Connecticut’s business leaders had high praise Tuesday for the deep spending cuts and absence of tax hikes in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget. But they also warned that without an even harder, bipartisan push to control spending, businesses will remain reluctant to grow — or to support the tolls and gasoline tax hikes recommended to finance transportation improvements.
Transportation
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: Speed DMV lines by shedding ‘collection agency’ role
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to help the beleaguered Department of Motor Vehicles by getting the agency out of the municipal debt collection business and by expanding transactions that can be done at private businesses like AAA offices.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
CT transportation funding: Something for everyone to hate
I hate to say “I told you so,” but… just as I’d predicted, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s hand-picked Transportation Finance Panel has finally issued its recommendations for paying for the governor’s 30-year, $100 billion transportation “plan.” Interestingly, as it began work last summer, the Transportation Finance Panel wasn’t allowed to debate the merits of anything in the governor’s “plan,” so all they could do was suggest how to fund the whole thing.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Don’t blame trucks for Connecticut traffic congestion
Driving to Hartford the other day (no, you cannot really get there by train) I saw a beautiful sight: hundreds of trucks! Yet, motorists hate trucks and mistakenly blame them for traffic congestion and accidents that cause hours of delays. Readers of this column know I’m a “rail guy” and would love to see freight trains replace trucks, but that ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. But as motorists we should not blame truckers for traffic woes of our own creation.
Posted inPolitics
Damage control begins as Ayala resigns as DMV commissioner
The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy scrambled Wednesday to frame the resignation of Andres Ayala Jr., who was the Democratic governor’s first Hispanic department head, as other than an attempt to solely blame him for a troubled yearlong tenure as commissioner of motor vehicles.
Posted inMoney
Transportation advocates say widening I-95 won’t ease congestion
A major consumer advocacy group and a key legislator on transportation financing both argued Tuesday against one of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s largest transportation initiatives: the widening of Interstate 95.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Massive rail plan leaves Connecticut hopeful but mystified
Proposals to reinvent the Northeast Corridor rail system could impact Connecticut more than any other state. But a lack of detail in the plans is causing exasperation even among those who have been pushing for rail improvements for decades, and it has environmentalists worrying whether losses will outweigh the benefits.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
2016 Predictions for transportation in Connecticut
Everybody writes “year in review” stories. But rather than dwell on the past, I’ve got the guts to predict the future! Here’s what will happen in 2016 in the transportation world on issues like Metro North performance, Uber, eminent domain for transportation, state highways and others.
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Malloy calls ‘lockbox’ vote a milestone, not a setback
What do you say when your pitch for a constitutional amendment protecting transportation revenue is strongly endorsed by the General Assembly, just not by the three-fourths margin necessary to place it before the voters in 2016? “This is a victory,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Wednesday. “It’s not a hundred-percent victory, but it’s a victory.”
Posted inCT Viewpoints
No lock on Connecticut’s transportation lock box
Yesterday, the legislature voted to implement a “transportation lock box” to presumably protect funding to repair and replace our state’s crumbling roads, rails and bridges that we travel daily. While this sounds like a noble idea, we of the Southeastern Connecticut delegation – and many of our colleagues – saw the serious flaws in this bill that compelled us to vote against it.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
House takes transportation ‘lockbox’ off fast track
House Republicans blocked the General Assembly on Tuesday from reaching the super majority necessary to seek a referendum vote next year on a state constitutional amendment to create a legal ‘lockbox’ to protect future transportation funding.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Griebel: Rushing CT’s transportation ‘lockbox’ is a mistake
State officials will move forward Tuesday with new constitutional language to protect transportation spending, despite warnings Monday from one of Connecticut’s staunchest “lockbox” advocates that a hurried approach could lead to trouble.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
CT deficit plan taps many special funds and one-time sources
While the General Assembly is expected to adopt a plan in special session Tuesday to close most or all of this fiscal year’s budget deficit, restore some funds for hospitals and finance modest business tax breaks, almost 40 percent of the plan diverts resources from specialized funds and various one-time sources.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Transportation financing precarious despite new revenue
Despite the recent infusion of sales tax receipts, Connecticut’s transportation program could be in deficit by mid-2018, according to nonpartisan analysts. And while Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration believes the Special Transportation Fund will remain in the black through 2020 — albeit by a razor-thin margin — nonpartisan analysts cite several problems, including surging debt and pension costs and downgraded expectations for fuel tax revenues.
Posted inMoney, Politics, Transportation
Advocates hope CT’s transportation woes will spur spending
While transportation advocates offered further evidence Tuesday that Connecticut’s aging, congested transportation system is weakening the economy, they remained uncertain whether that would translate into greater state investment in the problem. A new report from a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group concluded congestion and aging infrastructure cost Connecticut residents in urban areas between $2,050 and $2,236 per year.