The Norwalk Hour

Lamont says $875M fund for needy towns ‘step in right direction’

- By Mark Pazniokas

To promote a Community Investment Fund that could make $875 million available to distressed communitie­s over five years, the office of Gov. Ned Lamont chose a sunny lawn outside a library branch in a Black neighborho­od represente­d by House Speaker Matt Ritter and Sen. Doug McCrory of Hartford.

Ritter is one of the program’s architects, fashioning what he saw as a marriage of good policy and good politics — providing a stable funding source for needy legislativ­e districts and easing a source of friction between lawmakers and the governor approachin­g an election.

McCrory is one of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus members who had been chafing against the “debt diet” Lamont proudly announced in February 2019 , his second month in office. An initial 39 percent cut in borrowing that Lamont, a Greenwich businessma­n, saw as healthy for the fiscal waistline was seen by urban Democrats as starvation rations.

“This debt diet didn’t sit well in communitie­s that were underserve­d to begin with,” said Rep. Geraldo Reyes Jr., D-Waterbury, the chair of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. “So basically, you’re saying, ‘No one’s going to eat.’”

On Thursday afternoon, Reyes was one of the lawmakers to greet the governor as he alighted from a black SUV wearing aviator sunglasses but no jacket or tie. A branch library on Albany Avenue in Hartford was providing the backdrop, but Waterbury is among the eligible beneficiar­ies.

“This right here is a major step in the right direction,” Reyes said after the event, describing the fund’s impact on distressed communitie­s and his caucus’ relationsh­ip with Lamont. “This was a major step in restoring and improving the relationsh­ip with the BPRC [Black and Puerto Rican Caucus] members.”

McCrory, who used to teach school in the neighborho­od, offered a madefor-a-political ad compliment about Lamont’s role in making the Community Investment Fund a reality.

“This is an investment by the state of Connecticu­t under the leadership of Gov. Ned Lamont,” McCrory said. “I’ve been in the legislatur­e for 17 years, and at no time have we ever committed to make this kind of investment in communitie­s that have been underserve­d for years.”

The General Assembly shapes the borrowing priorities of Connecticu­t with the passage of a bond package, a list of projects and programs with a specific dollar amount of authorized borrowing.

But by setting the agenda of the Bond Commission, which must bless the actual borrowing before the treasurer goes to the bond markets, governors in Connecticu­t have sole control of the degree to which the legislatur­e’s bond package is a wish list or a source of money.

And that is a longstandi­ng source of tension between lawmakers and governors, well beyond the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. Lawmakers can succeed in getting a local project in the bond package, only to see a governor refuse to place the item on the agenda of the Bond Commission.

The Community Investment Fund will be administer­ed by a 21-member board run by lawmakers. Ritter and Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, are the cochairs. McCrory is one of two members representi­ng the BPRC, one from the Senate and House.

The funding still has to get through the Bond Commission, but the commission cannot stall a project by inaction. Lamont said he was more than comfortabl­e with sharing some of the spending responsibi­lities.

“I’m willing to put money to work as long as it’s real,” Lamont said. “And if it’s focused in and around opportunit­y and economic developmen­t, and as part of a strategy, sign me up. And I think that’s what this program is.”

With the start of the fiscal year on July 1, the first of five $175 million pools of funds will become available. Eligible municipali­ties and nonprofits in those communitie­s can apply for grants for capital projects, not personnel or programmat­ic expenses.

Fifty-four of Connecticu­t’s 169 cities and towns are eligible, according to the DECD. They include the biggest cities that are Democratic stronghold­s, as well as small eastern Connecticu­t communitie­s represente­d by Republican­s.

The 21-member board, which is staffed by the Department of Economic and Community Developmen­t and is composed of 10 lawmakers and 11 representa­tives of the administra­tion and other constituti­onal officers, expects to make two rounds of awards every fiscal year.

“We are already off to the races. The applicatio­n’s already available,” said Alexandra Daum, the deputy commission­er and chief investment officer of DECD.

The first round of applicatio­ns closes on July 25, with a second round scheduled in January. Matt Pugliese, the director of the fund, said more than 500 people participat­ed in two webinars explaining the program.

Ritter said there was skepticism among those who negotiated the terms of the new fund about the willingnes­s of the “debt diet” governor and his administra­tion to embrace the additional spending and the degree to which decisionma­king would be shared.

“They have far exceeded my expectatio­ns,” Ritter said, noting the staffing assigned to the program. “I think even a lot of members who were in that room, mostly BPRC members who were negotiatin­g this, one of the concerns was, ‘Yeah, we’ll see if it actually comes to fruition now.’”

Ritter said the program will allow municipali­ties to make long-range planning for projects that could be transforma­tive.

“Maybe it’s on their Main Street, maybe it’s in brownfield­s,” Ritter said. “But to do that, you need a constant stream of funding and the ability to plan five, 10 years out. And it’s hard to do that when maybe the governor likes you, maybe he doesn’t; maybe you have a legislator who’s powerful, maybe you don’t.”

Some of the skepticism remains.

“People are going to be a little bit concerned that what they’re seeing now is good. But why are we talking about it now?” said Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, a Black and Puerto Rican Caucus member not in attendance. “Why weren’t we talking about it two years ago? And what are we going to be talking about next year?”

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