Officials debate whether Crescent City Connection tolls used to
leverage unrelated projects  The Crescent City Connection.
(Photo by / The Times-Picayune) Follow on Twitter on March 01,
2013 at 4:08 PM, updated March 01, 2013 at 4:41 PM  An article
suggesting that $11.2 million in Crescent City Connection tolls
was leveraged to provide funding for unrelated transportation
projects has stoked the ire of toll opponents who are demanding
a full accounting. The money, deposited in the Capital Outlay
Escrow Fund, is part of a $31 million balance left in a trust
used to pay debts on the bridge.  State transportation officials
disputed the article, in the February edition of "Focus on the
Fisc," saying "a statement in the newsletter is false.''  But
state Rep. Pat Connick, R-Harvey, who opposed a referendum last
fall that approved a 20-year extension of the tolls, questioned
whether toll money was used to secure lines of credit, pointing
out that state statutes say that the money must be used on the
bridge.  "By law