January 23, 2012

REP FAWCETT PARTICIPATES IN FORUM
ON TRANSPORTATION IN CONNECTICUT

State Rep. Kim Fawcett (D-Fairfield, Westport) told a forum on the state’s transportation needs Friday that it would be difficult to persuade residents in southern Connecticut to accept increased rail fares or new highway tolls without ironclad guarantees of improvements to roads and other infrastructure.

“Having a transportation infrastructure that carries people quickly, comfortably and cheaply is critical,” Fawcett said. “But constituents need to be assured that any new tolls or increases in rail fares would be used to pay for mass transit improvements.”

Rep. Kim Fawcett speaks at Connecticut's Transportation Future forum Friday at the state Capitol.

Fawcett, co-chairwoman of the Transportation Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, joined more than 100 planners, state officials and representatives of the transportation industry at a forum hosted by the Transit for Connecticut coalition at the state Capitol. The participants discussed Connecticut’s transportation 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.

Speakers included former Department of Transportation Commissioner Emil Frankel, now a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., current DOT Commissioner James Redeker, U.S. Reps. John Larson, D-1, and Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and a panel discussion featuring five state legislators, including Rep. Fawcett, and Don Shubert of the Keep CT Moving advocacy group.

“For the past 10 or 15 years, Connecticut has faced a growing gap between its transportation needs and its investment resources,” said Frankel. “Given the nation’s severe fiscal crisis and Connecticut’s reduced demographic and political power at the federal level, Connecticut cannot look to Washington to bridge this gap.”

Federal transportation funding will likely comprise a declining share of the cost of highway and transit improvements for the foreseeable future, Redeker said.

Frankel and other speakers talked about the possible reintroduction of tolls — with Frankel drawing the distinction between the state’s unpopular former gate tolls, which required people to stop and drop coins in an electronic basket, and the new generation of E-Z Pass-style transponder tolls that allow traffic to keep moving.

But Fawcett said Fairfield County residents believe that tolls would be an unfair tax on people who live in southwestern Connecticut, if the revenue were not spent on transportation and infrastructure improvements in that area of the state.

Fawcett’s constituents see expanded mass transit to alleviate highway congestion as the state’s most important transportation issue, she said, and would support tolls only if they knew that money would fund mass transit improvements — something currently not allowed by federal law.

“Constituents need to be given a very clear message that there will be improvements to mass transit and infrastructure,” Fawcett said.

The forum was cosponsored by the Capitol Region Council of Governments, Connecticut Association for Community Transportation, O’Neill Endowed Chair at Central Connecticut State University – Legislative Policy Program, Regional Plan Association and Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

The Transit for Connecticut Coalition, formed in 2007, is a group of 32 business, social service, environmental, transportation, planning and civic organizations dedicated to increasing awareness of the benefits of bus transit and advocating for increased funding for bus transit. The Transit for Connecticut Coalition is supported by the One Region Funders’ Group that includes the Fairfield County Community Foundation and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

Connecticut Network broadcast: mms://vserve.ctn.state.ct.us/ctnmulticast