The Assembly plan also relies on the road sale and utility tax to balance its budget.

The state would also add $620 million in revenues by speeding up the collection of utility taxes.

We have utility taxes on top of the property.

Eliminating the city's utility tax would cost the city $219 million a year.

The utility tax is charged to companies that until recently had monopolies in electric or natural gas services.

Some municipal officials oppose the bill because almost $700 million of the current utility tax goes to towns.

Under state law, utility taxes are passed on directly to customers.

But in recent years, a succession of governors have used the surplus from the utility tax to feather their own budgets.

Much of the construction was financed by collecting already-set-in-place utility taxes over the years and wise saving.

Voters had previously rejected a raise in their utility tax, so the delay in building was a matter of finding funding.