By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor
While the Town of Greenwich’s budget was being discussed and voted on Monday night, there was another key event in Town Hall, as the tolling issue facing Connecticut took center stage.
Greenwich State Reps Fred Camillo and Livvy Floren joined State Rep. Laura Devlin (R-Fairfield) and State Sen Henri Martin (R-Bristol) for a town hall informational forum on tolls in Connecticut. The event in Greenwich was the last of the 21 town hall forums that Delvin and Martin hosted.
“Transportation Ranking Members Sen. Henri Martin and Rep. Laura Delvin are well versed and balanced in their accurate articulation of the facts,” Floren said. “The Greenwich/Stamford audience was decidedly anti-tolls as an additional tax; the presentation clarified documented data and explained the ramifications of tolling.”
Martin and Delvin showed maps of the original plans for tolling stations throughout the state and showed the most updated map with less tolls. In addition, the cost for tolls and other associated costs, including Connecticut already having the seventh-highest gas tax in the country, were discussed.
“This forum was an opportunity for the public to hear a set of facts that they may not have heard before,” Camillo said. “It wasn’t about changing people’s minds about tolls. We just wanted people to be aware of the facts so they could make up their own minds. Tolls are a big issue. Once they are up, they’re up.”
In the forum, the Republicans chatted about their Prioritized Progress plan, an alternative to Lamont’s plan to place tolls along the Merritt Parkway, Wilbur Cross Parkway, Interstate 95, Interstate 84 and Interstate 91.
According to the Connecticut State Republicans website, Prioritize Progress is a transportation funding plan that works within current state resources to provide $65 billion for transportation infrastructure projects over the next 30 years. It relies on no tolls and no tax increases. It guarantees a steady, predictable flow of money for transportation infrastructure.
Patrick Sasser, who started the No Tolls CT organization and resides in Stamford, was at the event.
“The toll forums are very informative and give people an idea of what the costs could look like in regard to the tolls,” Sasser said. “They also talked about their Prioritized Progress and it gives people an understanding what Republicans are pitching.”
A little over an hour after the start of the forum, State of Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, who is also a resident of Greenwich, stopped in to listen to the presentation and to some of the questions from people in attendance and spoke for a few minutes about the tolling debate.
“The biggest difference we have up in Hartford right now is that prioritized progress says we’re going to put it on the company credit card,” Lamont said. “We’re going to borrow that money…$700 million a year, 100% paid by Connecticut residents plus interest. I know the alternative doesn’t make any of you happy, which is why you’re here. But, the alternative is to have a user fee, where the folks who use the road, not the taxpayers, pay for it. Forty percent of that will be paid for by out of staters and some of that will be paid for by you who use the roads.”
While people in the audience were not thrilled with the Governor’s statement, he said that the one unifying fact is that Connecticut needs to fix its transportation system.
“You guys can decide whether you want to do it with more borrowing and more debt or take it off the balance sheet and off of the backs of the taxpayers and get it done through the user fees,” Lamont said.
Floren said that Lamont had mentioned to her back on May 2 that he was going to possibly drop by the forum, and she welcomed him with open arms.
“We were delighted to welcome him home,” Floren said. “He lives in Greenwich and is my constituent. Governor Lamont spoke for a few minutes and reiterated the urgent need to improve our transportation infrastructure. He also took questions from the audience.”
While Sasser has been one of the most vocal people against tolls in Connecticut, he has yet to speak to the Governor face-to-face about his concerns. Luckily for Sasser, he was in the right place at the right time and finally got to ask Lamont a question.
“As he promotes tolls throughout the state of Connecticut, he constantly says that he speaks to business leader and businesses and they want tolls,” Sasser said. “I asked the Governor about the small businesses that are struggling to survive and struggling to stay here in Connecticut. I said: ‘What do you say to them that are going to have that additional cost put on them?’ And I gave him an example of a business in Greenwich that delivers home heating oil and they have estimated that anywhere from $55,000 to $72,000 additional cost by tolls. They made it clear that they have to pass the cost on to their customers.”
“Tell him the truth that if you borrow $700 million a year and ask people to pay for that over the next 20 years with interest, you’re not doing him or his kids any favors,” Lamont said. “Tell him that as congestion gets worse and worse and it takes him 10 or 15 minutes longer to deliver his oil, you’re not doing him any favors at all.”
