Government & Politics
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

‘No Way That Toll Money Won’t Be Misused’ — Nobody Trusts Hartford: Cameron on Transportation

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Nobody trusts Hartford. If cynicism is a disease, we’re in the midst of an epidemic. Since last fall, I’ve been touring the state speaking to groups large and small about Connecticut’s transportation crisis, about the $5 billion we need to just get Metro-North back in a state of good repair, about the hundreds of deficient bridges and potholed highways, and and about the futility of depending mostly on the gasoline tax to fund long-needed repairs. And when I got to the part in my talk pitching what I see as the necessity of tolls, safeguarded in the recently approved Special Transportation Lockbox, most audiences turned on me. While there were a few true-believers who trust in the state’s role in keeping our transportation in a state of good repair, the vast majority in my readers don’t believe the State Transportation Fund (STF) is truly locked.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Colorful Comments from Curmudgeonly Commuters : Cameron on Transportation

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As I hope you can tell, I love writing this column. As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman once said, a commentator should be in the heating business and the lighting business — getting people fired up while providing factual support for his arguments. The comments I receive from readers each week reminds me that heat runs both ways. Here are some of the recent highlights:

When I wrote about the power failures on Metro-North, user cantchangestupid commented on the column: “I sure hope a thorough investigation gets done on why those transformers failed. I see sabotage as the democratic conclusion.” Gee, and I thought I was cynical.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Trouble for Tolls: Cameron in Transportation

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Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling plan is in trouble. I knew it when I recently got a call from Dan Malloy. The former governor and I know each other going back to his days as mayor of Stamford, but he’s only called me once before (many years ago when he sought my endorsement in his run for a second term as governor). This time he was calling about my recent column on the Transportation Strategy Board, the panel tasked 18 years ago with prioritizing our state’s transportation needs and how to pay for them. It wasn’t my fawning over then-TSB Chairman Oz Griebel that prompted Malloy’s recent call.