YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” JAMES MADISON FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
State may get Will pushes rational conservatism highway tolls BY JACOB WOLF-SOROKIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
BY PATRICK CASEY STAFF REPORTER Drivers in Connecticut may soon face tolls for the first time since the 1980s. Following a seven-fatality crash at a toll booth in 1983, Connecticut began a complete phase-out of its highway tolls. By 1987, the state was completely toll-free, and it compensated for lost revenues by hiking gasoline taxes. Now, as the state faces severe fiscal pressure and several expensive transportation infrastructure projects, State Rep. Patricia Dillon, D-New Haven, is attempting to bring tolls back to Connecticut roads. “We have massive needs in transportation,“ Dillon said. “Even if you just look in New Haven … we don’t have enough mass transit, and our roads are in terrible condition.” Dillon said she is concerned increasing fuel efficiency is eating into state revenues from the gasoline taxes. She added that without additional revenue, Connecticut is vulnerable to federal spending cuts on transportation. Connecticut is more reliant on federal funding for its highways than any other state, according to a study by the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Dillon explained that the state needs to invest more of its own money in routine road upkeep and larger transportation projects. Proposals to reinstate tolls on Connecticut roads face significant opposition, however. Last summer, the state Senate passed a bill to allow tolls on Route 11 to fund the road’s expansion to Waterford, but the bill was killed in the House. Auto-services group AAA Southern New England, which lobbies for motorists, opposes collecting tolls on any already existing roads. Fran Mayko, a spokeswoman for AAA, said, “I
CONNECTICUT H I G H WAY TOLLS Connecticut has not collected any highway tolls since 1987. Now, some legislators want to re-establish tolls. Connecticut receives about $500 million in federal transportation funding each year. Per capita, this is more than any other state in New England. Connecticut collects a flat tax of $0.25 on each gallon of gas sold in the state. It also applies a 7.53 percent tax on each gallon of gas sold. The latter tax, however, is capped when the price of gasoline reaches $3.00.
know the state is in dire straits here with a budget problem, and I know a lot of lawmakers feel that [tolls] are one way to raise money, we just don’t feel it’s the appropriate way.” The state government has routinely borrowed from its Special Transportation Fund, which finances state transportation infrastructure and upkeep, in order to balance its overall budget. AAA, however, opposes this practice, blaming such budgetary practices in part for the state’s current transportation funding problems. R e p . D a v i d S c r i b n e r, R-Brookfield, the ranking Republican member of the House’s Transportation Committee and Transportation Bonding Subcommittee, has played a major role in opposing new highway tolls. He said toll booths still create hazardous driving conditions, as not every car is equipped with devices to pay electronically. Scribner added that tolls, especially at the border, will discourage residents of other states from coming to Connecticut to shop and do business. “It is clearly a disincentive for out-of-state people to come to Connecticut. I think that works against all of our other efforts to create job growth, to encourage people to come as consumers to the state of Connecticut,” Scribner said. Scribner contested Dillon’s assertion that gasoline tax revenues have fallen as fuel efficiency has increased. He also noted that gasoline is taxed more heavily in Connecticut than almost anywhere else in the nation. The Nutmeg State has two gasoline taxes: one flat, $0.25 per gallon charge levied when consumers fill up their car, and one 7.53 percent tax levied on wholesalers. Although the latter is capped when gasoline exceeds $3.00 per gallon, the rate is scheduled to increase to 8.81 percent in July of this year. Scribner said Connecticut will have to forgo federal highway funding if it chooses to implement tolls. “[The federal government] has strongly adhered to a policy of discouraging tolling at the national level. … It is certain that [implementing tolls] would reduce our federal transportation funding which, by the way, approaches $500 million per year. Virtually every transportation improvement project in Connecticut is supported nearly 80 percent by federal funds.” Dillon said that there are ways around the federal requirements. She noted that the federal government is the one paying for the bulk of the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s ongoing study to determine the feasibility of implementing tolls in the state. “Many states have tolls in very targeted ways and don’t miss their federal dollars,” she said. According to The Wall Street Journal, gasoline in Connecticut cost an average of $3.90 per gallon in 2012. It tied New York in
Describing Ann Coulter as an “enemy” to the pursuit of an intellectual brand of conservatism, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will delivered an impassioned defense of the right in America Thursday afternoon. Sponsored by the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program, the talk was titled “Up From Liberalism, Yet Again” and drew hearty applause from the audience, which included roughly 150 students, professors and community members in Linsly-Chittenden Hall. Will, whose biweekly column runs in The Washington Post and is syndicated in about 400 publications throughout the country, argued for conservative ideology and sought to inspire young conservatives in the audience. During his talk, Will advocated for a rational brand of conservatism founded in federalist virtues dating to the country’s founding. “American politics today is very much a continuation of the argument that the founders had,” Will said. “The story of American politics today is the rivalry of two Princetonians.” Will framed the major tension in American politics as one between James Madison, the Federalist president and a Princeton alumnus, who sought to prevent majority tyranny by ensuring government is made up of an unstable amalgamation of minority parties, and Woodrow Wilson, the progressive president and former leader of Princeton University, who laid the foundation for modern progressivism through his belief in a more unified government for a more unified society. The nation is embroiled in a debate over whether “government exists with limited powers to secure our rights” or whether it has huge powers “to metastasize and intervene in every facet of
JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Columnist George Will advocated for a rational brand of conservatism in a Thursday afternoon talk. life,” Will said. “When you hear it said that government is dysfunctional, the system that Madison designed is working,” Will said. “The American system is designed to make people wait until concurrent majorities [exist] because we want a government safe in securing our rights.” Often described as the poet laureate of the conservative movement, Will pushed his audience to consider the role government plays in shaping the habits, customs and dispositions of its citizens. The advent of new technology, from the telegraph to the television and Internet, has drastically changed the game of politics, Will said. Arguing that academia and the media are on the side of the liberals, Will expressed confidence
that conservatives will be able to limit government because of the “arithmetic,” or the lack of fiscal sustainability of government programs like Social Security.
When you hear it said that government is dysfunctional, the system that Madison designed is working. GEORGE F. WILL Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist But Will did not shirk from the challenges facing the conservative movement, including appealing to
a wider subset of voters. Students interviewed said they enjoyed Will’s talk and found his message resonant. Konrad Coutinho ’13 said he appreciated that Will shared his belief that the country’s founders intended Washington to encounter its modern dysfunction, adding that such arguments are generally unpopular on campus. Carolyn Hansen ’16, a Buckley Program fellow, said she thinks Will’s rational ideals appeal to Yale’s conservatives. “He is an example of what most conservatives at Yale are striving for,” she said. Will has been syndicated since 1974. Contact JACOB WOLF-SOROKIN at jacob.wolf-sorokin@yale.edu .