Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Money
  • Election 2020
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Money
    Election 2020
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

New bonding would restore capital program to pre-recession level

  • by Keith M. Phaneuf
  • June 4, 2011
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

After tightening its capital projects budget over the last two years, state government will borrow more than $4.6 billion during the next biennium to build schools, roads, clean water projects and a new technology park, based on the bonding package passed in the House and Senate on Saturday.

The bill, which also preserves an expiring 80 percent reimbursement rate for all municipal school construction projects in racially imbalanced schools, was negotiated by leaders of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and is expected to be signed into law.

The measure would authorize $2.01 billion in bonding next fiscal year and another $2.12 billion in 2012-13.

“It keeps our railroads and our bridges functioning,” said Sen. Gary LeBeau, D-East Hartford, said during the first debate, which began late Friday night and wrapped just after 1 a.m., Saturday.

Sen. Eileen Daily, co-chairwoman of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, said she is very confident this bonding will create thousands of new jobs.

mckinney

Sen. John McKinney: ‘We give UConn whatever they ask for.’

State government also follows a previously-approved bonding schedule for capital programs at the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut State University system. Those institutions are scheduled to receive $252 million in bonding in the first year of the new biennial budget and $238 million in the second year.

The higher education funding brings the total bond authorizations for fiscal 2012 and 2013 to $2.27 billion and $2.36 billion, respectively. Both annual totals are more than double the $917 million capital program approved last May by the legislature and then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell and nearly one-third larger than the $1.76 billion authorized two years ago.

Additional funding in the new package for UConn, more than $172 million to finance construction of a new technology park at the main campus in Storrs did not sit well with the Republican minority in either chamber.

“I rise to a broken record. It’s frustrating to me. …We give [UConn] whatever they ask for,” said Senate Minority Leader John P. McKinney, before the bill was approved along party lines.

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero, R-Norwalk, tried unsuccessfully to amend the measure to strip out bonding for the technology park.

“This is not as a punishment to UConn,” Cafero said, “but as a way to say, ‘Hey, re-prioritize the money you’ve already got. Times are tough. Borrowing money costs us more money.'”

The House voted 121-11 to approve the package, with Republicans casting all of the dissenting votes.

The total new bond authorization level in the bill is very similar to the $2.13 billion authorized for 2008-09 – just before the economy plunged sharply.

Rell and the legislature did approve nearly $2 billion in borrowing over the past two years to cover shortfalls in the state’s operating budget–a practice Malloy has refused to continue.

The new governor has said repeatedly that state government cannot borrow for day-to-day expenses so it can reserve its borrowing capacity for projects that put people to work.

“We continue to support wise capital investments in necessary infrastructure in order to ensure job creation,” said Malloy’s budget director, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes.

The bond package would dedicate $1.1 billion in total over the next two years for municipal school construction work, and a matching amount for road, bridge and other transportation infrastructure projects. Another $658 million would be bonded to provide loans and grants to cities and towns for renovations to sewage treatment plants and other clean water projects and $113 million for various capital projects at state community colleges.

The bond package also includes financing for: economic development incentive programs; grants for municipal public works and road repair projects; renovations to state buildings; pollution abatement; capital equipment purchases; farmland and open space preservation; and improvements to ports in New London, New Haven and Bridgeport.

The bill also would carve out a major exemption in the municipal school construction program — less than one week after legislators voted to significantly reduce the state’s sharing of funding for local school projects.

At least six school districts–Enfield, Fairfield, Middletown, Manchester, Greenwich and Groton–would qualify for the state to cover 80 percent of their construction costs for schools built or renovated with the goal of reducing the racial disparities in their schools.

Under current law, the state pays between 20 and 80 percent of municipal school construction costs, depending on a community’s wealth. But a budget policy bill adopted recently in the House and Senate and expected to be signed by Malloy would reduce the range next fiscal year to between 10 and 70 percent.

State law restricts school districts from having substantial differences in racial makeup among their schools. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in the Sheff vs. O’Neill case in 1997 that the state must reduce the racial isolation in Hartford Public Schools. The state also years earlier required districts to report each schools  racial makeup, if state officials determined the disparity to be too significant then a corrective plan would need to be launched.

These increased construction reimbursements aim at helping districts have one more option to close that gap. But the legislature’s non-partisan budget office estimates the costs could be significant.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keith M. Phaneuf

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Funding to fix CT’s roads and bridges is drying up, and officials don’t have a solution
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Kasturi Pananjady

Connecticut's transportation building program is on a financial diet after a five-year ramp-up after lawmakers rejected tolls.

Evidence not clear that Trump incited Capitol destruction
by Alan Calandro

Defending President Donald Trump is not popular and I have no interest in writing this other than adherence to truth. Recognizing the truth (if we can find it, which is not always possible of course) should make us be able to come together around that and move on with a common understanding.

Securing our nuclear legacy: An open letter to President-elect Joe Biden
by Erik Assadourian

Dear President-elect Biden: As you noted in a tweet shortly after protestors stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, “Today is a reminder, a painful one, that democracy is fragile.” Indeed it is. And so are nation-states.

COVID deaths and infections in CT nursing homes decline as more residents are vaccinated
by Dave Altimari

There were 85 deaths in nursing homes and 312 residents infected during the week ending Jan. 12.

Lamont appoints reformers, disability advocates to Police Officer Standards and Training Council
by Kelan Lyons

The appointments are a requirement of the police accountability bill passed over the summer in a special session.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Evidence not clear that Trump incited Capitol destruction
by Alan Calandro

Defending President Donald Trump is not popular and I have no interest in writing this other than adherence to truth. Recognizing the truth (if we can find it, which is not always possible of course) should make us be able to come together around that and move on with a common understanding.

Opinion Securing our nuclear legacy: An open letter to President-elect Joe Biden
by Erik Assadourian

Dear President-elect Biden: As you noted in a tweet shortly after protestors stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, “Today is a reminder, a painful one, that democracy is fragile.” Indeed it is. And so are nation-states.

Opinion Last votes of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others
by Gary A. Franks

Finally, the election season is over. The historic elections we saw in this cycle were intriguing. The runoff elections for the U.S. Senate in Georgia put a cap on the campaign season. For many people this could be described as a COVID-19 election. I would argue that this was an election influenced by a pandemic but determined by the killing of unarmed Black people with no adequate justice for the Black community.

Opinion Not just environmental problem; Killingly plant is a great target
by Joel Gordes

In 1990, I was one of five legislators to introduce the first climate change legislation that became PA 90-219, An Act Considering Climate Change, the most popular bill of that session. Back then I considered climate change a national security issue… and I still do.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO