Legislative Watch 
LEGISLATIVE
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7/8/05-Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law July 7 a 10-year, $1.3 billion plan to combat gridlock on Connecticut’s roads and improve rail service in the state.
The transportation improvement plan won nearly unanimous support in the Legislature late last month during a special session to hammer out a deal.
The legislation, SB2000, includes $667 million to purchase 342 new passenger rail cars in the next decade – an effort to improve service and entice commuters out of their vehicles and off congested highways.
It also includes $300 million for new rail maintenance facilities; $187 million for improvements in congested stretches of Interstate 95; $150 million to help upgrade I-94 and I-84; and $7.5 million for new transit buses.
Financing for the plan will come from special tax obligation bonds, a $1 surcharge on the New Haven line from January 2008 through June 2015 and an increased gross earning tax on companies distributing petroleum products.
Those products include gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, kerosene, benzol, distillate fuels and crude oil.
