Opinion: Transportation on the ballot - The Connecticut Mirror

The polls are open for early voting in Connecticut. And while the national and state races occupy most of voters’ attentions, there is one thing noticeably absent on their ballots: transportation.

“Transportation in Connecticut is like the weather,” said one cynic. “We all complain about it, but don’t think there’s much we can do to change it.”

Mind you, Connecticut voters have had ballot questions focused on transportation issues in the past. In 2018 they approved a Constitutional amendment to put a “lock box” on the Special Transportation Fund, hopefully guaranteeing that money raised through the gas tax is spent only on transportation, not treated as a petty cash box for legislators looking to balance the budget as it has been in the past.

That initiative was approved by an 88% margin.

But a September poll of Connecticut voters commissioned by the Connecticut Mirror showed that the economy was top-most on their list of worries along with immigration, housing and the deficit.

Of course, fixing our transportation woes is really just a matter of money and how to raise it. And with utility costs soaring (and the governor apparently unmoved by 68,000 petition signatures gathered to protest that issue), the idea of doing something like raising taxes doesn’t seem to be on the table in the Nutmeg state.

Not so, elsewhere. November’s ballot will see a number of such initiatives across the nation, totaling $50 billion in possible spending.

Take Nashville TN for example. That burgeoning city has some of the worst commuting delays in the U.S. While in 2018 a proposal to spend $5 billion on a transit system was defeated by a two to one margin, residents are reconsidering the idea this year. The new “Choose How You Move” plan would spend $3 billion on roads, traffic signals, pedestrian infrastructure and, yes, rails… using federal money and a half-cent sales tax.

Similarly fast-growing and gridlocked Phoenix AZ has had a half-cent sales tax for transportation for 40 years, allowing construction of its ambitious light rail system covering 30 miles and 40 stations connecting Phoenix to Tempe and Mesa. But that tax is set to expire next year if the upcoming November ballot question (to extend the tax another 20 years, raising $15 billion) doesn’t pass. Recent polling says it will.

In Seattle that city voted to tax its residents for transportation spending in 2006, 2015 and they’re back again. Seattle’s Proposition 1 would raise $1.55 billion over eight years through a property tax levy of about $44 a month for the typical home. Polling looks like it, too, will be approved.

While some cities turn to sales or property taxes to fund transportation, not so in Connecticut where we depend on “user fees” (gasoline taxes). But as more drivers convert to electric cars, a gas tax alone won’t cut it. We will have to find other funding sources… if there is any appetite for anything that raises the cost of living in our beautiful, but road-clogged state.