Griebel Supports Tolls To Fund Infrastructure Improvements

By Scott Benjamin

Independent gubernatorial candidate Nelson “Oz” Griebel says improvements to Connecticut’s crumbling roads and bridges – an issue that has generated much talk but little action over the last generation – should be partly accomplished through electronic highway tolls and at least a temporary increase in the gasoline tax

However, the recently-retired longtime chief executive officer of the MetroHartford Alliance said there should be a secure lock box for transportation funds before any action is taken. A constitutional amendment will be on the state ballot in November to accomplish that. Illinois and New Jersey approved similar amendments in 2016.

For years, critics have complained that money should not be diverted from the special transportation fund to the state’s general operations.

Griebel of Simsbury said in a phone interview that the reduction of the gasoline tax in two installments from 39 cents down to 25 cents a gallon over 1999 and 2000 resulted in a loss of $225 million a year.

Due to traffic safety concerns, the last toll plazas in Connecticut were removed in the mid-1980s.

Griebel - who formerly chaired the state Transportation Strategy Board and more recently was a member of an ad-hoc transportation committee appointed by Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) - said electronic tolls could address that deficit and help finance road and railroad improvements. The ad-hoc committee, which was chaired by former state Rep. Cameron Staples (D-New Haven), developed recommendations on funding a $100 billion program over 30 years.

However, he estimated it will take three to five years to get tolls installed. Thus, in the interim, he said an increase in the gasoline tax would be one step to help fund improvements.

Griebel noted that it is a pressing issue since Malloy, who will not seek a third term this year, has said that without additional revenue the special transportation fund will be in deficit in about two years. The governor has criticized the General Assembly for being negligent about the funding.

The candidate said transportation improvements largely hinge on federal funding. For example, former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury has said major projects, such as the 2.1-mile Route 7 bypass in Brookfield that opened in 2009, usually get 80 percent of the money from the federal government.

Griebel, who served as the chief executive officer of BankBoston, said he is an advocate of high-speed rail.

But he acknowledged that “there isn’t a lot of available land in Connecticut” and some municipalities have already indicated they don’t want it in their backyard.

Griebel indicated that high-speed rail would have to be largely installed on existing routes.

He said Malloy’s First Five/Next Five program in which the state provided financial incentives to such companies as ESPN and the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund to remain in Connecticut and expand their work force over the coming year “helped” those companies, but the larger solution is to upgrade the state’s infrastructure and higher education systems.

Regarding a state fiscal crisis that has continued since the 2008 Great Recession, Griebel said he would work “collaboratively” with legislators, collective bargaining unit leaders and rank and file workers to revise the “lucrative” state pension system.

He said the goal would be to get more workers into the less-expensive defined contributions plans, which are a staple in private industry.

Leaders of the collective bargaining units have said that through wage freezes and a higher employee payment into the pension system, they are saving taxpayers $1.57 billion over the current two-year budget cycle and $24 billion over the next 20 years.

However, CT News Junkie reported last year that the pension system is only 35.5 percent funded.

“State workers might have the money there when they turn 65, but not when they turn 80,” said Griebel.

On higher education, the independent candidate said he supports the 2011 decision by Malloy and the General Assembly to save costs through creating the Board of Regents, which oversees the four regional state universities, the 12 community colleges and Charter Oak College. Those campuses had previously been governed by three separate boards.

“You need to find savings and utilize classroom space effectively,” Griebel said.

To that end, he said he also supports the recent efforts by Board of Regents President Mark Ojakian, the former chief of staff to Malloy, to eliminate the position of president at the 12 community colleges and centralize those duties in the central office in Hartford.

Farmington Bank economist Donald Klepper-Smith has said that Connecticut is the only New England state that hasn’t regained all of the jobs it lost during the 2008 recession. The state has lost net jobs in four of the last five months.

Griebel said the state should be trying to expand its health care and insurance sectors and find other venues to expand from its current population of 3.5 million to 4.2 million in 2035.

Griebel - who placed third in the state Republican gubernatorial primary in 2010, behind Greenwich businessman Tom Foley, the winner, and then-Lieutenant Governor Micahel Fedele of Stamford, the runner-up - said that he and his running mate for lieutenant governor, attorney Monte Clark of Newtown, “have no illusions” that they will be able to raise as much money as the Democratic and Republican nominees this year.

They have eschewed seeking to qualify for the state Citizen Election Program funding. Griebel said they don’t want to seek funds that could be put toward valuable state programs when the state budget currently faces a projected $207.8 million deficit for the current fiscal year, according to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, the General Assembly’s budget arm.

However, he said that the advent of social media and digital advertising has made it possible to campaign less expensively than in the days when broadcast television advertising was considered the prime barometer for success.

Griebel noted that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was able to corral significant support through digital outlets during his 2016 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A Gallup poll last September indicated that six out of 10 voters surveyed want to have a national third party alternative. Republican pollster Kristen Solti’s Anderson wrote in her Washington Examiner column last year that 71 percent of the millennials surveyed want that same option.

Former U.S. Sen. Lowell Wicker, who was elected on the A Connecticut Party in 1990, is the only recent governor who ran on a third-party ticket. His running mate for lieutenant governor that year, Eunice Groark of Hartford, is the only third-party gubernatorial candidate since then to take more than 15 percent of the vote. She placed third in a four-way race in 1994.

“With the partisan politics in Connecticut government, we see that there is a proverbial path to victory,” said Griebel, apparently referring to the gridlock that resulted in a budget being approved nearly four months into the current fiscal year.

The current Democratic field does not include one current or former statewide office-holder and none of the seven members of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation. For the Republicans, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton has 16 years of experience as a municipal chief executive and is making his third bid for governor, is considered to be a possible early front-runner. Yet, the field is wide open with more than 20 candidates that either are formally entered, have exploratory committees or are at least making phone calls to gauge support.

Griebel said that his ticket recently received the ballot petitions, which will require 7,500 signatures to get on the ballot.

He said, “Once we get to 7,500, it changes the dynamics of the race.”