For Whom the Tolls Toll

 There's a controversy raging in the state of Connecticut at the moment.  Gov. Ned Lamont has pledged to dramatically improve the state's crumbling infrastructure and in order to pay for that he's proposed installing electronic tolls on the interstate highways that pass through the state.  Thus the controversy.

Nearly all legislative republicans, some democrats and a significant number of residents oppose tolls.  The main reason is because they cite CT as the most taxed state in the country and tolls are just one more burden on an already overburdened tax payer.   Then they go on to list a long litany of others.

Frankly, one has to sympathize with these howls of pain.  We are over taxed.  But let's face it.  The state's infrastructure is a mess.  Everyone agrees on that.  The problem is how to pay for it's repair.

Toll booth opponents maintain with appropriate cost-cutting practices, the money would be there without tolls.

I know what they mean by cost-cutting.  They mean continue to screw state employees and the teacher's retirement fund.  The state has been doing that for years. What's the problem?  Those people are over compensated as it is.  It doesn't matter that the state is contractually obligated to support the pension funds of these two groups and for years they've been underfunded.  Abiding by legal contracts is apparently not an issue for many. 

So what to do?  What are some other solutions?  One that I've heard is to put up the tolls but give CT residents a significant tax break.  Let out of state motorists bear the burden.  They are using the roads so it's only fair they help maintain them.