Highway tolls have gotten one step closer to making a comeback in Connecticut.
The State’s Transportation Committee voted 19 to 17 to send a transportation bill to the full legislature this week. It would put electronic tolls on Route 15 and Interstates 91, 95 and 84.
Republican Chair Toni Boucher says other states in the Northeast corridor have tolls, but they also have lower taxes than Connecticut.
“Those states don’t have a gas tax with an 8 percent on them, those states don’t have an income tax that does not allow for any deductions of other expenses, those states do not have a property tax on cars. ”
Boucher and other Republicans say it would cost too much to study the implementation of highway tolls when the State could just see how its neighbors have done it.
Democrats say funding the infrastructure proposal is a public safety issue. Governor Dannel Malloy has proposed a 30-year plan to improve it.