While rising gasoline prices threaten Connecticut families’ summer travel plans, the trend is putting pressure on the state’s transportation program as well. Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget director said Thursday that certain gasoline and sales tax receipts could “soften” this summer if prices remain elevated or turn worse in the coming months. And a key business leader warned that the state’s transportation construction dollars likely won’t stretch as far, as the cost of diesel fuel, liquid asphalt and other petroleum-related products surge along with gasoline. “I think we are, unfortunately, all at the whims of the federal government and the decisions of our current president, and this is a situation where we are all suffering,” Lamont’s budget director, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Josh Wojcik, said Thursday. According to AAA, the average price of regular gasoline stood Friday at $4.55 nationally and $4.64 per gallon in Connecticut, with the latter up 60% since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran on Feb. 28. That created a brief surge in the state’s $2.3 billion Special Transportation Fund, thanks to a percentage-based tax that reflects changes in the wholesale price. But that tax also has a cap, which has been in effect since March 31. In other words, tax receipts from this source are maxed out — unless motorists start driving more. That’s unlikely given current prices, not to mention a new forecast posted Wednesday on X by GasBuddy. The popular gasoline price-forecasting service projected an average retail price nationally of $4.80 per gallon between Memorial Day and Labor Day, provided supply lines from the Persian Gulf remain blocked.
Higher gas prices could strain CT construction plans as diesel, asphalt prices surge
