(WTIC-AM) -- Standing near the I-84 viaduct in Hartford today, Governor Ned Lamont made the case for tolls as a way to pay for transportation projects.
"To expand tolling to cars as well as trucks, that would allow us the money long-term, not just to rebuild the viaduct, but to rebuild the I-95 I-91 corridor, to speed up transportation, to get cars off the road," Lamont said.
During the campaign, Lamont discussed collecting tolls on trucks.
But he now says lawyers have told him that truck tolls might only be allowed on roads and bridges that are being rebuilt.
Lamont now says truck tolls would bring in too little revenue to upgrade the state's transportation system.
The president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association says tolls will help the state maintain its transportation system in the long run.
But at the same time, Association President Donald Shubert is concerned that another Lamont plan -- reducing borrowing through a 'debt diet' -- would short-change needed transportation projects in the near term.
Republican lawmakers have expressed opposition to tolls.
