Groundbreaking of the Busway

Politicians shoveled trap rock instead of dirt at the May 22 groundbreaking ceremony for the much-maligned New Britain to Hartford Busway project.

Fittingly it was trap rock.

In so many ways, we, the Connecticut taxpayers, are now trapped.

• Trapped for the next three years with a free spending governor.

• Trapped at least until November with a tax hiking legislature controlled by Democrats.

• And trapped for the foreseeable future with the ongoing bills to pay for the Busway. About $600,000,000 to build it. About $15,000,000 in taxpayer annual support. The 20-year total cost to taxpayers? We’re staring at a $1 billion bill before all is said and done.

At a mind-boggling cost of $1000-an-inch, all of that trap rock may as well be gold-nuggets. Newly rebranded "CTfastrak", the busway is now rolling along, full steam ahead.

"This is a great day," Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told reporters gathered at the trap rock photo op. Not so great in the eyes of the overtaxed public, however. Consider some of the scathing comments from taxpayers which came in response to the busway groundbreaking stories:

• "The groundbreaking should actually be considered a crime scene."

• "These pork projects are why the U.S. is in huge debt, spending our grandchildren’s money before it is earned. Shameful."

• "This is the Fastrak to financial disaster."

• "What a waste of our (taxpayers) money. The money could be better spent on fixing our aging highway infrastrucure."

• "CTfastrak to the poor house. Ten years from now we'll be reading about the DOT tearing up the Busway for some other mindless money pit of a project. Does anyone believe that this project will be up and running in early 2014 AND be at or under budget?"

Connecticut taxpayers are not a happy bunch. The trap rock tossing ceremony touched a nerve, and it appears people are not going to forget about it. Why?

• They are fed up with the unnecessary spending, the unnecessary borrowing and the rush toward this boondoggle.

• They realize Connecticut is heading down a wasteful, reckless path and they know that they will all be paying for it in higher and higher taxes.

• They swallowed last year’s largest tax hike in state history because Gov. Malloy and Democrats sold it as "shared sacrifice." They see their money being spent on the Busway instead of on our existing roads and bridges and they know they were lied to.

We are trapped now. We are bound to a very hungry white elephant which will travel between New Britain and Hartford every three to five minutes from 4:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. But we still have the power to escape.

Step one is simple, painless, and effective: Vote out this November all the Democratic state legislators and Democratic congressional delegation that supported Governor Malloy and pushed hard to fastrack this boondoggle.

Co-Authors Senator Joe Markley (R-Southington) and Representative Whit Betts (R-Bristol) also serve on the Appropriations Committee in the General Assembly.