January 20, 2012

LESS FEDERAL TRANSIT FUNDING ON HORIZON

Martin B. Cassidy, Connecticut Post, Staff Writer

HARTFORD -- Federal transportation funding will likely comprise a declining share of the cost of highway and transit improvements for the foreseeable future, Connecticut DOT Commissioner Jim Redeker told transportation advocates Friday.

Though the state is rebuilding the New Haven Railyard and purchased 420 new rail cars to revamp the Metro-North New Haven Line, other critical projects to replace chunks of infrastructure such as moveable rail bridges, the Interstate 84 Hartford Viaduct and the I-84 Route 8 interchange in Waterbury will incur costs in the billions.

"The last few years, Connecticut has been able to come to the plate and come through with funding," Redeker said. "If federal funding goes down, all we will be able to do is less."

Emil Frankel, the state's former Department of Transportation commissioner, said the state needs to move forward with developing new revenue and funding sources to accomplish needed projects.

Frankel said public-private partnerships and deals such as the state's 35-year agreement with a private operator to redevelop the state's highway rest stops could be used to get projects done.

"We can't look to the federal government as an adequate basis for our transportation investment resources," said Frankel, who now serves as a visiting scholar on transportation policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.

More than 100 planners, state officials, and representatives of the transportation industry packed the Old Judiciary Room at the state Capitol Friday morning to hear Redeker, state legislators, and U.S. reps. John Larson and Rosa DeLauro discuss Connecticut's transportation funding crunch during a forum hosted by Transit for Connecticut.

State legislators including State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, and Andrew Maynard, D-Griswold, co-chairman of the General Assembly's transportation committee, discussed funding options amid declining state gasoline tax revenue, uncertain federal funding, and the simultaneous need to improve mass transit and preserve existing roads and highways.

Larson argued that investments in infrastructure in the short term could serve as a partial remedy to a shaky economic climate and help lower the unemployment rate.

"You reduce the current unemployment level from 9 percent to under 7 and you deal with a third of the deficit and you start to see the flow of goods and services in our community," Larson said. "We also get to do this much-needed work."

State Rep. Kim Fawcett, D-Fairfield, said it is difficult to convince residents in southern Connecticut to accept increased fares or proposals to reinstitute tolls without ironclad assurances they will see improvements to roads and other infrastructure.

"Having a transportation infrastructure that carries people quickly, comfortably, and cheaply is critical," Fawcett said. "But if you are from Fairfield County, ... our constituency needs to have a very clear message about whether they will see more parking or other improvements they will see."