The State Bond Commission approved $5 million in financing Wednesday to plan and design a new elementary school for the Sandy Hook section of Newtown.

The $5 million in bonding is part of a larger state contribution expected to reach $50 million to replace the school in southwestern Connecticut where 26 students and educators were killed in a December 2012 shooting.

“The state of Connecticut joins the people of Newtown in their resolve to move forward despite the most challenging of circumstances,” Malloy told reporters afterward.

The new, two-story school will provide 87,000 square feet of total space.

In other business Wednesday, the governor downplayed a recent warning from Treasurer Denise L. Nappier that the state’s cash flow had hit another trouble spot.

Nappier told the legislature this week that she temporarily transferred $160 million from the state’s capital program to help cover bills, and more transfers may be necessary next month.

“Revenues have ups and downs,” the governor said Wednesday. The state’s cash flow traditionally does drop in the final quarter of the calendar year just before major tax payments are due.

Keith has spent most of his 31 years as a reporter specializing in state government finances, analyzing such topics as income tax equity, waste in government and the complex funding systems behind Connecticut’s transportation and social services networks. He has been the state finances reporter at CT Mirror since it launched in 2010. Prior to joining CT Mirror Keith was State Capitol bureau chief for The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, a reporter for the Day of New London, and a former contributing writer to The New York Times. Keith is a graduate of and a former journalism instructor at the University of Connecticut.

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