Connecticut should create Highway Trust Fund

Read the full OpEd written by MTAC President Joe Sculley in the Hartford Business Journal.

If Connecticut is going to improve its transportation infrastructure, the state must focus on highways, in addition to other modes. This focus should include not only maintenance and potential expansion, but the taxes that are paid to fund these things, and how those taxes are spent.

Simply claiming that increased spending on rail and transit will ease congestion because doing so takes drivers off the road is not a strong argument.

The Federal Highway Administration data shows that Connecticut already spends most of its state highway user fees on rail and transit, yet the state still suffers from terrible traffic congestion on our highways. If the spending of state highway user fees on transit was guaranteed to ease congestion, Connecticut wouldn’t have the traffic problems it does.

The state needs increased highway investment to ease congestion. That is why the state should create a Highway Trust Fund in order to ensure that Connecticut’s highways, roads and bridges receive the proper attention and funding that they deserve.