Like a quiescent vampire snoozing by night in his coffin, the prospect of tolls, which the No Tolls CT group thought it had slain, is now showing signs
of new life. This may be Governor Ned Lamont’s third or fourth – one loses
count – toll proposal iteration. According to a story in a Hartford paper, Lamont is proposing tolls only on
bridges “as
low as 40 to 80 cents under revised plan.”
What a bargain, as compared with his previous proposals.
Lamont, during his campaign for governor, first proposed a trucks only toll on
numerous gantries – one loses count. The No Tolls CT movement -- perhaps the first
real populist, in the sense of popular, movement in Connecticut since the much
abused Tea Party movement a decade past – pretty much slayed the toll
dragon after Lamont, now elected governor, expanded his proposal to include
pretty much anyone in the state traveling on
a major highway. The Tea Party movement was more or less buried under an
avalanche of spending and corresponding increases in taxes.
Speaker of the state House of Representative, union employee Joe Aresimowicz, candidly admits that the roll-out of Lamont’s ill-conceived
plan was somewhat defective. But Lamont has grown in office: “I like the way
the governor is doing it this way,” said Aresimowicz. “When you don’t come in
with a plan fully fleshed out to where it’s like ‘this is what I want, now give
it to me,’ I think there’s more room for consensus building and agreement and a
higher likelihood that it gets passed. Although some may be frustrated by the
lack of detail, the lack of detail to me shows a willingness to compromise and
work together. ... It’s a slow roll-out, but it’s done in a way to where it will
allow us to add to the process.”
Either Aresimowitz here misspoke, or a gremlin had taken possession
of the reporter’s keyboard. Aresimowitz meant to say, “When you DO come in
with a plan…” blah, blah, blah.
Let’s pause over some of the blahs. When a plan favoring
tolls has been fully fleshed out, there is “more room for consensus building.” Aresimowitz
here is referring to consensus among Democrats, not Republicans, whom both he
and President Pro Tem of the Senate Martin Looney have cut out of “consensus building”
on such crucial matters as budgets for the last 9 years or so – one loses
count. Having achieved consensus among Democrats in the General Assembly, it goes
without saying that bills favoring Democrats in the General Assembly are more
likely to pass. And dominant Democrats almost to a man, or woman, favor tolls.
Why do they favor tolls?
Democrats need a new revenue stream – tolls are to Lamont
what the income tax was to former Maverick Governor Lowell Weicker – because the
old revenue streams have been depleted by increases in spending. And any toll, anywhere in Connecticut, any
time, any place, represents the camel’s nose in the state’s increasingly large
spending tent. The income tax, Weicker’s gift that kept giving to Democrats,
always loathed to disappoint their special interest groups – largely state employees
unions, a campaign petard that has blasted many a Democrat into office – has been
diminished, as have other revenue streams, through seemingly unending recessions, caused
in part by excessive regulation and tax creep, business flight, and the exodus
from the state of entrepreneurial capital and market creativity.
Ominously, Aresimowitz adds, giving the game away, “It’s a
slow roll-out, but it’s done in a way to where it will allow us to add to the
process.”
Republican minority leader in the House Themis Klarides has
a pretty good idea what, in the future, will be added to the process. Indeed,
Democrats had shown their hand long ago.
More tolls will be added to the now modest bridge tolls, and
an non-elected commission will be developed that, sanctioned by majority
Democrats in the General Assembly, will be authorized to increase spending on
tolls, so that Democrats in the General Assembly may escape the wrath of
voters. “It wasn’t me that done it. It was them.”
Unintentionally borrowing a sentiment from former President
Ronald Reagan -- nothing is so permanent as a temporary tax – Klarides said, “We
all know the toll is never going away. Logistically, it’s not going to happen.
The state of Connecticut has never found a revenue stream that they ever gave
back. Look at the income tax. Look at the hospital taxes… We still feel the
same way about tolls that we felt all year long. We do not believe that tolls
are a way to fund transportation in this state ... You cannot tell people that
the roads and bridges are falling apart, and the only way to fix them is to
take more money out of your pocket in tolls — a toll that will never be taken
away.”
The lady is right. But so too was Cassandra, the Greek prophetess
who spoke the truth and was never heeded by powerful rulers who understood that
power always trumps truth.
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