January 30, 2020

Rep. Kathy Kennedy: Public Hearing on Tolls

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Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The Governor’s most recent proposal to install tolls on our highways has now been made public and will have a public hearing at the Legislative Office Building this Friday at 1p.m. The 32-page document outlines their plan to add 12 toll gantries for “Large Commercial Trucks” at specific bridges around the state including I-91, two locations on I-84, as well as Rt. 8, I-95 & I-395.

To review the document, you can click here.

Here are some important passages from the working draft:

In Section 8, the language could be interpreted to mean that tolls could be expanded to passenger vehicles after July 1, 2022 – Line 273
The governor will have the ability to declare an emergency in “the existence of extraordinary circumstances” and with “at least three-fifths of the members of each chamber of the General Assembly” vote to change the provisions of the plan, which could include raising toll rates or expand tolling to include other vehicles like passenger cars. The tolling provisions may also be changed to protect the bond holders, which also could expand tolling to other vehicles like passenger cars – Lines 279-294
There’s a provision that says trucks would only be assessed one toll per day, per direction, but it’s not specified whether that’s a calendar day or a 24-hour period. Depending on how this is interpreted it could cost twice as much to operate a truck than advertised – Line 139

On Friday, January 31, there will be a subject matter public hearing at the Legislative Office Building. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. in room 1E of the Legislative Office Building (300 Capitol Avenue, Hartford). Public speaker order will be determined by a lottery system. Lottery numbers will be drawn from 9:30am to 11:30am in Room 2300 of the LOB. Please submit 55 copies of written testimony to Committee staff at the time of the lottery in Room 2300 of the LOB.

If you want your voice to be heard, I strongly encourage that you either testify in person or submit written comment to the Transportation Committee. To submit written comment, you can e-mail the committee at TRAtestimony@cga.ct.gov.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding state government, please feel free to reach out to me at Kathy.Kennedy@housegop.ct.gov.