Lamont proposes trucks-only tolls

From CT Post.

Ned Lamont, the Democrats’ endorsed candidate for governor, has been pitching the idea of highway tolls — but only for trucks — as a way to raise the kind of revenue that could help pull Connecticut out of its budgetary death spiral.

Last week the state of Rhode Island instituted just such a trucks-only tolling program on Interstate-95. No sooner was the first dollar collected, then the trucking industry vowed to fight the new toll in court.

The new Rhode Island law is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Interstate Commerce clause, and Connecticut’s would be the same said Joe Sculley, president of the Connecticut Motor Transportation Association and the voice of truckers in the State Capitol. Truckers already pay their fair share, Sculley said.

“Under congestion pricing it makes it unaffordable to drive on the highway,” Sculley said.

At a time when the most-important election issue may be the state’s transportation crisis — nonstop traffic, aging highways and bridges, and crowded trains — most of the eight hopefuls for governor are opposed to tolls, framing the issue as just another source of revenue to be squandered by legislators and government.

See the full story from CT Post online.