How Should Connecticut Pay for Maintaining I-95, I-91, I-84 and the Parkways?

When I moved to Connecticut in 1975, the Connecticut Turnpike and the Merritt Parkway both had tollbooths.  Some years ago, after a terrible accident in which a dozing truckdriver rear-ended cars waiting to pay their toll at Stratford, killing passengers in at least one car, the toll booths were removed.

Now the state, like most others, is strapped for cash, and there are calls to again use tolls to help pay for the roads.  But there is a noisy constituency which resists tolls.

Connecticut has among the highest taxes on gasoline in the US, and also the highest pump prices.  According to  http://www.connecticutgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx, we pay 62.5¢/g [cents per gallon] on gasoline, and 61.4¢/g on diesel.  California's are the highest at 63.9 and 72.0¢/g (necessitated in part, I'm sure, by California's 30 year old Proposition 13 which keeps the property taxes of old-timers to a minute fraction of 1% of the property's market value).  Alaska's are the lowest, at 26.4 and 32.4¢/g.  (These include Federal excise taxes of 18.4¢/g for gasoline and 24.4¢/g for diesel.)

Here are the surrounding states:

	Gasoline tax per gallon (cents)	Diesel tax per gallon (cents)
Connecticut	62.5¢	61.4¢
Massachusetts	41.9	47.9
Rhode Island	49.4	55.4
New York	59.6	64.7
New Jersey	32.9	41.9
Pennsylvania	50.7	63.6
Vermont	38.4	50.4
New Hampshire	38.0	44.0

Why did I list so many states? Because 18-wheelers have large fuel tanks -- as much as 300 gallon capacity.  That gives them the option to fill them when prices are good, and avoid buying in states with high prices.   At 5 mpg, 300 gallons gives a 1,500 mile range.

Here are two tables from http://www.icpa.org/consumer_motor.htm showing Connecticut's prices compared to nearby states.  First gasoline:

State	State Excise Tax	Other State Taxes	Federal Tax	Total Taxes Per Gallon	AAA Average Retail Price/Regular Gasoline - 5/8/09	Retail Price Minus Government Taxes
NY	$0.0805	$0.3204	$0.1840	$0.5849	$2.29	$1.71
CT	$0.2500	$0.1242	$0.1840	$0.5582	$2.28	$1.72
RI	$0.2700	$0.0400	$0.1840	$0.4940	$2.19	$1.70
ME	$0.2460	$0.0150	$0.1840	$0.4450	$2.20	$1.76
MA	$0.2100	$0.0250	$0.1840	$0.4190	$2.13	$1.71
NH	$0.1800	$0.0260	$0.1840	$0.3900	$2.09	$1.70
VT	$0.1900	$0.0100	$0.1840	$0.3840	$2.11	$1.73
NJ	$0.1050	$0.0400	$0.1840	$0.3290	$2.02	$1.69

And then Diesel:  

State	State Excise Tax	Other State Taxes	Federal Tax	Total Taxes Per Gallon	AAA Average Retail Price/Diesel Fuel - 5/8/09	Retail Price Minus Government Taxes
NY	$0.0850	$0.3230	$0.2440	$0.6520	$2.61	$1.96
CT**	$0.4340		$0.2440	$0.6780	$2.60	$1.92
RI	$0.3000	$0.0100	$0.2440	$0.5540	$2.47	$1.92
VT	$0.2500	$0.0100	$0.2440	$0.5040	$2.45	$1.95
MA	$0.2100	$0.0250	$0.2440	$0.4790	$2.42	$1.94
ME	$0.2880	$0.0700	$0.2440	$0.6020	$2.41	$1.81
NH	$0.1800	$0.0160	$0.2440	$0.4400	$2.27	$1.83
NJ	$0.1350	$0.0400	$0.2440	$0.4190	$2.22	$1.80

Long haul truckers can save nearly 40 cents per gallon by buying their diesel in New Jersey.  So the effect of collecting 43 cents per gallon for CT compared to NJ's 13.5 cents is to shift the cost of paying for CT's highways onto CT's short-haul truckers, who seldom leave the state.  Long-haul gets a free ride.

"Never tax anything
That would be of value to your State,
That could and would run away, or
That could and would come to you."

For several years, I made a weekly trip from southwestern Connecticut to suburban Philadelphia.  I'd fill my gas tank at Ft. Lee, NJ, in the morning, and again as I returned.  I seldom bought any gas in Connecticut.  Most drivers of passenger cars don't have that opportunity.  But trucks certainly do.  I paid a lot of tolls, and always thought I was getting a good deal. 

Back to the subject of tolls: Connecticut has two main east-west interstates: I-95, which runs along the southern tier, and I-84, which runs from Danbury at the west, through Hartford and then northeast to meet up with the Massachusetts Turnpike en route to Boston.  We charge tolls on none of them.   Let's look at what some nearby states charge.

Massachusetts  Exit 1 to 14 (Stockbridge to Route 128/I-95)  120 miles  Auto:  $2.70; Truck 5 axles  $15.15;  Bus: 3 axles  $7.15

New Jersey: Exit 1 to 18: 113 miles  

• Auto: Cash $9.05;   EZPass weekday off peak $6.80; EZPass weekend and peak $9.05
• Truck, Class T2: Cash $18.60;  EZPass weekday off peak $16.15; EZPass weekend and peak $17.00
• Truck, Class T6: Cash $37.15;  EZPass weekday off peak $32.25.15; EZPass weekend and peak $33.95
• Bus: Cash $14.35;  EZPass $13.10 at all times

Garden State Parkway: 172 miles, $3.50

PA Turnpike: end to end 358 miles.

• Passenger car: $24.70 plus $3.75 for the Delaware River Bridge
• Truck Class 3 with 4 axles: $45.00 plus $11.25 for bridge [15,000 to 19,000 pounds]
• Truck Class 5 with 4 axles: $73.75 and $18.75 for bridge  [30,000 to 45,000 pounds]
• Truck Class 8 with 4 axles: $175.00 plus $18.75 for bridge  [80,000 to 100,000 pounds]

PA I-80:  PA proposes to put in "Open Road Tolling," which will not charge passenger vehicles until they pass the second collection point, which is expected to exempt 70% of all cars entering and exiting I-80.  Gantries will be placed approximately every 30 miles.

Car rate in 2010: $0.08 per mile; 5-axle trucks $0.30 per mile = $25 and $93 for the entire length of I-80 in PA.

Suppose Connecticut charged trucks $0.30 per mile on I-95.  The distance is 112 miles.  That would be $33.60 from every truck.  To collect $33.60 in state taxes via a state tax of .43 per gallon of diesel, we'd need to sell an average of 78 gallons of diesel fuel to each trucker passing through.   At 5 mpg, a through truck uses 22 gallons to get across CT, and that represents less than 10% of a full tank.

It seems to me that imposing a toll on CT's major highways, at least for trucks, makes a lot of sense. 

And my opinion is that cars ought to pay tolls as well, particularly at rush hour.  I'm intrigued by the I-80 approach, exempting some drivers, particularly off-peak.  By shifting some users away from rush hour use of the roads, we may be able to make travel much smoother for all.  EZPass technology makes this very doable.  (Economics Nobel prize winner Bill Vickrey anticipated EZPass, and saw how it could be used to make things work better.)

I don't think we ought to be asking drivers who live far from our major highways and who never use them to finance the main roads, particularly if we don't ask those who do use them to pay for them.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, large trucks do about 6 times the damage that a passenger car does.  Do we want to provide a free ride to those trucks?

User fees seem eminently logical and just.  Gas and diesel taxes can be part of that picture, but tolls should also be used.

Comments

[Sandi]

to LVTfan:
Some of the info posted here previously is misleading, erroneous, and not true.

The comparison of average diesel to gas prices in CT is misleading. A big rig can't get into fueling stations like those posted at the connecticutgasprices.com website - they are stuck with filling up at truck stops where the price can be $1.00+ higher/gal. When gas prices were $3.00, diesel at the truck stops was over $4.00 ... $4.50 at some. It reached over $5.00/gal last year.

The statement that truckers fill 300 gal tanks (most are smaller) in a cheap state and get a free ride in CT is simply NOT TRUE.
No matter where a trucker fills, he/she pays for every mile driven in CT. CT charges trucks for highway use through the IRP (International Registration Plan) and IFTA (International Fuel Tax Agreement) programs - something that non truckers are not subject to.

CT IRP registration costs about $1,550.00 every year per big rig. Even if a rig is not registered in CT as its home state, CT gets a portion according to miles driven in CT. What does car registration cost every year?

IFTA filings are required and taxes are paid every quarter for ALL miles traveled by big rigs in CT, no matter where truckers buy diesel. This can easily come to $5,000 in IFTA taxes per year and up that CT gets for every big rig that travels in CT.
CT IFTA charges are about the highest in the US at $.434 for every gallon of diesel fuel USED in CT. Big rigs get around 5 mi./gal. That is a lot of fuel for many more miles traveled than any car in CT! This gets both CT truckers as well as interstate truckers who travel into CT, no matter where the fuel is purchased. Gas powered cars get around 20 mi./gal. and do not have to file and pay IFTA taxes for mileage driven in CT, no matter where they fill. Maybe they should be included!

So, imposing a toll on CT's major highways, at least for trucks, DOES NOT make a lot of sense, since these revenues are already collected via IFTA & IRP. It would be a triple tax on truckers who already pay for using the highways. The suggestion that trucks be charged $.30 per mile tolls more is outrageous - truck freight paying $1.50 (average of loaded and non-loaded miles)- or so per mile would not be able to cover it since there is only about $.33 - $.35 per mile currently left to the trucker as income ! Leave it to someone who knows nothing about the trucking industry to come up with that one !

Many CT truckers cross our borders and use I-91, I95, I84 etc. several times in a day back and forth; the tolls would be a real killer! In order to avoid these tolls - as is happening in other states where they exist, truckers use alternate routes that were not built for the traffic which causes local problems.

Every year truckers also pay a Federal Highway Use tax of $550.00 per truck.

Truckers already contribute in a huge way to state highway support, many times more than a 4 wheel gasser owner!

As far as the claim from the Congressional Budget Office that trucks do about 6 times the damage to roads as cars: it is not from any scientific study. It is an arbitrary figure - a guestimate. While cars distribute weight over 4 wheels, big rigs distribute weight over 18 wheels, so there is not a lot difference.

While diesel prices and taxes have increased greatly over the past several years, the freight rates have been stagnant, so truckers are already bearing an unfair burden compared to the general public.

TRUCKERS HAVE BEEN UNDESERVEDLY SEEN AS, AND USED AS, CASH COWS WHEN STATES WANT MORE MONEY - IT MUST BE STOPPED !

These truck owner operators work over 80 per wk and clear about $20 - 30,000 after trucking expenses (and no health insurance) if they are lucky and don't have to replace a rig for over $125,000 (expected life is little over 5 or 6 years). They also have to pay twice as much in social security and medicare taxes since they must pay the employers part.

Other reasons not to install tolls:
Wasn't one of the reasons to push removal of toll booths the horrid fiery crash that killed some people when a truck couldn't slow down at the toll plaza?

What about Federal funding? There were issues in the past of losing that if we were to reinstall tolls ... especially on roads that were already paid for.

We cannot afford the costs up front now for a toll program, nor the continuing costs.

How about raising the gas tax and the income tax on adjusted gross income over $50,000 (graduated of course)?

If CT needs to install tolls - how about doing it on the roads outside of the casinos where a lot of disposable income goes?

Cut Amtrack subsidies.
How much of the taxes from our truckers and others is funding Amtrack which comparatively few CT residents use?

Don't keep looking to truckers to support the state of CT. They already do much more than their fair share and are way overburdened already. Unfortunately, the lawmakers and tax people, as well as the general public, don't know or understand the trucking industry and it's financial situation/burden.

Over the years, the money collected from trucking that was supposed to go toward highway maintenance, improvements etc., has been taken and used for other programs and things totally unrelated.

The trucking industry is the biggest and most important industry in the country - bailout time?

[Yachtcharter Griechenland]

I was just thinking about How Should Connecticut Pay for Maintaining I-95, I-91, I-84 and the Parkways and you've really helped out. Thanks!