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| Themis Klarides |
"Nice guy Lamont" – Malloy without the porcupine quills, some
say – is now taking hostages until January, after which his temporary “trucks
only” toll proposal, with the assistance of the two gatekeepers of the General
Assembly, President of the Senate Martin Looney and Speaker of the House Joe
Arsimowicz, will have been forced through the Democrat dominated General
Assembly in a proposal packed session that, some think, may last through
Christmas.
The Christmas calendar, it is hoped, will weaken the
resistance of the toll opposition in the General Assembly, mostly Republicans with
a scattering of Democrats holding politically shaky seats in both chambers.
Republicans are stoutly opposed to tolls for all the right reasons but, in the
end, it is numbers, not right reason, that will win the day, and Democrats,
easily herdable, have larger numbers than Republicans.
Governor Ned Lamont and Democrat leaders in the General Assembly have
pulled out all the gags and plastic cuff-ties for the season. Municipalities
are being held hostage until the opposition relents and, under pressure from
the towns, bloodily assent to tolls. State grants to towns – long delayed money
the towns need for such incidentals as summer road repaving, fall tree-clearing
and winter snow removal – have been withheld until such time as the state
produces what CTMirror calls “a long-term transportation financing plan,
something that legislative leaders say is unlikely until a special session in
January.”
There are three pots of state money routinely released to
towns that are being held up until a bonding plan is produced. The long delayed
state payment to The Town Aid Road (TAR) grant is the most immediately
distressing to Municipalities. Half of the $60 million per year in TAR funding
is usually delivered in July, the remaining half in January. In the absence of
timely funding, the towns are forced to raid other town funds or reduce
operations.
Lamont received a smattering of applause when he recently
“shared his optimism,” according to a report in
CTMirror, “with municipal leaders that the transportation-bonding standoff
was nearing a conclusion.” Malloy told a Connecticut Conference of
Municipalities (CCM) forum at Foxwoods Resorts Casino “That means in the next
two and a half weeks, we’re going to have a Bond Commission meeting that frees
up all the LoCIP [Local Capital Improvement Program] and paving money that you need, you can expect and you can
count upon, and we’re going to get that done.”
Lamont’s reassuring pledge was “clarified the following day”
when Lamont appended a caveat: “Administration officials said the funding
would be released only after legislators adopt a long-term transportation
financing plan…,” according to the CTMirror report.
Following the caveat, the CCM did
not reconvene to withdraw its applause, but CCM Executive Director Joe DeLong
did issue a milquetoast's reproof. “He thinks most people understood the governor was
not pledging unconditional release of delayed local aid in December -- regardless of whether a transportation plan is adopted,” CTMirror reported. “But
DeLong also agreed that the inconsistent nature of state aid in recent years is
taking its own toll on local roads.
“’All of this deferred road
maintenance actually increases the cost,’ he said. ‘So we’re actually spending
more dollars not doing this the right way.’”
Ah well, as the French say, "On
ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des oeufs,” roughly translated: “You can’t
make a tolling omelet without breaking a few municipal eggs.”
CTMirror notes, courageously, “this
is the second time in three years communities have faced long delays to receive
state aid. A marathon battle between Democratic and Republican legislators
and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in 2017 delayed adoption of a new state budget
for more than four months into the new fiscal year.”
Former Governor Lowell Weicker
deployed similar forceful tactics to push his income tax through a resistant
legislature: He vetoed three non-income tax balanced budgets and closed state
parks.
The Lamont-Looney-Arsimowicz
bullying tactics did not go over well with some Republicans who argue that a
responsible legislature should be permitted to freely vote up or down on measures
that are not clouded with threats or reprisals -- or hostage taking.
“This is a failure of leadership
on the part of the governor,” said Republican leader in the House Themis
Klarides. The calendar says it is December and the administration is still
holding hostage much-needed funds that towns and cities rely on to maintain and
plow their roads. This is petty politics over an ill-conceived plan to put
tolls on our highways… The snow is now flying and our towns and cities are
wondering when the State of Connecticut is going to make good on its commitment
to them. The longer this goes on the more dire the situation is going to get.
And over what? A toll initiative that the public has said it does not want.’’
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