Governor Ned Lamont continued his push for highway tolls in Connecticut on Monday. The governor went to the state’s busiest highway overpass in Waterbury to make his point.
Lamont said his administration will continue to spend more than $200 million for repairs and improvements to the 50-year-old interchange at I-84 and Route 8 – popularly known as the Mixmaster. He said highway tolls would help pay for such repairs and keep the state’s transportation fund going beyond 2023.
“Now is the time for us to put together a strategic plan to make sure we can rebuild the Mixmaster. A - from the point of view of public safety. B - decongesting what we got to do. And in terms of economic development, there’s nothing more important than getting this state moving again.”
Lamont again dismissed a Republican plan to borrow money for infrastructure development.
“I think we have borrowed our way to a point that I think is really impacting our budget on a day-to-day basis and is not supportable.”
State Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano said he’s disappointed that the Democratic governor is dismissing the GOP plan but says he’s hopeful that Lamont is open to discussing a bipartisan solution.
During Monday’s news conference the governor also addressed infrastructure at the national level. This followed a weekend meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. Lamont said he’s encouraged that an infrastructure spending bill might come out of Washington this year.
“And I think that is going to happen. And when that happens I want to make sure Connecticut is at the front of the line, that we have the workforce available to do the rebuilding.’
