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Toll Booths Proposed To Lower Gas Prices

Residents Say OK If Gas Prices Are Lowered

POSTED: 7:06 pm EDT July 9, 2008
UPDATED: 8:07 pm EDT July 9, 2008

Toll booths may be one way to lower the gas tax in Connecticut, and many residents have said they would be willing to pay the tolls if it means lowering the price of fuel.

“If it's going to bring the gas prices down, I'm for it,” said Mohegan Sun employee Nancy Lupienski.

Connecticut has the second highest gas tax in the U.S., second to California.

Democrat Thomas Gaffey said that if Connecticut residents want to bring the tax down, toll booths may be one way to make up the loss in revenue.

“Out-of-staters, truckers, go through,” he said. “We're the gateway between New York and Boston. (They) pay nothing because most of them don't fill up here, and our roads are ripped up, and they don't pay anything toward the maintenance of our roads and bridges.”

In the 1980s, the state ran toll plazas. During that time, the Department of Transportation said it counted about 37,000 vehicles a day on one stretch of Interstate 395. Almost 10 years later, after the plazas were removed, the department said, the traffic volume doubled.

But residents said that’s something to worry about later. They said residents need relief now.

“I think the tolls work,” said Waterford resident Eileen Keity. “New Jersey gas is cheaper. They pump it for you, and they have tolls.”

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