684 Toll Plan Adds Unwarranted Financial Burden: Bill Mooney

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed plan to charge tolls to people who pass through a very short stretch of Greenwich while driving on Interstate 684, which is mostly in New York, will add an unwarranted financial burden to hundreds of thousands of people in our region.

Lamont notes that a bridge over the Byram River in that vicinity of I-684 in Connecticut is in need of repairs. We support improvements in infrastructure to ensure safe roads and bridges — but we also know that Connecticut already has a gasoline tax and other revenue streams it can use to cover the costs of these improvements.

Just because the legislators of Connecticut have chosen to earmark those funds for other purposes, doesn’t mean they should add another tax to commuters and motorists in New York to compensate for those decisions. Doing so would be robbing from Peter to pay Paul. The people of our region deserve better.

These kinds of additional taxes increase costs for employers and employees alike, which affects the costs of goods and services for all of us and has a negative impact on spending and our overall local economic development.

Connecticut legislators should not support Lamont’s currently proposed plan.

The writer is president and CEO of the Westchester County Association.