Paid in full? Biden, GOP struggle over infrastructure costs
KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional negotiators and the White
House appear open to striking a roughly $1 trillion deal on infrastructure. But
they are struggling with the hard part — how to pay for it.
As President Joe Biden jumps back into the talks this week,
the question of where the money will come from looms large. And time is running
short to solve it.
Biden wants to increase taxes for corporations and those
households making more than $400,000 a year. Republicans have ruled that out,
putting forward alternatives that Democrats find unacceptable. Both sides have
said the infrastructure spending should be paid for and not add to the national
debt.
It's a long-standing challenge with no easy solution, one
that puts the bipartisan agreement around infrastructure in tension with the
nettlesome realities of governing. It's a problem that has thwarted previous
attempts at an infrastructure bill, including during the Trump administration,
and their ability to solve it now is likely to determine whether a bipartisan
accord is possible.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said user fees
are the way to go. But the White House and key Democratic lawmakers oppose
increasing the user fee that has traditionally funded road and bridge
construction, the federal gas tax, even if the increase is just allowing it to
rise at the rate of inflation from its current level of 18.4 cents per gallon.
The federal gas tax has not increased since 1993.
“The president’s pledge was not to raise taxes on Americans
making less than $400,000 a year, and the proposed gas tax or vehicle mileage
tax would do exactly that,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “So
that is a nonstarter for him. I’d also note for the mathematicians in the room
that only raises $40 billion, which is a fraction of what this proposal would
cost.”
Biden hosted two key Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of
West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, at the White House on Monday. He
told them he was encouraged by the plans that were taking shape but still had
questions about the policy and the financing for the proposal, a White House
official said. Biden also said he was focused on budget resolution discussions.
The two senators were among a group huddling late Monday at
the Capitol, some emerging upbeat that a bipartisan deal was within reach.
“Significant progress,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Sen. Jon Tester,
D-Mont., said they were “very close” to having a full proposal from the
bipartisan group as soon as Tuesday.
One idea under consideration is reallocating money already
approved as part of COVID-19 relief measures. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said
Sunday that they’re looking at repurposing more than $100 billion from COVID-19
relief to help pay for infrastructure. He put the onus on the White House to
put forward other ideas, since Democrats are balking at indexing the gas tax to
inflation or creating a user fee for electric vehicles.
“The administration, therefore, will need to come forward
with some other ideas without raising taxes," Portman said on NBC’s “Meet
the Press.” "What we don’t want to do is hurt the economy right now as
we’re coming out of this pandemic by raising taxes on working families.”
With the gas tax likely out, other ideas include raising
revenue from communication spectrum leases and both parties are eyeing funds
that could be raised by going after tax dodgers. The Republicans estimate about
$63 billion could be raised by beefing up enforcement by the Internal Revenue
Service. Democrats say the amount could be even higher.
Another complication in the negotiations is that many
Democrats question whether the size and scope of the infrastructure package
being discussed by the White House and senators is adequate. Within the $1
trillion package, about $579 billion would be new spending and the remainder
would be a continuation of existing programs. Many Democrats are wary of a
repeat of 2009, when Barack Obama was president and they spent months
negotiating the details of the Affordable Care Act with Republicans. Eventually
Democrats passed the package that became known as “Obamacare” on their own.
“The amount of money that they are proposing is about
one-quarter of what the president talked about in terms of new money. That’s
not adequate,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Lawmakers are also hoping to influence more than the price
tag of the infrastructure bill. One senator key to the talks, Manchin unveiled
his own draft proposal Monday for green energy infrastructure investments. The
423-page bill contains a wish list of energy-related proposals, and he'll hold
a hearing on the plan Thursday in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has described
the infrastructure bill being negotiated as a good start. But he says most
Democrats don’t believe it does enough on climate and also want it to address
priorities like paid family leave. He is pushing a “two-track” approach that
leaves open the possibility of a far larger bill without Republican votes.
Using a special budget, the second infrastructure bill would
only take a simple majority of 51 votes to pass. Such a measure could include
more of the priorities laid out by Biden as part of his $1.8 trillion American
Families Plan, such as paid family leave and universal pre-K for 3- and
4-year-olds.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned the administration to
not go that route.
“I would just say to President Biden, you’ve got a party
that’s divided. You’ve got a Republican Party that’s willing to meet you in the
middle for a trillion dollars of infrastructure that could fundamentally change
the way America does business in roads, ports, and bridges and accelerate electrical
vehicles,” Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.” “You’ve got to decide what kind of
president you are and what kind of presidency you want."
Lamont: Getting from New Haven to New York on Metro-North will be 10 minutes quicker by next year
Ethan Fry
STRATFORD — Bullet trains won’t be whizzing through
Connecticut at 100 mph anytime soon, but Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday the
state’s rail users will see some improvements by next year — like getting from
New Haven to New York 10 minutes quicker.
The governor announced an ambitious plan at the Stratford
Metro-North station Monday to improve the state’s rail service that he said
would slash travel times, create thousands of jobs, and help the environment by
getting cars off roads.
The plan — called “Time
For CT” — assumes most of the $8 billion to $10 billion in required
funding will come from the federal government.
Lamont and other officials conceded it’s not the first
wishful proposal to improve rail funding in the state — and that they can’t yet
provide clear, decisive answers about where the money will ultimately come
from. But they pointed to a recently
completed study that identifies where many of the improvements can be
made, and also said the political possibilities to get the federal dollars
needed are better than they have been in decades.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, who chairs the powerful House
Appropriations Committee, attended Monday’s announcement and promised to fight
for the funding needed.
“If the Europeans can do it and have high speed rail, we
certainly can do it in this country,” DeLauro said. “This is a
once-in-a-generation investment.”
Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph
Giulietti said signal improvements and repairs on the New Haven Line will
result in faster travel times within a year.
“You’re going to see at least 10 minutes next year,” he
said. “We’re going to be able to start running some express trains that are
going to take out 10 minutes of travel time, and that will be real and it will
start next year.”
Giulietti said details regarding when the new express routes
will run are being negotiated, but that the improvements to make them a reality
are already in the works.
“We’ve gone inch by inch over this railroad so the plan you
see in front of you is extremely practical and well laid out,” he said.
The plan calls for that 10-minute improvement to become a
25-minute one by 2035 — if funding can be secured.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal conceded that’s still a pretty big
if, calling for residents and officials to press federal officials for action.
“The federal government should pay for rail in the northeast
corridor, more than it has, and more than it is planning right now,” Blumenthal
said. “We need a massive, bold, infrastructure program, bigger and better than
what we’re seeing right now emerging
as a likely bipartisan plan. We need two Joes — Joe Biden and Joe
Manchin — to get behind it.”
The senator said ridership is only a third of what it was
before the COVID-19 pandemic — and noted it takes longer to get from New Haven
to New York via Metro-North than it did 10 years ago.
“Riders are not coming back unless we make trains faster,”
he said.
Connecticut Commuter Rail Council Chairman Jim Gildea is a
daily rider on both the Metro-North Waterbury Line and the New Haven Line. He
said that aside from safety, the most important things to commuters who use
trains every day is minimizing they time they spend on them as much as
possible.
“We want to leave our houses later. We want to get home to
our families quicker,” he said. “We want to improve our quality of life, and
this plan does that.”
Lamont said a lot of the detailed improvements in the plan —
replacing and improving bridge decks, worn rails and ties — are not “flashy.”
But he said it would lead to 45,000 “good paying, union jobs,” environmental
benefits with fewer cars on the state’s roads and highways, and more economic
growth.
Lamont said that the state’s economy has recovered to 98
percent of its pre-pandemic levels. He sees rail improvements as key to the
state’s continued economic growth.
“We’re making extraordinary progress, but we’re not going to
continue to make that progress unless we put people to work speeding up our
rail system,” Lamont said.
Lamont’s transit reboot: Faster trains next year — and 2035
Mark Pazniokas
STRATFORD — The president of Metro-North made the trip from
New York to hear about Connecticut’s latest vision for faster rail. The vice
president of Amtrak came from Washington. The governor was the host. But the
draw was the “fairy godmother of federal funding.”
That is how Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz introduced U.S. Rep.
Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, a twice-a-week Amtrak rider who is the chair of
the House Appropriations Committee at a time when America is poised to spend
billions on rail infrastructure.
“This is a once-in-a-generation investment. It’s now time.
We can’t go back. We don’t go back,” DeLauro said Monday, pausing only to let a
Metro-North commuter train pass behind her. “Let’s look at this moment as the
opportunity to build the architecture for the future.”
The occasion was the announcement of Time for CT, a mix of goals and promises for $8 billion to
$10 billion in improvements to the busiest and pokiest commuter rail corridor
in America, where 21st-century trains, often limited to 30 miles per hour,
cross 19th-century bridges.
The plan promises to shorten the New Haven to Grand Central
ride by 10 minutes next year and by 25 minutes by 2035.
The administration of Gov. Ned Lamont rounded up the usual
suspects. Construction trades union members, all veterans of the governor’s
last campaign to speed commutes on rail and highway, dutifully arrived with a
banner that promised “JOBS.”
Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction
Industries Association, stood in the small audience gathered in a semi-circle
at the Stratford train station, hoping Time for CT would fare better than
CT2030, a plan that relied on a failed push for highway tolls in 2019.
“It would be nice to see Connecticut shift from studies to
actual implementation as quickly as possible to get some people to work,”
Shubert said.
Lamont was well aware of the cynicism attendant with
long-range plans for infrastructure improvements — and the unpopularity of new
broad-based funding sources.
“The world is littered with 30-year plans,” Lamont said.
While CT2030 called for spending $21 billion on highways and
rail infrastructure, Time for CT is tightly focused on the New Haven Line that
takes 130,000 commuters to Grand Central and back on weekdays, or at least it
did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
It puts a bow on smaller investments that are about to pay
dividends — modern signalization, catenary power lines that no longer droop in
heat waves, safety measures like positive train control, and sidings that
removed bottlenecks — and repackages them as part of Time for CT.
Transportation Commissioner Joseph J. Giulietti, the former
president of Metro-North, said new schedules next year will offer express
service from New Haven to Grand Central that is 10 minutes faster than current
service.
Lamont now sees the virtues of mixing small, immediate
improvements with long-range planning. He said he made that clear to Giulietti
when the former regional rail executive outlined a plan for faster commuter
rail service.
“I said, ‘That's great. What can we do next year? What can
we show?’ I want to show people progress,” Lamont said. “I want to show them
we're able to make a difference. And a lot of this is not flashy.”
Time for CT is in quiet competition with North Atlantic Rail, a concept for a new rail entity that
would construct high-speed rail service throughout New England, connecting
Hartford to Providence and Connecticut to Long Island with a tunnel under the
Sound.
Co-chaired by Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, the conceptual
plan is neither supported nor opposed by the Lamont administration, which wants
to offer the Biden Administration a list of projects that are either
shovel-ready or ripe for final plans and construction.
Bronin praised the Time for CT plan as consistent with North
Atlantic, whose early goals are similar to what Lamont outlined.
“This study lines up perfectly with the North Atlantic Rail
initiative, which identifies improvements on the New Haven Line as a
critical early action priority — and aims to build a broad, regional coalition
to help secure the funding necessary to get these projects done," he said.
The attendees at the news conference in Stratford evinced
little appetite for high-concept.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Time for CT was ready now.
“It is realistic. It's rooted in reality. It's doable.
That's one of its great strengths,” Blumenthal said.
Funding was a topic largely glossed over, other than noting
that the federal government is expected to launch new grant programs for rail
spending as soon as Congress settles on the scope of appropriations.
Votes in Congress are expected before the end of the month.
Other than imposing a new mileage fees on heavy trucks, Connecticut
took no steps this year to increase funding for transportation.
State Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, co-chair of the
Transportation Committee, said Time for CT capitalizes on past investments and
makes a case for new ones.
“We have been making investments over the last couple of
years. It's all been couched as sort of incremental, necessary pieces of a big
picture,” Lemar said. “Now's the moment the big picture can actually be realized.
Everything 'til now has been like, ‘How do we keep it running? How do we make
it a little bit better?’”
With highway tolls off the table, Connecticut is relying
heavily on its “fairy godmother” and the commitment of a new president to
infrastructure spending.
“We have Rosa DeLauro right now in a position where she can
deliver what she wants to deliver,” Lemar said. “She's never missed an
opportunity to deliver.”
Blumenthal said Metro-North and Amtrak need to show
improvements quickly to recover from the pandemic.
“Riders are not coming back unless you make trains faster,”
he said. “Riders are not coming back to Metro-North or to Amtrak unless we make
trains faster now.”
Jim Gildea, the chair of the Connecticut Commuter Council,
said the need to speed up trains that are slower than in the 1970s, largely due
to speed limits imposed on substandard tracks and bridges, is vital. He
commutes on the Waterbury Line and New Haven Line.
"I feel like I speak with real credibility when I tell
you that other than safety, the single most important thing to the everyday
commuter is spending less time on the train," he said. "Simply put,
we do not want to be on the train more than we need to. We want to leave our
houses later. We want to get home to our families quicker."
Caroline Decker, the Amtrak vice president for the northeast
corridor, said political muscle from DeLauro and others would be necessary to
address an exhaustive list of overdue improvements in the corridor from
Washington D.C. to Boston.
“It really is a moment,” she said.
Catherine Rinaldi, the president of Metro-North, said faster
service would be another inducement for commuters to return. Ridership nearly
disappeared during the pandemic, and it has been slow to come back.
“We're between 36% and 40% back. We’ve been coming back
about 5% per week since the spring,” Rinaldi said. Weekend traffic is 65% of
previous levels.
Rinaldi said the new normal for the commuter rail line
probably won’t be clear until after Labor Day, when most major employers are
expecting a return to the office for employees, though remote work is expected
to be a significant component of employment.
Metro-North has increased service, and it will be surveying
riders and employers to gauge what must be offered in the fall.
Fishermen will remain at State Pier in New London
Greg Smith
New London — The Connecticut Port Authority has informed two commercial fishing businesses they can remain at State Pier for the foreseeable future.
The agreement, though not yet in written form, removes a cloud of uncertainty that has lingered over the two businesses for the past several years. State Pier is being redeveloped to accommodate the offshore wind industry, and the future for its tenants has been in limbo.
State Pier is actually composed of two different piers. The businesses, Montville-based Donna May Fisheries and Waterford-based Out of Our Shell Enterprises, together operate four boats off the west side of Central Vermont Railroad Pier, known locally as CV Pier.
“It’s been two years of stress,” said Kevin Debbis, owner of Donna May Fisheries. “This is something to celebrate.”
Debbis, a scallop fisherman, along with other State Pier tenants were notified early last year that they had to vacate the pier as the authority prepared to clear the site for the $235.5 million reconstruction project.
State and local officials then worked with the authority to come up with ideas for a new home for the fishermen. The authority enlisted a contractor to identify possible nearby sites, which had include the existing pier at Fort Trumbull leased by New London Seafood. New London Mayor Michael Passero at one point offered up a spot along the city’s waterfront for a new pier but the city never found funding for its construction.
The most recent idea was to place a 120-foot barge near the pier, along with a 60-foot gangway to allow a forklift to access the barge from the boats.
“It turns out the simplest and most elegant solution is where they are currently,” said Connecticut Port Authority Executive Director John Henshaw.
The fishermen will be accommodated on the western side of the pier, which is outside of the construction project area, Henshaw said. He said he envisions a fenced off area that allows room for the fishermen to enter and exit the pier, along with a dedicated parking area.
Henshaw said the authority will negotiate terms of a new lease once the final designs for the parking, access, storage and berthing areas are completed. The engineering and consulting firm Moffatt & Nichol, the engineer of record for the property, is working on the design.
Henshaw said the terms of the new lease would then come before the authority board. For now, the authority is honoring the terms of pier operator Gateway’s prior month-to-month rent free arrangement with the fishermen.
“I was told not to worry about nothing - just go to work,” Debbis said.
$70M redevelopment of West Hartford convent, years in making, moving forward
Zachary Vasile
evelopers are set to break ground this week on an ambitious project to convert the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambéry convent and estate on Park Road in West Hartford into a 292-unit multifamily community.
The partners behind the $70 million effort, Lex-Laz LLC and Corridor Ventures, announced Friday that they have secured financing for the overhaul, after years of planning and revisions.
Lex-Laz is a partnership between Marty Kenny, founder and principal of Lexington Partners, and Hartford-based parking magnate Alan Lazowski; Corridor, based in Avon, is a principal investor in the entity.
The project, known as One Park Road, will include a mix of two-bedroom, one-bedroom and studio apartments, with 10% of the units set aside for renters earning less than 80% of the area’s median income. The former chapel on the eastern side of the 21-acre estate will be redeveloped into a common area for residents, with a fitness center, community hall, yoga room, work stations and lounge space. Plans also call for the construction of a swimming pool and pool house.
InnoConn Construction Management of Hartford is the general contractor for the project, and Barton Partners of Philadelphia is the architect.
Kenny and Lazowski have said the apartments will help meet demand for new housing among young professionals working in and around Hartford and empty-nesters looking to downsize.
“Laz and I both feel that the One Park redevelopment is one of the most transformative projects in West Hartford since Blue Back Square,” Kenny said. “It will be an economic shot in the arm for the Park Road business district and provide a meaningful link for further revitalization of Hartford’s Parkville district to the immediate east of the property.”
The Sisters, who have occupied the property since 1898, will maintain separate residences on the far western side of the plot.
Woodbury officials ask state to fix dangerous intersection
HANNA SNYDER GAMBINI and STEVE BIGHAM
WOODBURY — Local residents and town officials are hoping for
increased driver safety and improved traffic measures following multiple
crashes at a notorious site, but state officials continue to say that major
changes at routes 6 and 61 are unlikely.
Artillery Road resident Heather Logue Arment said in the
three years since her father was killed there, the bad crashes have not
stopped.
The most recent crash at the intersection was on June 3, and
three days later marked the three-year anniversary of when her father, Dan
Logue, was thrown from his farming tractor and killed while crossing over Route
6 from Quassapaug Road to Route 61 heading toward Bethlehem. The driver of a
pickup truck, Barjam Hoxha also of Woodbury, was coming down Route 6 from
Watertown.
Because Route 6 is a state road, local officials have no
authority to implement safety measures.
Woodbury First Selectman Barbara K. Perkinson said it’s
frustrating to see crashes happen regularly, and she implores drivers to slow
down and watch the road.
“They’re speeding and not paying attention to stop signs,
the police are there but can’t be there all the time,” Perkinson said. “If
people just slow down, get off their cellphones, don’t be a distracted driver,
pay attention, and follow the rules of the road.”
Logue Arment recently took to social media to warn drivers
of the intersection, and to drum up support for greater safety measures.
Last week, town officials met with representatives from the
Western Connecticut Council of Governments at the intersection in the hopes of
finding further solutions.
But COG officials reaffirmed what the state Department of
Transportation has long said – other than extra traffic enforcement for speed
and the cutting back of a few trees to enhance visibility, there is not a lot
that can be done.
DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said the area does not generate
enough traffic to warrant a light. State officials said the intersection has
not been flagged as a dangerous spot because the 24 accidents there in the past
five years is relatively small.
“We’re not going to get the state to change it. Any road can
have a fatality and this area does not take predominance with the state,”
Perkinson said.
“This is essentially farm country out here and you just
don’t have enough traffic,” said COG traffic specialist Josh Lecar, who
acknowledged that the area could be better configured, but also said changes
are unlikely.
DOT transportation engineer Obesebea Aye-Addo said a field
review by the state found that the intersection sight distances looking left
and right from Quassapaug Road were approximately 410 feet and 450 feet, which
is below the DOT’s recommended distance of 555 feet, based on the 85th
percentile speeds on Route 6 in this vicinity.
“It’s a complex problem,” said Woodbury Planning Commission
Chairman Joel Serota, who organized last week’s meeting after speaking with
members of the Logue family. “Something needs to be done. One more accident
here needn’t have to happen.”
Perkinson said the stop signs at the ends of both Quassapaug
and Route 61, are too big and block the line of sight for drivers of large
vehicles
The DOT has stated that data shows “a pattern of angle type
crashes, possibly as a result of deficient sight lines from Quassapaug Road due
to guide rail, vegetation, and the curvature of the Route 6.”
State Sen. Eric C. Berthel has been in contact with Logue
Arment after she starting bringing awareness to the intersection on social
media
He said legislative efforts over the last several years to
bring traffic improvements have been futile as the state DOT always said the
site doesn’t have enough traffic.
“If we know it’s dangerous and we see situations of people
complaining about the intersection, the lines of sight, and they feel it’s
dangerous, we might have to go back to the DOT and ask them to reconsider,”
Berthel said, adding that he would like to see findings from the DOT studies
and prompt a discussion with state and local leaders and DOT officials.
State, federal officials unveil plan to cut Metro-North travel time to New York City
Paul Hughs
STRATFORD — Commuters on the Waterbury branch line of the
Metro-North Railroad can expect faster rail connections to Bridgeport and
beyond to New York City in 2022.
State and federal officials on Monday announced commuters on
Metro-North’s New Haven line will save 10 minutes in travel time to Grand
Central Terminal next year, largely due the completion of signalization upgrades
and the installation of a positive train control system that automatically
reduces train speeds when needed.
“You’re going to see at least 10 minutes next year, OK,”
said Joseph Giulietti, the state commissioner of transportation. “We’re going
to be able to start running some express trains that are going to take out 10
minutes of travel time, and that will be real, and it will start next year.”
He also said the expected completion of a signalization
project on the Waterbury line at the end of the year means more trains will be
able to run between Waterbury and Bridgeport in 2022, too.
At this time, service on the Waterbury line has been halted
through Aug. 29 while the rail line is being upgraded. In the interim,
substitute bus service is operating between Waterbury and Bridgeport in both
directions, The ongoing infrastructure work includes replacing 12,000 ties on
the 27-mile rail line, the resurfacing of the track, rehabilitation of the
passing siding, and enhancements to four bridges and two crossings.
Giulietti joined Gov. Ned Lamont at the Stratford Train
Station on Monday to announce Time for CT, a plan for rebuilding the New Haven
line and providing faster train service with an estimated price of $8 billion
to $10 billion.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., U.S. Rep. Rosa L.
DeLauro, D-3rd District, state legislators from both parties, and Lt. Gov.
Susan Bysiewicz also attended the announcement. Metro-North Railroad President
Catherine Rinaldi and Jim Gildea, the chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Rail
Council, participated, too.
THE TIME FOR CT PLAN is based on a comprehensive capacity
and speed analysis that was completed in 2019 that involved a foot-by-foot
investigation of the railroad between New Haven and Greenwich.
“We’ve gone inch by inch over this railroad, so the plan you
see in front of you is extremely practical and well laid out,” Giuletti said.
The state Department of Transportation is estimating travel
time between New Haven and Grand Central Terminal in New York City can be
reduced by 25 minutes by 2035, a reduction of more than 20% from the current
one-way trip.
Sen. Will Haskell, D-Wilton, Senate chairman of the
Transportation Committee, said 10 minutes may not seem much, but the time saved
can add up for rail commuters.
“You think that the average commuter takes 262 trips every
year. Ten minutes both ways adds up to 5,240 minutes. I can’t think about what
that means exactly, but then I can start conceptualize 87 hours, and I can
really conceptualize three and a half days,” he said.
Other than safety, the single most important priority for
the everyday commuter is spending less time on the train, said Gildea, the
chairman of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council, and a regular rider of the
Waterbury and New Haven lines from Derby.
“Simply put, we don’t want to be on the train more than we
need to,” he said. “We want to leave our houses later. We want to get home to
our families quicker. We want to improve our quality of life, and this plan
does that.”
THE LAMONT ADMINISTRATION anticipates the federal government
picking up much of the estimated $8 billion to $10 billion cost of the Time for
CT plan.
Lamont and Giulietti said the state has already received
enough federal funding to achieve the 10-minute reduction in travel time in
2022 and start work on other improvements on the New Haven Line. Both stressed
that more federal funding will be needed.
“Washington is an important piece of the funding puzzle. We
can’t rebuild Connecticut infrastructure without a federal infrastructure bill,
and we can’t improve Connecticut’s rails without federal partners,” Giulietti
said.
Blumenthal and DeLauro said they are confident Congress and
the White House will work out differences over a broad infrastructure package.
DeLauro also observed Congress will be taking up five-year surface
transportation reauthorization bill that will include hundreds of billions for
highways, roads and bridges.
Lamont said the state bonds will be used to pay for the
required state match. He also said the state will also be able to use some the
estimated $90 million in annual revenue from a newly enacted mileage tax on
heavy trucks to leverage federal funding.
Giulietti said rail fare increases have not been discussed
at this time, but that will have to be part of the future considerations on
financing options.