Connecticut Democrats: House will vote on tolls

From CT Post.

HARTFORD — Despite Republican opposition, House Democrats see tolls in Connecticut’s near future.

Bringing tolls to the state will get a vote in the House before the legislature dismisses May 9, said Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, in a Capitol news conference Tuesday morning.

“It is my hope it passes, but even without knowing whether it will pass or fail, it will be going up on the (voting) board,” he said. “The residents of the state of Connecticut, a lot of whom I hear from, just think it’s absolutely silly that every time that they go through the state of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore… they all have tolls.”

Regardless of party, the next governor will support tolls, House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, predicted boldly.

Last week, the General Assembly’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee — one of the largest and most influential of the committees — passed, by a party-line vote, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s bill authorizing the state Department of Transportation to implement statewide tolling.

Although the details are not worked out, tolls would likely be placed on interstates 95 and 84, the Merritt Parkway, and along state routes such as routes 8 and 9. The estimated $800 million in annual revenue would be used to fix roads and bridges and ease congestion.

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