Governor Rell announced her budget for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 last Wednesday in Hartford. With Connecticut facing a $922 million deficit, her proposal was mainly a laundry list of spending cuts, fee increases, and agency consolidations. With the exception of a speed camera pilot program, however, Governor Rell offered little vision on how to fund the transportation system moving forward.
Rell proposed deploying four fixed or mobile speed cameras throughout the state, a fantastic program that could do much to promote safety if it is not scuttled by legislators (as it was last year). The budget also raises fees on overweight vehicles, but otherwise ignores looming funding concerns. Gas tax revenues have declined for an unprecedented four straight years in Connecticut, and perhaps the most disturbing news from her budget address was that the Special Transportation Fund (STF), which receives revenue from transportation-related taxes, fees, bonds, and other revenues, will run deficits of $102 million and $145 million in FY10 and FY11, respectively, exhausting the fund’s existing surplus by FY11.
HOT lanes or other forms of congestion pricing could help pay for Connecticut's transportation needs.
Governor Rell missed an opportunity to call for some form of open-road congestion pricing on Connecticut’s roads, an action that in addition to generating revenue for the transportation system would reduce congestion and improve the environment. The Transportation Strategy Board, tasked with directing transportation policy in the state, is set to receive the final report on congestion pricing from Cambridge Systematics on February 19. Her budget address would have been an opportune time to show support for an innovative funding policy that might be a heavy political lift.
The budget did have a few notable spending increases. Rell called for bonding $550 million to pay for the initial phase of the New Haven Rail Yard, which is needed in order to modernize Connecticut’s aging rail fleet. The budget also includes $50 million in grants to promote regionalization throughout the state, which could have some impact on reducing local transportation costs.
ConnDOT arguably made out better than most other agencies, but the agency will lose $500,000 for rail freight projects and $237,500 for bus capital projects. In addition, within the Department of Social Services, the budget calls for reducing funding for Transportation for Employment Independence by 25%, a drastic cut in service put upon people that can ill afford it.
After the Cambridge report is released, congestion pricing will begin moving forward on the legislative track. Several bills that would legislate congestion pricing have been scheduled for a public hearing in the Transportation Committee on February 23, 2009 at 10 am in the Legislative Office Building, Room 2E, in Hartford.
Image: Washington SR 167 HOT lane. Via WSDOT.
The white suburban voters will always love Grandma Rell. She doesn’t get cities and doesn’t care about the poor, but neither do most Connecticut voters. This is part of the reason that ConnDOT didn’t do as bad as other agencies – and that the transportation funding decreases we did see were from programs specifically targeting lower-income residents.
[...] and select stretches of highway. In neighboring Connecticut, Gov. Jodi Rell has proposed creating a speed camera pilot program in her FY2010 and 2011 budget. Despite a restriction on using cameras to levy tickets or collect [...]
[...] so it is safe to say that some difficult choices lay ahead. Moving forward, Connecticut must find new and innovative ways, such as congestion pricing, to fund the smart transportation projects that do not receive [...]
[...] here for the complete [...]
[...] salary question, the state already spends more prosecuting minor criminal infractions and on its transportation budget than it does paying Jim Calhoun, who helps bring in plenty of money to the state’s largest [...]
[...] report, both rail and bus operations would receive less in the Committee’s bill than in Governor Rell’s budget: close to $4.3 million less per year for rail operations and approximately $64,000 less for bus [...]
[...] But with the exception of Senator LeBeau, and to a lesser extent Mayor Malloy, none of the candidates provided any specifics as to what Connecticut needs in terms of funding and what sources of revenue could fill the looming deficit of the Special Transportation Fund. This fund pays for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the state’s transportation network but will run out of money by 2011. [...]