by Robert Burk

Created on: June 16, 2009   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

There are not many questions that can be answerd without considering the context, regardless how 'local' the issue appears to be. The question as to whether Connecticut should reinstate its tolls in order to fund road maintainence, could be answered by looking at Connecticut's tax base and the cost of road maintainence, thereby determining whether general revenues could handle the additional funding requirements. This does not answer or address the question whether general revenues should be used to maintain roads.

We could, of course argue back and forth about the rights and wrongs of toll roads. There is probably as much to be said for them, as against them but after all the comments have been tabled, how do we weigh the arguments; the pros and the cons? Do drivers have a right to unrestricted use of state roads? Are tolls an inconvenience; the benefits far outweighed by the cost of their operation and the disruption to the flow of traffic? Does society as a whole have a right to demand not to be taxed for a benefit that is enjoyed primarily by a segment of the population who should be able to pay their own way?

Certainly roads need constant repair and this is expensive. But this is the case with most infrastruture. Everything built slowly decays. The sewer system, electrical grid and water purification facilities are all in need of additional funding. But the money is not available. At the same time Connecticut is ranked third amongst all States in the level of taxation it endures. Tolls do not reduce the level of taxation but they tend to reduce the amounts of taxes that have to be collected generally. User fees such as tolls, help to reduce the frivilous use of resources. Services that are fully funded tend to be used more frequently than those where direct costs are applied.

Tolls are certainly not an untried technology, the I-95 has had tolls for years. Since this is an interstate used primarily by tourists, user funding seems to be the best way to go. Even though tourism brings a lot of money into the country, this income is not equally available to all.

By using tolls, the nation does not have to use taxes collected from States not benefiting from the tourist trade, to maintain a road used to ferry Canadians down South to Floida. But once we acede to the wisdom of tourists paying tolls then why shouldn't out-of-State drivers, like New Yorkers on the I-95, also pay? Isn't it an unfair burnden on the taxpayers of Connecticut to maintain roads for

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