
NEW HAVEN, CT – Advocates for a transportation system that includes more electric vehicles, fewer overall cars, more bikes, a more sophisticated rail system, and lower auto emissions – among other strategies – got together in New Haven Tuesday to push their initiatives.
The 2nd annual Northeast Multimodal and Transit Summit was held at the New Haven Lawn Club just a few days before legislators are expected to hold lengthy discussions on a couple of different transportation plans: CT2030, the latest plan being proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont, and the competing plan called FASTR CT being offered by state Senate Republicans.
The theme of this year’s summit is “Sustainable, Survivable, and Smart – Transportation for the Next Generations.” The plans and budget for infrastructure investment over the next 10 years will set the framework for the state’s transportation trajectory that will last decades beyond 2030.
The specter of the escalating climate crisis is now expected to rear its head within the lifetimes of most Connecticut residents. The state’s transportation and land-use plans must be vetted for their long-term environmental impacts and contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2018, the state legislature set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by the year 2030 from a 2001 benchmark. The state’s competing draft transportation plans – each of which would increase interstate and state route capacity by adding lanes – represent a conflict with the emission reduction goals set in 2018.
According to cleaner transit advocates, the well-studied concept of induced demand shows that congestion reduction benefits are often temporary and that increased driving trips, combined with sprawling rural development, result in both more driving trips and a speedy return to congested traffic. Further, those same advocates claim that instead of chasing unsustainable interstate expansion models of development, successful cities and regions are implementing transportation demand management approaches that increase transit ridership, carpooling, telecommuting, and spur transit-oriented housing development near employment centers and high-frequency transit hubs.
“Transportation is a civil rights issue,” said Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, who is co-chair of the legislatures Transportation Committee, at the Tuesday session.

Lemar, who has spent the past few years trying to build support for a tolling system on the state’s highways, pushed the conversation away from tolls and toward the overall status of the state’s highways.
“We are struggling to replace an aging infrastructure,” Lemar told the audience. “We have struggled with lack of investment and limited vision. We have allowed the highway system to crumble.”
Lemar added: “We are now at that moment. We also have allowed Metro-North to suffer from limited access and limited vision.”
He also said that “a conversation about just repairing and making trains a little bit faster, repairing bridges across the state,” is not enough.
“It is time for those folks in this room to lead – to find an alternate that doesn’t include piling everyone into a car,” Lemar said. “We need to build transit options for our communities.”
In October, the Transport Hartford Academy widely distributed the statewide CT’s Transportation Future Survey. In that survey, 87% of the respondents felt that unchecked climate change would be either “Very Serious” or “Catastrophic.” The top three items that respondents supported as strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector were:
• Improving existing public transportation including buses, trains, and dial-a-ride (92% support);
• Expanding/improving sidewalks and bike lanes to provide safe alternatives to driving (91% support);
• Expanding public transportation and rail to people and places not yet served (88% support).
Tuesday’s summit included 12 breakout sessions in Yale’s Kroon Hall with over 60 expert speakers on topics ranging from bus transit and rail to walking and biking, and federal legislation and funding. The Transportation Future survey results were discussed in an afternoon session titled, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Transportation Sector, the Elephant in the Room.”
The sessions were preceded by a luncheon at the New Haven Lawn Club during which nationally renowned plenary speaker Charles Brown, a self-proclaimed street level researcher from Rutgers University, gave the keynote. His talk focused, primarily on advocates for cleaner transportation to make sure their plans, especially in bigger cities, ensured that minorities, weren’t left behind.
Last week, House Democrats told Lamont that car tolls – a plan preferred by Lamont – were off the table.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matt Ritter asked Lamont to consider truck-only tolls on 12 of the 14 bridges that are part of the governor’s transportation plan.
House leadership would eliminate the tolls on Route 9 and the Wilbur Cross and Merritt Parkways.
Lamont had campaigned on truck-only tolls only to shift his position shortly after being sworn into office, saying trucks alone would not raise enough revenue to solve the problem.
Lamont said he’s recommending that all caucuses be prepared to bring their proposals to a meeting in his office as soon as possible.
The tolls would create a revenue stream that would be used to back low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau.
Under the proposal, truck-only tolling rates would be similar to rates in New York. The Connecticut Department of Transportation has estimated that truck-only tolls could raise about $150 million a year.
Support authentic, locally owned and operated public service journalism!
Aresimowicz and Ritter said the Senate Republican plan, which excludes tolls, is a non-starter because it would remove about $1.6 billion from the Rainy Day Fund.
Amy McClean Salls, a Senior Policy Advocate and Connecticut Director at the Acadia Center, agreed with Lemar that the time is now to take bold steps to make Connecticut highways cleaner and easier to drive.
She said using more EVs and improving rail and bike lanes were “hard, extraordinary and scary,” but that the time has come.
Victoria Hackett, Deputy Commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), chimed in that Connecticut needs to get serious about meeting its ridesharing and emission goals.
More State Budget news

Stefanowski Talks Abortion, Employee Raises & Budget In First Press Conference
For a half-hour Wednesday, Bob Stefanowski stood outside the state Capitol and fielded questions on abortion rights and state employee raises in a sign the Republican candidate plans to run a more conventional campaign in this year’s rematch with Gov. Ned Lamont.
Keep reading
Lamont Signs The Budget
Alongside Democratic legislative leaders, Gov. Ned Lamont signed the $24 billion budget adjustment Monday that includes $600 million in tax relief. That’s more than they anticipated they would be able to offer Connecticut residents this Election year because revenue came in higher than expected, but it still creates about an $800 million deficit in 2024. …
Keep reading
ANALYSIS | It’s A Wrap: The Winners and Losers of the 2022 Session
It was a short legislative session, but the House and the Senate were able to move a lot of business this year, including the passage of a $24-billion budget with around $600 million in tax cuts.
Keep reading
Connecticut Acts To Help Its Lead-Poisoned Children
After decades of inertia, Connecticut is finally moving to help its thousands of lead-poisoned children and prevent thousands of other young children from being damaged by the widespread neurotoxin.
Keep reading
Bill Bolstering Contracting Oversight Board In Jeopardy After Lamont Administration Raises Concerns
It passed unanimously in the Senate, but a bill that would give the State Contracting Standards Board greater oversight over state contracting appeared stalled in the House Wednesday on the last day of session. “The governor and I have not talked about the bill,” House Speaker Matt Ritter said. “The commissioners have sent us a…
Keep reading
Senate Approves Tax Cuts, Sends $24B Budget to the Governor
The state Senate gave final approval late Tuesday to a $24 billion election year budget plan that includes around $600 million in tax relief while enabling the state to make an $3.5 billion payment on its unfunded pension debt. Senators voted 24-12 at around 10:30 p.m. to send the midterm budget adjustment to the desk…
Keep reading
House Green-Lights $24B Budget
On a party-line vote early Tuesday, the House passed a $24 billion budget adjustment package containing more than $600 million in tax cuts which Democrats heralded as “historic” and Republicans derided as temporary. Lawmakers voted 95 – 52 at around 12:20 a.m. to send the 673-page budget document to the Senate for consideration before the…
Keep reading
Budget Materials
The General Assembly is preparing to debate adjustments to the $24 billion state budget. Below are a few of the documents we’ve been provided as back-up materials. The budget, HB 5506. Town runs. Car tax impact on municipalities. Finance Committee Power Point.
Keep reading
Lawmakers May Vote for First Pay Increase in 20 Years
With legislative retirements mounting, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were considering Monday raising the salaries of General Assembly members for the first time in more than two decades and indexing their pay in the future. During a morning press briefing, House Speaker Matt Ritter told reporters that funding for pay raises had been…
Keep reading
Amid Surging Revenue, House Prepares to Vote on Budget Adjustments
Connecticut’s House of Representatives was expected to vote Monday on a $24 billion budget adjustment package, buoyed by revised revenue predictions that exceeded expectations by more than $350 million. The revised consensus figures released Monday confirm the surge in revenues that enabled Gov. Ned Lamont and legislative Democrats to reach an agreement last week on…
Keep reading
Dems Detail Budget Deal With $500 Mil in Tax Cuts, Extension of Gas Tax Holiday
Legislative Democrats and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration announced Wednesday the details of a $24.2 billion budget adjustment package, which they say provides around $500 million in tax relief including extending a gas tax holiday until December. Lamont and legislative leaders outlined the agreement during an afternoon press conference in the state Capitol building. Both chambers…
Keep reading
Health Care Workers Call for New Hires
After a record number of health care workers are expected to retire this year, health care staff called on Gov. Ned Lamont to commit to filling 1,000 vacant positions by August 1 of this year. A record 1,137 state workers who notified the state that they will retire this year comes at a moment of…
Keep reading
Senate Joins House And Votes To Give Raises, Bonuses To State Employees
The Senate gave final approval by a 22-13 vote on a plan to give unionized state workers a set of raises and bonuses. The plan, negotiated by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and a coalition of public sector labor unions, provides three years of 2.5% raises and step increases as well as a total of $3,500…
Keep reading
House Advances Labor Deal In Historic Vote
Lawmakers in Connecticut’s House of Representatives signed off on a plan to give state workers a set of raises and bonuses Thursday in a mostly partisan vote on a negotiated labor agreement. The House voted 96 to 52 in support of the deal with 1 Republican, Rep. Tom Delnicki of South Windsor, joining all Democrats…
Keep reading
Republicans Propose Last-Minute Tax Package
Legislative Republicans pitched a $1.2 billion tax relief plan Thursday which reduces state income, sales and gas taxes and proposes to join other states in suing the federal government to challenge restrictions on spending pandemic relief funds. House and Senate Republicans announced the plan during a state Capitol press conference Thursday morning. It cuts the…
Keep reading
The Budget Battle Begins To Take Shape
Tax collections have improved and pushed Connecticut’s budget surplus to $4 billion, but the state budget still relies heavily on federal funding and without it the state would end up running a “sizeable operating deficit.” The Office of Policy and Management told state Comptroller Natalie Braswell Wednesday that if not for the use of the…
Keep reading