Meanwhile, the CT Transportation Strategy Board has to wait for the state budget to be passed before its 20-year plan can be considered by the full General Assembly.

But it is still not clear how the recommendations of the Strategy Board will be funded. Even though the TSB spent two years developing the plan, funding mechanisms have not yet been established. According to the Stamford Advocate, Senate President Sullivan and Speaker of the House Moira Lyons recently appointed a seven-person committee to study funding mechanisms for the plan, and evaluate provisions that could prevent it from being approved by the General Assembly. The Committee will include Economic Development, Transportation, and Planning representatives, along with elected official Andrew McDonald (D-Stamford).

Transit advocates and environmental groups have said that the TSB’s plan is too focused on highways and fails to identify sprawl development as the root source of much of CT’s traffic growth. However, it seems that the legislative bill that would approve the TSB’s recommendations (HB 6671) may be slightly more transit-oriented than the original plan.

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