Christopher Keating
The emotional debate over
highway tolls could spill into a special session this summer as lawmakers
battle over one of the most important issues facing the legislature, House
Speaker Joe Aresimowicz said Monday.
“This is the type of issue
that I’d like to get done before we adjourn [on June 5], but I wouldn’t be
opposed to coming back in special session,” he told reporters. “It’s that
important to the state.”Gov. Ned Lamont has elevated tolls to become the signature issue of his administration, saying the state’s economic future is directly tied to improved transportation for businesses and commuters.
But with many questions still unanswered and federal approval needed, lawmakers might decide to drop their plans for tolls for the session until the entire package is complete, officials said.
Democrats downplayed any potential impact from an anti-toll rally Saturday that attracted an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 protesters to the Capitol to blast Lamont’s plan to place tolls on I-95, I-91 and I-84, as well as the historic Merritt Parkway.
“I don’t know that it will have much of an effect,” Aresimowicz said. “I don’t know any one rally — pro or con — is going to make that decision any easier.”
House Majority Leader Matt Ritter of Hartford was not impressed by the size of the crowd.
“That wasn’t much of a rally,” he said. “I don’t think that necessarily moves the needle.”
But House Republican leader Themis Klarides said talking about a special session is an ominous sign for Democrats because they would hold a vote now if they had enough support to pass the measure.
“What’s sad is this notion that we have two and a half weeks left in the session, and they’re basically already throwing in the towel,” she said. "If they can’t pass tolls with decent majorities in the House, the Senate and a Democrat governor, that means that their members do not support it because the people of the state of Connecticut have spoken. When you see rallies or forums or conversations going on, people in this state are going to their state reps and their state senators and they’re telling them: ‘We don’t want tolls.’
“If they plan on pushing this to a special session, the only reason is to arm-twist more and to promise more sweeteners, and that is not the way government should work.”
Colleen Flanagan Johnson, Lamont’s senior adviser, rejected the Republican view that Democrats and Lamont do not have the votes to approve tolls.
“If there’s anything I wouldn’t defer to Republicans on, it’s counting numbers. This from the same group of people who couldn’t even be bothered to propose a budget, and who want the state to take out an $11.2 billion loan, 100 percent of which will be paid for by Connecticut residents today and for decades to come," she said, referring to a Republican alternative to tolls that relies on state borrowing. “Thanks but no thanks.” One of the key issues on tolls is whether the plan will be approved by federal highway officials, who must sign off on issues like prices and the location of the overhead gantries. Republicans and the head of the state’s trucking association have both raised concerns about the pending approval, which they say is far from certain.
But Lamont told reporters recently that he has no major concerns after meeting with Elaine Chao, the U.S. Department of Transportation secretary, in Washington in March.
“Our team in Washington ... has been in regular communication with them. They’re up to speed, waiting to see if our legislature gives us the green light to actually get our transportation fixed in a serious way. With that green light, I have a high degree of confidence we’ll have no problem with the feds. ... They’re creative, they’re flexible, giving the states more and more leeway to do this. That was the message I got.”
Republicans have complained repeatedly that they have been unable to obtain more details about the plan, and Aresimowicz told reporters recently he told Rep. Roland Lemar, a New Haven Democrat and co-chair of the transportation committee, to be vague because Republicans have distorted the numbers. But a two-page summary of the bill, obtained by The Courant, provides multiple details about pricing, discounts and who would be in charge of raising toll rates in the future.
While lawmakers have argued for months about who would oversee toll operations, the bill summary calls for the creation of a Bipartisan Transportation Strategy Commission of 13 members “charged with review and approval” of the construction projects and the “schedule of toll rates for tolled highways.” Six of the 13 members would be chosen by the legislature, six would be state officials and one would be picked by the governor.
The plan also calls for creating new commuter rail stations in Bridgeport, West Hartford and Newington, along with improving the Metro-North Railroad by adding New Milford to the Danbury branch. The proposal seeks an additional $100 million a year in transit and railroad improvements that would include fixing aging bridges on the New Haven Line to speed Metro-North trains, along with eventually eliminating the traffic signals on Route 9 that have slowed traffic for years in Middletown.
The peak toll price would be 4.4 cents per mile, which could drop down to 3 cents with discounts, and those rates would be frozen for three years, the summary says. Lamont has said his tolling plan would bring in about $800 million a year, with 40 percent of that paid for by out-of-state drivers.
While Republicans have blasted Lamont’s plan, Democrats said Republicans lack the votes for their own plan, known as Prioritize Progress. The 30-year, $65 billion plan relies on borrowing and would be funded with state and federal money.
“The Republican plan doesn’t add up,” Lemar said. “It doesn’t provide a long-term solution for Connecticut. ... It doesn’t solve any of our long-term transportation needs. It’s basically a pothole repaving plan. That’s all it is.”
Dems say GOP leaning toward tolls; Republicans say no
Ken Dixon
HARTFORD — Majority leaders of the House of Representatives on Monday said they see a potential silver lining in Republican opposition to electronic highway toll legislation.
But their GOP counterpart said her caucus remains unified against tolls, charging that Democrats are so challenged in coming up with enough votes to pass Gov. Ned Lamont’s signature legislation that the issue could be delayed until after the June 5 adjournment, prompting a special General Assembly session on the issue.
Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matt Ritter told reporters before the day’s business session that in offering a proposal last week to focus repairs on five major bridges, Republicans took a step toward some kind of eventual compromise on tolls to raise needed infrastructure revenue.
“Look, the minority leader of the Senate and House have now come to the table with an offer,” Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said, noting that he takes the GOP proposal on Friday to purchase an additional $375 million in bonds over the next five years, as an overture to toll certain highway bridges. “Is it a take-it-or-leave-it offer? I always say we do our best work in a bipartisan way.”
“We stand 100 percent against any tolls in the state of Connecticut,” replied House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, a few minutes later.“What we’re saying is, have DOT pick five bridges that are in the worst disrepair in the state of Connecticut,” she continued. “Go down to Washington and have a conversation with them in regard to how much money they will give us to fund the repair of those bridges. Now clearly in the Democrats’ minds, which is almost laughable to me, that means, ‘oh maybe we can fund them with tolls.’ In their mind, once again, they can’t get off of tolling the people of the state of Connecticut to fund anything.”She said that the toll legislation, which has yet to be revealed in a final form, seems to change shape on a regular basis, in apparent response to criticism from balky Democrats who are being asked to approve an eventual bill.“Every day there is a little bit of a change,” Klarides, R-Derby, told reporters after the House leaders’ daily news conference. “Now it’s a one-cent gas tax. Last week it was going to fix asthma. This is just a scam on the Democrat leadership’s part and the governor’s part to convince people to do what they know is not right.”
Ritter and Aresimowicz said that the crowd estimated by Capitol Police at between 1,500 and 2,100 anti-toll protesters who demonstrated at the Capitol on Saturday, was not exactly a large group.
“I don’t think that was much of a rally,” said Ritter, D-Hartford. “This issue has been around so long. Do I think people were surprised by the low turnout? Yes I do. It was a low number but I don’t think the needle moves too much, anyway.”“I don’t know that it’ll have much of an effect,” Aresimowicz said. “It’s the same group of people, and we’re grappling with a major decision on what we do for the transportation infrastructure for the state.”
He said that the prospects of a special session on the issue remain active. “Being able to focus on a sole issue isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Aresimowicz said. “The draft of the bill that came out starts to fill in some of the question marks and some of the blanks, but we’re not there yet.”
The Democrats said it is still too soon to determine toll discount rates and locations of gantries because federal authorities are required to first approve plans.
“You have to do something,” Ritter said. “We all agree on that. At some point there will be a vote on making our transportation fund solvent and how best to do that. Right now if the feds did a $2 trillion infrastructure plan we might be unable to apply and receive any money because of it. Nobody wants to borrow $700 million and put it on the state credit card.”
House Democrats: Special session may be held for vote on tolls
PAUL HUGHES REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
HARTFORD — House Democratics leaders Monday floated the possibility that the legislature will return for a special session to vote on highway tolls.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, and House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, suggested a special session might be the route to take because of time constraints.
Aresimowicz insisted he has not given up hope on passing a tolling bill in the final two weeks of the regular 2019 session, but he also said he is not opposed to returning for a special session, too.
“It is that important to the state,” Aresimowicz said.
Rep. Roland J. Lemar, D-New Haven, the House Transportation Committee chairman, agreed a special session could be the way to go. The regular session adjourns June 5.
“If it takes two weeks, or if we have got to come back in the summer for a special session to figure this out, either option is fine to me as long as we do the right thing for the state of Connecticut,” Lemar said.
Lemar and Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, the Senate chairman of the Transportation Committee, are trying to negotiate an agreement with representatives of Gov. Ned Lamont.
The plan currently calls for roughly 50 tolls on Interstates 84, 91, 95, and the portions of Route 15 that comprise the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways.
House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said talk of a special session is further evidence of the desperation of Democratic leaders and their inability to round up the required House and Senate votes to pass tolls.
She also pushed back against Democratic assertions Monday that House and Senate Republicans proposed to use tolls to fund repairs to highway bridges in an updated transportation funding plan that they released last Thursday.
Klarides insisted Republicans oppose highway tolls in all forms. She said the updated GOP plan only proposed the state explore obtaining federal funding to fix the five bridges that are deemed to be in the most need of repair.
“We stand 100 percent against any tolls in the state of Connecticut,” Klarides said.
The Republicans have proposed an alternative plan called Prioritize Progress that proposes to allocate $1 billion in state bonding and another $1 billion matching federal funds annually to fund transportation projects for the next 30 years.
Ritter disputed that Republicans could pass the GOP’s counterproposal.
“It’s not just the Democrats that do not have the votes, neither do the Republicans,” he said.
Ritter and Aresimowicz downplayed an anti-tolling rally that drew 2,100 protesters to the state Capitol Saturday. The two Democratic leaders doubt the protest will influence the debate.
“I don’t know if it will have that much of an effect … I don’t know if any one rally, pro or con, is going to make that decision any easier,” Aresimowicz said.
Hartford construction firm selected to oversee Wendell Cross expansion in Waterbury
MICHAEL GAGNE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WATERBURY — A Hartford-based construction firm that’s handled four Waterbury Public Schools projects in recent years likely has won a fifth, the Wendell Cross Elementary School expansion.
A selection committee reviewing proposals for the project selected Newfield Construction as the lowest responsible bidder for the $46.2 million project.
Negotiations on a contract with Newfield are underway.
Additionally, thanks to a request to the state Department of Administrative Services, which oversees the administration of school construction grants, the Wendell Cross project is now a different project. It now will be primarily new school construction, of a building expected to be 88,289-square-feet that would house three classrooms per grade from pre-K to eight.
Officials had previously sought to renovate the existing Wendell Cross building on Hamilton Avenue, with two classrooms per grade, adding three middle school grades to that building.
Newfield’s selection comes four months after the city had selected Friar Architecture, Inc., of Farmington, as the architect to design the new school building. Friar had previously designed Carrington Elementary School, which was completed in 2013.
The Board of Aldermen is slated to vote Monday on a proposed lease to use the former St. Joseph School building on John Street and the church’s former convent as “swing space” next fall when the project gets started.
Officials anticipate completion in within two years. The city will receive a 78.6 percent, or $36.3 million, reimbursement from the state for the project as long as construction begins by October of this year.
In Newfield’s bid packet, the firm touts having 50 years experience in construction and pledges “a smooth and timely construction process.:
Newfield has been involved in recent Waterbury projects, including a recent 40,500-square-foot addition to Kennedy High School. The addition included a three-story addition and corridor, and other building improvements. It was part of a $25.2 million project to improve the school that was completed in 2013.
Other projects include renovated science labs and classrooms at Wallace Middle School, Wilby High School, and a renovated building for the Enlightenment School.
Other finalists that were vying for selection included Morganti Group, KBE Building Corporation, Dimeo Construction Company and Skanska.