gallon to 25 cents a gallon – adjusted for inflation – would have increased from 25 cents a gallon to 37 cents a gallon between 2003 and 2017.

“The more you use the road, the more you pay,” Godfrey explained. “There is more of a balance.”

“You don’t need a big bureaucracy,” the state representative added. “You pay at the pump and it gets sent along to the state.”

Godfrey said some “red states” have increased their gasoline taxes.

He said a boost in the gasoline tax coupled with a fee for hybrid and electric cars, which have become more popular and use less fuel, and a fee for cars costing $50,000 or more could be used to pay for the transportation infrastructure improvements.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Old Lyme) teamed with then-U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) as far back as 2014 to increase the federal gasoline tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to 30.4 cents a gallon and phase it in over two years and use the funds to upgrade the interstate highways. The tax has not been increased since 1993. Their proposal was never enacted.

Godfrey said that Lamont’s handling of the tolls deliberations could make it a “watershed issue” in the November election as the Democrats attempt to maintain their 91-60 majority in the state House and 22-14 edge in the state Senate. The Democrats only held a 79-72 advantage in the state House following the 2016 presidential election and the state Senate was tied 18 seats each.

CT Hearst political columnist Ken Dixon recently wrote that it has been Lamont’s “signature program” and it remains “stuck in neutral.”

In September, Godfrey told Patch.com that Lamont has admirable personality characteristics, he also described him as “naïve” . . . “not in touch” . . . “a little cavalier.”

He said recently that nothing has happened since then to make him change that perception.

Godfrey said Lamont’s legislative liaison operation has been the worst of any of the six governors that he has served under.

Yet, he added, “It’s hard to dislike him because he is polite and friendly. He’s a good schmoozer.”

Godfrey said during social events at the executive residence in Hartford, Lamont has played the piano and invited legislators to sing along.

However, he added that Lamont has not matched the work ethic of Malloy.

Godfrey told Patch.com during Malloy’s tenure that he didn’t know when “he finds time to sleep,” since the former governor maintained an ambitious schedule.

“He’s a man of action, he’s not interested in discussing the weather,” the state representative said at the time.

Godfrey said he spoke to Lamont in early summer about 40 gubernatorial appointments that had not been confirmed yet by the General Assembly., He said they still haven’t been filled.

Regarding Danbury, the state representative said even though former City Council President Chris Setaro, a local attorney, failed to defeat 18-year Republican Mayor Mark Boughton in the November municipal election, he believes the city Democrats benefitted.

Setaro’s extensive door-to-door campaigning helped hold Boughton to about 54 percent of the vote, after he had annexed recent municipal elections by roughly 2-to-1 ratios. It also helped narrow the Republican majority from 14 to 7 to 11 to 10 seats on the City Council.

Said Godfrey, “The campaign energized Democrats in Danbury. There were young people involved and there was compassion and a labor-intensive effort from everyone in the party.”

Setaro had lost to Bouhgton in a photo-finish in 2001 as Democratic Mayor Gene Eriquez was completing his 12-year tenure.

Godfrey said that perhaps most notably, Boughton, who has made three bids for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has “embraced” Setaro’s call to address overcrowding in the schools and repairs to the roads.

The state representative said the city’s legislative delegation met with Danbury Superintendent of Schools Sal Pascarella shortly after the municipal election and he pledged to provide enrollment projects by early January so they could start to work with the school district to seek partial state reimbursement funding for new schools.

Godfrey told Patch.com in September that he believes the city will need to add at least one elementary school and possibly a new middle school.

He said in the more recent interview that the Hat City is developing into “Two Danburys – the prosperous and the assets limited.”

Harding has said the city has an “odd economic dynamic” since it ranks first in the state in sales tax revenue – largely due to the Danbury Fair Mall – first in the state per capita in restaurants and it is the only metro area in Connecticut that has recaptured all of the jobs it lost in the 2009 recession.

However, about half of the students in the public schools are on reduced lunch and the United Way reported in September 2018 that 32,000 households – roughly half of those in Danbury – are slightly above the poverty line or some point below that measure.

Godfrey said it is difficult to boost state funding for the cities since a majority of legislators represent suburban districts.