MTAC on Connecticut transportation funds lockbox

Earlier this week, the Journal Inquirer published this Op-Ed by MTAC President Joe Sculley concerning the Connecticut governor’s suggestion to create a lockbox for transportation funds in the state. The full piece is available at the Journal Inquirer’s website.

Proposal is not a Lockbox

Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed a state constitutional amendment to create a “lockbox” for transportation funds. The governor also proposes to spend $100 billion on the state’s transportation infrastructure over 30 years.

The lockbox is a good idea, but as is often the case, the devil is in the details.

Malloy’s infrastructure plan is predicated on identifying new sources of revenue, including increasing current fees and imposing tolls, privatizing certain state assets, and other creative schemes. In response to public outrage over frequent previous diversions of transportation funding, he has proposed a constitutional amendment to create a transportation lockbox.

The bill introduced by the General Assembly’s Democratic leadership is anything but an effective lockbox. The only way to “lock” transportation revenue into the Special Transportation Fund is to specify in the constitution the sources of the revenue that is to be locked — fuel taxes, license and registration fees, fines, farebox revenue, sales tax, etc.

Read the full post.