Affordability of Malloy’s transportation plan questioned

[NutmegYankee]

Hartford — Connecticut's lingering budget problems are prompting questions about whether the state can afford Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed 20-year, $100 billion plan to overhaul aging roads, bridges and rail lines.

Despite calls to put "people before projects" — a phrase used by family members of the intellectually disabled who are worried about Malloy's midyear budget cuts to human services — the Democratic governor is standing by his massive initiative.

He contends people don't understand how years of underinvesting in transportation have harmed the state economically.

"I think people seize arguments to try to bolster the point that they want make without examining the consequences of a lack of investment," he said in an interview with The Associated Press, adding how the traffic congestion cost in Connecticut is $4.2 billion annually.
http://www.theday.com/state-news/20151017/affordability-of-malloys-transportation-plan-questioned

*sigh* You'd think a state as wealthy as ours could get this done.

[Chan790]

1. I think the transportation plan isn't just good, it's necessary.

If it's going to be cut anywhere...it needs to be in roads...which is where it is least likely to be cut. CT has an opportunity to be a national leader on public transit and transit-integrated "smart-growth" development; we need to take it. It will revitalize this state and attract businesses along with next-generation and future-technologies workers to the state.

Our insurance industry is drying up and moving out of state. So is our financial industry. Defense jobs have been fleeing CT for the "right-to-work" (for less) South for 30 years. We need to attract new industries and employers to CT. Transit will do that. Hell, making a major transit commitment might attract mass transit manufacturers to CT...we have the workforce (from EB, UTC and others) and our location is prime for it because of our central location to the metropolitan Eastern Seaboard. (Sorry, IL, OH, MI...we can and should "steal" your mass-transit manufacturing industry.)