Truck-Only Tolling Plan Now Pitched In CT: New Details Released

HARTFORD, CT —State House Democratic leaders are calling for Gov. Ned Lamont to essentially pull a 360 and have truck-only tolling at a dozen bridges on Connecticut’s highways. The caucus came out against plans for tolling regular passenger cars, which essentially guarantees that car tolling in Connecticut is a dead proposal.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and Majority Leader Matt Ritter said the plan would keep all of Lamont’s toll locations except for a spot on Route 9 (little truck traffic) and Route 15 (no trucks allowed).

The plan is anticipated to raise $150 million annually. Ritter and Aresimowicz said the plan would be legal since it only has tolling on select bridges in need of repair.

“Trucks do 80 percent of the damage to our roads and bridges and many come from out of state,” Ritter said. “We believe that the truck-only tolls on select bridges in a manner similar to what other states do, are legal and will provide Connecticut with the revenue stream needed to secure low interest federal transportation loans."

Gov. Ned Lamont said he is asking the leadership of the House and Senate Republican and Democratic caucuses to come to a meeting with his office to hash out the details of several different proposals.

"A guiding principle of CT2030 is a dedicated revenue stream, which in large part comes from out-of-state drivers," Lamont said. "This proposal adheres to that basic principle, albeit to a lesser extent, but is a concept that the governor has explored in the past and one that should be considered among the other plans."

Both Democrats and Republicans in Connecticut have expressed interest in gaining access to very low interest loans from the federal government, but they require a sustainable revenue source to qualify.

Truck-only rates would be similar to rates in New York State.

Lamont campaigned on truck-only tolls, but reversed course when he came into office and said they might not pass legal challenges from the trucking industry and that they wouldn’t bring in nearly enough revenue to solve Connecticut’s transportation woes. Earlier this year he proposed a plan with 50 toll gantries, but it failed to get momentum in the state legislature.

A couple weeks ago Lamont unveiled his CT 2030 plan which calls for 14 toll gantries in the state with money going to select transportation infrastructure projects. Republicans voiced opposition and Senate Democrats gave the plan a cold welcome. Senate Democratic leaders said they hoped to vote on some kind of transportation infrastructure bill before the start of the regular session in order to keep the session open for budget and other legislative proposals.

Lamont is proposing that tolling start in 2023 with 40 percent of toll revenue being shouldered by out-of-state drivers. The base rates would be 50 cents to a dollar for cars, $1.25 to $2.50 for mid-sized trucks and $3.50 to $7 for heavy trucks. The base rate is what an out-of-state driver with an EZ-Pass would pay. Connecticut EZ-Pass users would get 20 percent off those prices.

Senate Republicans have pitched their own transportation infrastructure plan, which calls on taking some money out of the state rainy day fund to pay off some of the state's pension obligations. The move would free up money to spend on transportation in the regular budget. Lamont said the plan would be risky, but Senate Republicans contend that the rainy day fund balance would stay well within safety limits. The plan doesn't rely on any tolls.