CT panel approves about $140 million for towns, cities

In its first in-person meeting in more than two years, the State Bond Commission on Thursday approved more than $600 million in long-term capital borrowing, including about $140 million for local projects spread around the state, culminating months of bipartisan talks among state lawmakers who are coincidentally up for reelection in November.

Among the local projects approved is $5 million for Shelton to extend Constitution Boulevard; $3 million for Stratford to redevelopment the site of the 2019 arson fire that totaled the Shakespeare Theatre property on the banks of the Housatonic River; and $1.5 million to help the town of Trumbull build a regional Veterans and First Responders Center.

“We’re continuing to make our investments in IT, information technology, in anticipation of modernizing state government and what could be a cliff of retirements,” said Gov. Lamont at the start of the brisk, 25minute meeting in the Legislative Office Building. “We’re doing a fair amount in municipal aid. What that means in terms of bringing our downtowns to life. What that means in terms of libraries and community centers and YMCAs, and sidewalks and streetscapes, making our towns livable and a fun place to be and a fun place to work.”

The offices of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spent most of the last week issuing news releases about the forthcoming largess. Once an item clears the Office of Policy and Management, which is the governor’s budget office, and makes a Bond Commission agenda, its passage on the Democratic-dominated, 10-member commission is nearly guaranteed.

Still, Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, voted against the allocation of $10 million for the Social Equity Council that will review applications from residents of communities impacted by the failed war on drugs to participate in the adult-use cannabis industry scheduled to begin later this year.

“I remain concerned about this area,” said Cheeseman, a member of the commission by virtue of her being one of two top Republicans on the legislative Finance Committee. “I think as we see the results of the pandemic that there are better ways to train our young people for the careers of the future.”

One item on the agenda, totaling more than 60 individual projects and more than $121 million in allocations included $4.1 million for improvements at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport; $3 million for HVAC improvements at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk; $2.5 million for new multiuse athletic fields in Bridgeport; $2 million for renovating a former firehouse in Woodbridge to become a community center; $1.3 million for upgrades to the Keefe Center in Hamden; $1 million for improvements at Stamford’s Terry Conners ice rink; $950,000 for the Stamford Center for the

Arts to replace seats and other equipment at the Palace Theatre on Atlantic Street; and $200,000 for a new, non-profit skating rink at New Canaan’s Waveny Park.

State Rep. Dorinda Borer of West Haven, along with Sen. Marilyn Moore of Bridgeport, the co-chairwomen of the bonding subcommittee of the Finance Committee, said project selection was bipartisan. “This has been quite a process,” Moore said. “I appreciate that we were able to get something in the bond package this time for everyone across the state, so we all benefit for it.”

State Treasurer Shawn Wooden, a member of the commission, announced the successful sale of $227 million in UConn-related bonds this week. “We have the second-highest orders in the, I think, 26-year history of the program, in terms of retail orders,” Wooden said. “Interest rates are ticking up, but that was amazing demand under difficult circumstances. The markets are very challenged right now.”

Lamont, during a news conference after the meeting, told reporters that with a 7.7-percent increase in gross domestic product over the last year, Connecticut is 12th highest in the nation

and only behind the 7.8 percent seen in Massachusetts in the Northeaast, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“This is a state that did not grow as fast as we should for the last 30 years, but we are right now,” Lamont said. “The good news, I think, is the state has momentum. Our economy is growing and continuing to grow. That allows us to make some of these investments in the Bond Commission in a way that will make a big difference going forward.”

Cheeseman, speaking to reporters after Lamont’s news conference, said that the state still hasn’t regained the tens of thousands of jobs lost during the 2008 Great Recession. She said it’s easy to take a “somewhat cynical” eye to the flow of state money for local projects in an election year.

“On the other hand I know that for those towns that have advocated for this, it can really be a gamechanger,” Cheeseman said. “What’s bonding for in an election year? To give out goodies to people.” She said that with pending contract agreements with the membership of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, along with a projected $1 billion-plus deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the future is uncertain at a time when Lamont and lawmakers want to invest more in child care and mental health initiatives.

“It’s wonderful to be here today to vote on worthy projects,” she said. “But we can’t forget that there are clouds on the horizon.”