Getting An Early Start: Legislature Sets Public Hearing on Tolls for Friday

The state legislature isn't scheduled to open for its 2020 "short session" (so-called because it's only supposed to be 3-months long) until Wednesday, Feb. 5. 

But with Gov. Ned Lamont still trying to wrangle a vote on tolls, you can expect a special session to be held right before the official session begins. 

To that end, Democrats have developed a draft bill; you can read that here. They plan to hold a public hearing on the draft legislation on Friday. Here's more on that, and how to register to testify, from Sen. Len Fasano, the Senate minority leader:

The hearing will be held Friday, Jan. 31, starting at 1 p.m. You can testify by going to the hearing, but you can also submit testimony online.
 
To testify in Hartford:

• Come to the Legislative Office Building on Friday, January 31
• Signups will likely be held early in the day to testify later at the 1 p.m. hearing in Room 1E
• Tips and FAQs about testifying are available by clicking here.

 
To submit testimony online:

• Send a brief email to TRAtestimony@cga.ct.gov
• Make sure you identify that your testimony is related to Draft Bill LCO No. 373 in the subject line.
• Include your name and town in the email.
• Even if you submit testimony in advance, you may still attend the hearing on Friday

Here's what we know, and don't know, about the draft bill:
What we don't know:

• Tolls are proposed for at least 12 locations throughout the state, but the bill does not include anything to prevent the state from building additional toll locations in the future.
• Big trucks will have to pay tolls once the gantries are built.
• Democrats say the bill includes protections to prevent cars from being tolled in the future. Republicans say the protections in the bill are not sufficient to prevent future car tolling.
• Republicans said the draft plan would borrow more than the Republican no-tolls transportation plan, putting more debt on future generations and still requiring tolls. 
• Lawmakers will not have to hold a vote to increase toll rates. The ability to raise rates would be given to a new state transportation council.

What we don't know:

• No details on the numbers
• No details on which transportation projects will be funded, and which projects included in earlier proposals will be cut.
• No evidence to support how much revenue tolls will create.
• No calculations showing the impact of toll avoidance.
• No analysis of how toll avoidance would impact local roadways.
• No explanation of if and how the Special Transportation Fund would remain in balance.

 
If you want to learn more about the Republican transportation plan, you can learn more at www.ctsenaterepublicans.com/FASTRCT.