Letter to the editor from Mike Bocchino, former State Rep (R-150)
Dear Editor,
Reading Jim Cameron’s latest insulting piece on the impending tolls proposal (Getting There: Tolls drive new crusade for former CT lawmakers) makes us wonder exactly what or whom he is advocating for these days. Is he advocating for transportation advancements, commuters or Democrats?
Either way his frustrations in his inability to actually make a difference in any conversation of substance regarding transportation has resulted in his belittling and insulting of residents and former legislative representatives of this great state by calling them Trolls and Zombies. More troubling is the fact that the CtPost and the Greenwich Time allow this fodder to be printed.
What Mr. Cameron refuses to believe is that many residents, Republican, Democrats, Independents and Unaffiliated, are against tolling (taxing) our highways.
The accusation that former Senator, Scott Frantz, is behind an anti tolling movement in Greenwich is false. Is he against tolling? Absolutely! If Mr. Cameron did his homework and reported facts he would know that Patrick Sasser is the brilliant architect of NO Tolls CT and we thank him for that.
Mr. Cameron also references in his insulting article the 88% of CT residents who voted for the special transportation fund (STF) lock box.
He states that they did so because they acknowledged that we need to raise revenue and tolls are not a tax but a user fee. Uhhhh WRONG! The voters were tired of countless Governors raiding the STF and diverting those revenues to the general fund to balance their budgets.
Unfortunately the referendum that the Democratic majority put on the 2017 ballot is not a true lock box. It read as follows: “Amendment 1 required that all revenue placed in the state’s Special Transportation Fund (STF) be used for transportation purposes, including the payment of transportation-related debts.”
The issue is “all revenue placed in” it never specified that all transportation revenue obtained would automatically go into the STF. Only that those already placed in the SPTF would. So don’t be surprised when this or any Gov. still diverts monies before they go in to the STF.
Tolls are a TAX, nothing more. Mr. Cameron can call it a user fee or anything else. He can call us Zombies and Trolls or whatever makes him feel adequate because the people of CT understand it’s simply another TAX. They just want to be heard and not insulted by so called advocates who bring nothing to the table but negativity and name calling.
Mike Bocchino
Former State Rep. 150th District