Toll barriers could derail Lamont’s transportation plan

From CT Post.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling plan is in trouble. I knew it when I recently got a call from Dan Malloy.

The former governor and I know each other going back to his days as mayor of Stamford, but he’s only called me once before (many years ago when he sought my endorsement in his run for a second term as governor).

This time he was calling about my recent column on the Transportation Strategy Board, the panel tasked 18 years ago with prioritizing our state’s transportation needs and how to pay for them.

It wasn’t my fawning over then-TSB Chairman Oz Griebel that prompted Malloy’s recent call. Instead it was my characterization of the “lock box” on the Special Transportation Fund as having, according to one longtime transportation observer, “more back doors than a hot-sheets motel on the Berlin Turnpike.” Those were the source’s words, not mine.

“That comment was not helpful, Jim,” Malloy said, explaining how it could affect their effort to gain support for tolls.

That’s when I knew the plan was in real trouble. Why is he calling me, of all people? Not that there weren’t earlier warning signs that trouble was brewing.

Read the full article on the CT Post website.