Tolls are just another slush fund for Hartford spenders
The General Assembly is now going through what we believe is the Kabuki theater of getting the public’s input on whether the state should impose tolls on its interstate highways similar to those found in other states.
We say the input session being conducted around the state are Kabuki because if history holds true, the members of the General Assembly will see another pot of gold to be tapped, and have never found a new levy they didn’t like. There will be the “hems and the haws” but in the end the promise of more funds to collect will be too great for the big spenders in Hartford.
The reasons will be couched in terms of “fairness” and “earmarking the funds for infrastructure,” but make no mistake, the General Assembly will see it as yet another slush fund to keep its various special interest groups happy, and the brunt of it will be paid by blue-collar and white-collar residents who find it harder and harder to make a living here.
One need only think back to the income tax uproars of the 1990s to understand that when it comes to taking in funds, the General Assembly, historically, can’t help itself. When it was passed, the income tax was supposed to be the panacea that would close all the gaps, be the fairest way to get funds from residents, and give the state the funds necessary to stay in the black.
Attached to that income tax plan was a spending cap. That cap had several loopholes – used each and every budget rotation – and was finally voided by state’s Attorney General because of it was a dead letter. Meanwhile, despite recession, loss of industry and flight of thousands of rich residents, the state legislature added to state spending at rates three- and four-times the rate of inflation.
Once again, the state faces a shortfall in revenues and the toll option is trotted out as the most recent salve that will cure the state’s ills. No, it won’t.
The General Assembly and the Executive Branch have shown themselves incapable of living within the means of the taxes already collected, and giving them the estimate $800 million expected from tolls (probably a high-end guess), would only give them more to spend.
At some point politicians in Connecticut have to understand the state will not get itself out of the financial hole it is in by digging a bigger hole. The budget debacle last year – a situation worse than any crisis before or since the imposition of the income tax – taught the Hartford cabal nothing. It took three extra months to get the budget to pass, cities and towns took big hits, and state industries decided to leave at the height of the problem. A year later, we’re in the same boat.
But there is one other reason the entire issue is Kabuki. When it was first addressed, the idea was to have tolls at the borders, making out-of-state motorists pay to enter the state. The idea is still the prevalent one among state residents, who have not been told such an idea cannot happen.
As outlined by several state trade associations, federal law does not allow for only border-crossing points to be tolled. Toll roads must have intermittent stopping points or exit ramps. In other words, we would be back to having toll plazas of some sort, high-tech or otherwise, back on our highways.
So, instead of taxing only those entering the state, Connecticut residents would, once again, be asked to foot the bills, spending money to get to work. The southern tier of the state would have – as it did before – the lion’s share of money migrating to Hartford.
Supporters of the idea are not being candid in another aspect. Dangling a decrease in the gas tax is the latest ploy used to make people think about the tolls as a savings tool. Nope. Even if the gas tax were decreased, it wouldn’t be long before politicians saw the need for an increase. Remember: the income tax was supposed to cut down on all other taxes. It never did.
The tolls are just another pile of cash the General Assembly will use to spend us into oblivion. Over the last 40 years Hartford politicians have shown themselves out of touch with the needs of regular folks. Let’s not give them more to spend.