Senate Republicans Also Have a Transportation Plan.

Senate Republicans will unveil their plan for transportation spending without tolls today at 11 a.m. The 14-member caucus has become an unexpected key element in pass a transportation plan as their Senate Democratic counterparts, with 22 members, have conditioned their support for a plan on bipartisan support.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) has immersed himself in transportation policy, especially funding sources. If the past is an indication of future performance, Fasano will be more conversant in transportation issues than most policymakers when he leads the released of the Republican plan.

This will be a time for choosing for Governor Ned Lamont and his new transportation guru, Ryan Drajewicz, his chief of staff. If the Senate Republican plan is a credible toll-free life line, Lamont and Drajewicz will have to decide if they should declare victory by putting together a bipartisan coalition to pass a plan without tolls or risk a damaging defeat by insisting Democratic legislators pass a tolls plan without Republican support.

Republican legislators’ opposition to tolls has grown more resolute as Lamont and Democratic legislative leaders isolated them from high profile issues during the legislative session earlier in the year. Republicans had no hand in the passage of increases in minimum wage, paid family and medical leave legislation, and Lamont’s first biennial budget.