LWVCT Opposition to HB 6200 AA Concerning the Establishment of Tolls for the Extension of Route 11

Members of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut believe that the main priorities of the transportation policy should be to increase dedicated funding sources for mass transit, highway congestion relief and highway and bridge maintenance. We support congestion pricing/electronic tolling to not only provide revenue but to implement the goal of reducing congestion on our roads and to help decrease pollutants in our air.  The League has also long supported a Fix-It-First policy over new construction and we continue to believe that we cannot build our way out of congestion.

We oppose HB 6200 for the following reasons:

• While the proposed tolling solution will produce revenue, no study has been done to determine if the revenue would be sufficient to cover the cost of construction and maintenance. Many experts believe that the projected traffic volume is too low and is likely to remain so given that free alternative routes will remain available. Thus, the cost of the expansion will have to be borne by Connecticut taxpayers;
• The size of this project will use a large portion of all available transportation capital improvement funds and leave only limited funding for maintaining existing roads and bridges;
• EPA reviews of the project have shown that the extension of RTE 11 will have significant environmental impact that will require significant mitigation plan that has not been completed or approved.

Because of these financial, environmental and policy concerns, we urge you to oppose HB 6200 should it come up for a vote.

Thank you for this opportunity to provide input.

Sincerely,

Jara N. Burnett
Transportation specialist