Legislature Overwhelmingly Passes Overdue Bonding Bill

By Susan Haigh Associated Press

HARTFORD – After months of failed negotiations, state lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bonding bill Tuesday that authorizes slightly less borrowing than a bill the governor vetoed last month.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she’ll sign the revised bill into law, calling the compromise a victory for fiscal responsibility. The governor plans to schedule a meeting of the State Bond Commission, possibly as early as next week, to distribute the money to cities and towns that have been waiting for months to pay school construction bills.

“By moving this forward today, we can all be proud that we are meeting critical needs,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn.

The bill allows the state to borrow $2.9 billion in general obligation bonds for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, plus $950 million more in bond authorizations for major renovations and improvements to the Connecticut State University campuses. The $2.9 billion covers everything from local school construction to farmland preservation and grants to local arts organizations.

The revised bill trimmed $400 million from the version Rell vetoed. At the time, Rell said the bill was too expensive. Democrats, however, criticized her veto, saying she already could decide which projects get funded because she sets the agenda for the State Bond Commission, which ultimately distributes the money.

The impasse between Rell and lawmakers has dragged on since the legislature ended its regular legislative session in June. Since then, some municipalities, including the state’s three largest cities, have taken out short-term loans to cover school construction projects.

This revised bill includes $2 million to help cities and towns recoup additional interest costs and other expenses stemming from the delay.

Sen. William Nickerson, the ranking Republican on the legislature’s Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee, said the impasse ultimately cost taxpayers that $2 million.

“I hope in another session that we can all agree in a collegial fashion to pass a bond bill in June,” said Nickerson, R-Greenwich. “There’s really nothing in this bill that couldn’t have been passed in June.”

Rell said if a Bond Commission meeting is scheduled quickly, it might not cost $2 million to cover the municipalities’ borrowing expenses.

While the Senate voted 35-0 for the bill, the House voted 127-1. State Rep. Shawn Johnston, D-Thompson, was the only lawmaker to reject the package. He said it’s still too expensive.

“We’re still borrowing over $3 billion over a two-year period. And when I look back at just 13 years ago, 1997 and 1998, the total amount we borrowed was barely $1.3 billion. So we’ve doubled and then some in just 13 years,” he said. “It’s starting to get like the federal government. It’s almost embarrassing. There’s a lot of wonderful things in here, but are they necessities?”

The $400 million reduction came from scaling back requests from individual lawmakers by about $25 million, paring proposals from state agencies, reducing the pool of revitalization grants to certain cities and towns, cutting back funding for clean water projects and making minor reductions to state community colleges, legislators and Rell said.

Highlights of the bill include $864 million for transportation-related projects, including the “Fix-It-First” program for repairing state roads and bridges and up to 38 additional rail cars. The bill also scraps a $1 surcharge on daily commuter rail tickets.

Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, co-chairman of the legislature’s higher education committee, said she was pleased with changes to the massive 10-year plan to renovate the four CSU campuses that give the governor and legislature more oversight over the initiative.

“It makes for a very strong proposal and one that I think we can all be proud of,” she said.