Harding has reservations about Lamont's electronic toll plan

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield says Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) proposal to install tolls on Connecticut’s highways “will put an unbelievable burden” on the residents in his district.

“We can’t afford further taxes,” he said regarding Connecticut’s economy, which faces a projected $1.5 billion state budget deficit. The state still hasn’t recovered all of the private sector jobs lost from the 2008 recession.

The governor, who took office in January, wants to put electronic gantries on the Schuyler Merritt Parkway and Interstates 84, 91 and 95 in hopes of annually raising $800 million toward expanding the road network and erecting a rail system that could go in 90 minutes from Hartford the New York City’s Grand Central station.

In 2015, an ad-hoc committee appointed by former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex), Lamont’s immediate predecessor, recommended the state spend $100 billion over 30 years on transportation improvements.

Malloy, who was the governor for two terms, has said that with clogged highways Connecticut is losing potential economic development to New York state’s Westchester County and to northern New Jersey due to traffic congestion.

Lamont has proposed discounts for Connecticut resident with E-Z Pass cards.

“It’s still more money from hard-working residents,” said Harding, who has been an opponent of tolls since being first elected four years ago.

“Plus, no toll proposal that I’ve seen has said that they’re going to reduce the gas tax,” he added.

CT Mirror has reported over the recent days that Lamont has discussed the possibility of lowering the gasoline tax and seeking private funding for the installation of the tolls, which according to a 2018 state Department of Transportation report would require $372 million in start-up funding.

The pump tax was reduced twice in seven-cent increments about 20 years ago, bringing it down from 39 cents to 25 cents per gallon.

Public hearings on the toll proposals were held at the Legislative Office Building on March 6, with several residents speaking in opposition. Earlier that day, Lamont held a news conference along with supporters who indicated it is the only viable way to fund transportation improvements.

Anti-toll rallies have been held in parts of the state, including Danbury, since late February.

State Sen. Alexandra Bergstein (D-36) of Greenwich, a supporter of Lamont’s plan, has said that 42 states have tolls.

Massachusetts has tolls and the Route 128 corridor is brimming with economic activity, and in a recent poll of the 50 governors, Republican Charlie Baker was ranked as the most popular state chief executive in the nation.

Texas has tolls and the Michael Dell computer hub in Austin is vibrant and Republican Greg Abbott is ranked as the seventh most popular governor nationally.

“Those states are under different circumstances,” Harding said in an interview.

“Connecticut is near last in every economic category even without tolls,” said the state representative, whose district includes all of Brookfield, a tiny slice of northern Danbury and the Stony Hill section of Bethel.

“Besides, in Massachusetts the exits are about 10 to 15 miles apart on the Mass. Pike,” Harding said. “In Connecticut, particularly on I-84, there are exits every mile or two miles and people will scoot around the tolls. It’s going to put an unbelievable burden on our communities to pay for the roads they will be traveling on.”

Forbes recently ranked Connecticut as the fourth highest state in which people are leaving. The magazine stated that it ranks fifth in the country in quality of life as a result of low poverty and crime rates, but is among the worst states in its fiscal health and regulatory climate. It also wrote that Connecticut has a huge income disparity, particularly between such Gold Coast towns as Greenwich and New Canaan when compared to Hartford.

Harding said he is “not sure” if there is enough support in the General Assembly to get the toll legislation approved.

“People tell me the votes are there, but the toll vote never got called during the last session,” said the state representative, who annexed a third term last November.

Reports indicate that it will probably take four years after that to get the federal approvals and install the electronic tolls if the General Assembly approves Lamont’s proposal.

Harding said the state should prioritize the bond appropriations to pay for transportation infrastructure improvements as the Republican caucuses had proposed during the last session.

He acknowledged that what hasn’t been discussed enough is the federal funds for transportation projects. For years, congressmen and legislators have said that usually the federal government pays for about 80 percent of the costs for major highway projects.

Harding said he also is concerned that Lamont’s proposed budget, which was released February 20, calls for a reduction of $500,000 in Education Cost Sharing funds to Brookfield for the fiscal year that starts in July and another $300,000 in reductions.

The governor also is attempting to trim Connecticut’s bond appropriations by about $600 million a year, which Harding says might have an impact on the $78;.1 million new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) project, which was ratified at referendum on March 5.

Harding said he is concerned about Lamont’s call for a “debt diet,” saying that it is unclear what the implications might be for the proposed 22.5 percent grant for the new HHES, which would be built on the opposite of the parcel for the current school, located on Candlewood Lake Road.

“I applaud his effort to find efficiencies in bonding,” Harding said of Lamont’s decision to cancel the January and February meetings of the Bond Commission.

“Long-term debt is never a good thing,” said Harding. “However, I have a significant objection about what happens in this district.”

“We have been bonding beyond our means,” he said. “We need to make the budget leaner, but it should not be on the backs of the towns.”

However, for decades reports from the New England Commission on Schools And Colleges on Brookfield High School have noted that there is a difference in Brookfield, for example, between ability to pay taxes and willingness to pay taxes.

However, Harding said that over the recent years, the state has approved bond appropriations for a minor league soccer stadium, Dunkin Donuts Park and the renovation of the XL Center, all in Hartford, which “are far less important than school construction.”

On a related topic, Harding said he is upset about Lamont’s plan to reduce the number of exemptions on the 6.25 percent sales tax.

“I understand online versus brick and mortar,” he said regarding the governor’s comments that the tax code must go from the Sears & Roebuck era to the current Amazon online sales era.

“However, a large aspect of his plan places a sales tax on services,” said Harding. “Legal services, dry-cleaning services. Some of these services have been around since the inception of the state.”

However, former U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-Danbury) has said largely based on his experience as a former co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, he thought that the best tax policy is to have the fewest exemptions and get to the lowest tax rate possible.

“That seems to be an interesting perspective,” Harding said. “I don’t know if I would agree with it.”

“If the state is getting more revenue then it means that there is more tax burden on the residents, and that’s exactly what’s happening here,” he said.

However, CT Hearst business columnist Dan Haar has stated that “there’s some evidence that states with a relatively bigger sales tax are growing faster than income tax states.”

Lamont has emphasized that he has not proposed increasing rates for the sales or income taxes.

On a separate topic, Harding had said in December that much of Lamont’s early focus should be on the long-term pension liabilities.

Lamont sought further concessions last month from the state employee collective bargaining units and they promptly rebuffed him, noting that they had made considerable concessions over the recent years.

“The only way we’re going to get out of this financial crisis is to get some further concessions from the state employee collective bargaining units,” the state representative said recently about the underfunded pensions for state employees and the state’s teachers.

However, Larry Dorman - the public affairs coordinator for the American Federal State County and Municipal Employees in Connecticut, which represent about 15,000 state workers - has said that the 2017 contract agreement will, according to a consultant for the state Office of Policy & Management, save taxpayers $24 billion over 20 years through concessions.

On a related subject, over his eight years in office, Malloy reduced the full-time state work force by 13.1 percent.

Harding said it is “difficult to say,” that those reductions have compromised state services.

“I think there are some parts that aren’t running efficiently,” he said. “The Department of Motor Vehicles. Frankly, that was a problem before this reduction. In other areas, I think we’re operating at about the same level overall that we were prior to the reduction.”

Harding said Lamont appears to be drawing upon some of his knowledge from earning a master’s degree in the School of Management at Yale University in New Haven.

Harding said there appears to be “a focus on the New York City economy and try to bring some of that economy to Connecticut.”

Malloy also had utilized a government outsider in former Catherine Smith, who had been the CEO of the North American Insurance Corporation before spending eight years as the commissioner of DECD.

Lamont has hired the state’s first Chief Operating Officer, a position that had been recommended some years ago and exists in several states. Paul Mounds_- a native of East Hartford, who was appointed to that position in December, is seeking to coordinate activities between certain agencies that have usually operated as silos, according to CT Mirror.

Lamont also pledged last September during the campaign to upgrade the state government’s computer operations.

The governor has made high-profile appointments to his economic team.

David Lehman, who been the head of global real estate at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, is still awaiting confirmation from the state Senate as the commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development; James Smith, the retired president of Webster Bank and Indra Nooyi, the former chairman and CEO of Pepsi, co-chair the Connecticut Economic Resource Center.

He hired Ryan Drajewicz,- an executive from Bridgewater Associates in Westport, the largest hedge fund in the world, as his chief of staff. Drajewicz also formerly worked for U.S. Senator Chris Dodd.

On another subject, Harding is a co-chairman for the General Assembly’s Bioscience caucus, a position that he hopes will help steer more work to companies such as Boehringer-Ingelheim, the large pharmaceutical company that has offices in Danbury and Ridgefield.

He said also is optimistic about the future of fuel cell technology, noting that the state has recently awarded contracts to Fuel Cell Energy, which has administrative offices in Danbury and a manufacturing facility in Torrington.

Barron’s reported in 2003 that fuel cell technology could make the internal-combustion engine obsolete by 2028. Fuel Cell Energy has a fueling station in northern California that provides service for the Toyota Marai fuel-cell car.

However, Connecticut hasn’t moved as swiftly as some had predicted in the fuel cell market. That may be partly due to changes at the former UTC Power, which in 2010 lost the contract that it had held with NASA since 1966.

Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Stamford) has called UTC Power “the granddaddy of fuel cell research.”

During his 2006 primary against Lamont he predicted that 25 years hence “there would be more people employed in fuel cell technology than any other part of Connecticut’s economy.”

Harding conceded that it is unlikely that Lieberman’s prediction will come to fruition.

But, he added, “I think there is a potential for fuel cell to be a major energy resource in the state.”