Alders Endorse Regional Climate Pact

The Board of Alders set Connecticut’s Democratic governor and top state legislators a challenge Thursday: Find a way to make fuel sellers — and not the poor and working class — pay for transportation-related carbon emissions, and help save cities like New Haven from bearing the brunt of climate change and air pollution.

Alders issued that environmental-and-tax-policy call to arms Thursday in the form of a resolution supporting the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI).

Following the lead of Downtown/Yale Alder Eli Sabin, who introduced the resolution, alders voted unanimously in support of urging Gov. Ned Lamont and the Connecticut General Assembly to ​“support a legislative package that both enters Connecticut into the TCI compact and creates progressive financial offsets for low- and middle-income Connecticut families.”

They took that vote during the full board’s latest in-person meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

Click here to read Sabin’s resolution in full.

TCI is the proposed interstate ​“cap-and-invest” program that would have fuel suppliers buy permits for pollution stemming from the fuel they sell. The state would invest those proceeds in more sidewalks, bike lanes, electric buses, and other transportation infrastructure projects — particularly in cities like New Haven, which are ​“overburdened by air pollution or underserved by the transportation system.”

State Republicans and the fuel supply industry have roundly condemned TCI as a new ​“gas tax.” Meanwhile, the interstate environmental pact has languished in Connecticut to date largely because of disputes between the state’s Democratic governor and its Democratic state legislative leaders.

Gov. Ned Lamont has heartily endorsed the program, and signed a tentative agreement with Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C. New Haven State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney has criticized the program for potentially having a ​“regressive financial effect” by foisting higher gas prices on low-income drivers. He has signaled his and his colleagues’ potential support for TCI if packaged with progressive tax adjustments. Lamont, meanwhile, has repeatedly refused throughout his first term in office to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Sabin and his local legislative colleagues sought to do their part to clear that logjam Thursday by throwing their support behind TCI — with progressive financial offsets. Sabin said such progressive tax changes could include an increase to the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, or a subsidized rate structure that lowers electricity costs for low-income families.

The climate-change and air-pollution stakes, meanwhile, are too high to let TCI fall by the wayside, he argued.

He said that New Haven is the ​“fifth most challenging city to live in for people with asthma in the United States,” according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. And that asthma-related health issues send 1,600 New Haveners every year to the hospital.

Since the transportation sector makes up 38 percent of Connecticut’s greenhouse gas emissions, he said, and since the program as currently envisioned would raise an estimated $1 billion over 10 years for the State’s Special Transportation Fund, joining TCI would be a critical step towards mitigating the ravages of climate change.

“As a coastal community in New Haven, it’s important to take as much action as we can to protect our city from increased flooding and worse storms going forward,” he said.

East Rock Alder Charles Decker agreed, emphasizing the necessity of regional collaboration to address an issue as border-transcending as climate change.

“Connecticut cannot mitigate the impacts of climate change, which are getting worse every year, by itself,” he said. ​“Not even close. Connecticut can take a very serious step right now and help lead.”

East Rock Alder and City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee Chair Anna Festa called on the governor and state legislative leaders to heed New Haven’s call on TCI.

Since 50 percent of the money raised through TCI will go towards communities like New Haven, she said, ​“TCI will bring jobs, cleaner air, and better infrastructure to our city.”

“Passing this resolution tells our state leaders how important TCI is for our community.”

Reached for comment Friday morning, Looney praised the alders, and Sabin in particular, for passing a resolution that put dual emphasis on the environmental benefits of joining TCI and on the economic necessity of progressive tax offsets.

“I’m hopeful that we’re making progress on it,” Looney said about the state legislature’s ongoing negotiations with the Lamont Administration around the regional climate pact. ​“I think it’s important from the point of view of someone who represents an urban constituency” to ensure that joining such a pact would not hurt the pocketbooks of low- and middle-income drivers.

Looney said that there is ​“broadbased support” in the state’s legislature’s Democratic caucuses for ​“the TCI concept.” ​“The problem was the regressive nature of the funding source that might result in a gas tax increase of” between 5 cents and 9 cents. ​“We wanted to see some parallel progressive revenue ideas to be packaged with TCI.”

During his most recent conversations with administration representatives about TCI, Looney said, he has pushed for a few such progressive tax ideas, including a tax credit on the state income tax for low and moderate income people to offset the gas tax increase; a more progressive rate structure on electric bills, like what Massachusetts currently has; and even a focus on ​“additional revenue gains from wealthy individuals who may be major stockholders in gas and oil companies,” if possible.

He said Thursday night’s Board of Alders resolution bolsters his caucus’s push for a TCI package that mitigates pollution and doesn’t raise taxes on low income people. That’s the overall goal of his ongoing negotiations with the Lamont Administration, he said. And New Haven’s local legislative voice can only help make that push a bit stronger.