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Highway tolls might stem some of the budgetary bleeding and help control traffic in Connecticut, but the state's money problems are far more fundamental. If anything, the state has such a rampant history of recent corruption that they might actually save a ton more money by not breaking the law or funneling money to lobbying interests. Some examples:

- 2004: Governor John Rowland had to resign after investigations discovered that he received gifts and free vacations from lobbying firms in return for steering state contracts towards those firms, which weren't necessarily qualified for the work they received funding to do.

- 2005: Ernie Newton, a state senator, reportedly accepted multiple bribes in exchange for state bonding. Once found out, he was forced to resign.

- 2006: An audit of a faulty construction project on Interstate 84 revealed that the construction company improperly installed storm drains, with many either leading nowhere or blocked with sand. Light fixtures along the project route also had faulty construction and some even fell onto the highway as a result. The structural integrity of an overpass was also called into question due to improper construction. The state filed suited against L.G. DeFelice Construction for their mishandling of the expensive project, and Connecticut's DOT is also under investigation over the bidding and oversight process.

- 2007: An investigation revealed that State Senator Thomas Gaffey steered a $1 billion bonding proposal towards the Connecticut State University system in part because Gaffey was dating a university official lobbying for the proposal.

This never minds State Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca's connections with the Mafia, Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi's cocaine problem, U.S. Senate candidate Phillip Giordano's pedophilia problem being discovered during a wiretap as part of a corruption investigation or Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez's ties to a city contractor possibly influencing his policy decisions. Connecticut has seen so much political corruption that it's almost a way of life in Hartford.

Even after a campaign finance reform bill passed the state legislature, the fundamental problems of corruption motivating State and Local policy in Connecticut remains. You can do all you can to find new revenue streams, such as tolls, but if you're only going to funnel that new revenue into pet projects for your friends, boosters and colleagues, many of whom aren't the best resources for the job, then you're only going to run into more problems that require more money.

When a person can't make ends meet on a full time salary, they could get a second job, but it makes more sense to look at their budget and lifestyle to find expensive spending habits they can remove to save money. Paring down your budget often makes more sense than trying to make more money, because if you get another job or a raise, that money usually goes down the hatch to feed those problematic spending habits just like the rest.

Likewise, Connecticut may be looking for ways to fund projects like their ambitious universal health care plan. But they do themselves much more good to take a look at their budget, figure out which projects are favors of corrupt political relationships, and cut those out, plus scrutinizing much more closely any subsequent proposals. They may be surprised how much money they save by not spending their money on their friends.

Learn more about this author, Steven Gomez.
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