Transportation advocates urge ‘lockbox’ despite budget woes
Transportation advocates were certain Thursday they want a new constitutional lockbox to protect planned new state investments in highways, bridges and railways.
But they weren’t as specific about how state officials could shield new transportation dollars and close a looming budget deficit roughly six times its size.
Sen. Stephen T. Cassano, D-Manchester, who co-chairs the legislative panel that oversees financing for transportation projects, insisted that voters want every dollar currently earmarked for transportation spent for that purpose.
About 7 percent of this year’s $19.8 billion state budget, or $1.41 billion, is dedicated to the special transportation fund. It gets about 60 percent of its money from fuel taxes. The rest comes largely from various motor vehicle-related fees and — under a new plan enacted this June — a portion of general fund sales receipts.
“People say ‘I don’t mind paying the tax (for transportation) but I don’t want it to go anywhere else,” Cassano said during a mid-morning press conference in the Legislative Office Building.
And a constitutional amendment prohibiting the redirection of those funds for non-transportation purposes “is a marker we are serious about this,” said Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport.
But is it that simple given the huge budget challenges facing state government? CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
House votes to keep highway spending level, ignores warnings
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite years of warnings that the nation's roads, bridges and transit systems are falling apart and will bring nightmarish congestion, the House on Thursday passed a six-year transportation bill that maintains the spending status quo.
The bill, approved on a bipartisan vote of 363-64, authorizes $325 billion in spending through the 2021 federal budget year. But it provides money for only the first three years because lawmakers couldn't agree on a way to pay for it all. The measure would continue current rates of spending, adjusted for inflation.
The bill is similar to a transportation bill passed by the Senate in July. Congressional leaders say they hope to quickly work out the differences between the two measures and send President Barack Obama a final bill before Thanksgiving. They also said they hope to find the money to pay for the last three years of the bill.
"At the funding levels proposed in both the House and Senate bills, the result will be more traffic," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. He has said $400 billion over six years is minimum needed to prevent matters from worsening.
Most lawmakers lauded the bill as a major accomplishment because it would assure states and localities that they can count on federal highway and transit aid for at least three years. It's hard to plan major construction projects when availability of federal aid is in doubt. The House and Senate bills are first long-term funding bills in about a decade.
Since 2008, Congress has kept the federal Highway Trust Fund teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, unwilling to raise the federal 18.4 cents-a-gallon gasoline and 24.4-cent diesel taxes. The fuel taxes, the trust fund's main source of revenue, were last raised in 1993. Transportation aid has continued through dozens of short-term extensions and transfers of money from the general treasury to make up the gap between revenues and spending. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — Starting Monday morning, motorists should expect delays and periodic closures on Gravel Street as construction crews begin a repaving project.
For the past two years, workers have been replacing aging drainage systems under Gravel Street from East Main Street to Baldwin Avenue as part of an $8.7 million project paid for through a combination of federal, state and local funding.
The street will be paved this month as part of the final stage of the reconstruction project, which should be finished by December, according to state Department of Transportation supervising engineer Mohammed Bishtawi.
Paving will occur Monday through Friday next week. Crews will start paving at the intersection of Baldwin Avenue and Gravel Street, according to a statement from the city. Access to all businesses in the area will remain open, but alternating one-way traffic and periodic short-term road closures are anticipated.
The city asks motorists to use Atkins Street to access Nathan Hale Elementary School. Liberty Street or East Main Street should be used to access Maloney High School, as work will initially be concentrated on the Baldwin Avenue side of Gravel Street.
Airport authority will submit casino proposal, official says
Bradley International Airport’s operator plans to submit a proposal to MM4CT Venture, the Mashantucket Pequot-Mohegan partnership that’s accepting bids for a third Connecticut casino to foil MGM Springfield, the $800 million project under construction in Massachusetts.
“In view of the decision by MM4CT to accept proposals that are not fully complete, the CAA plans to move forward with a submittal,” Kevin Dillon, the Connecticut Airport Authority’s executive director, said Thursday in a statement. “We also plan to ask the new Windsor Locks Board of Selectmen to take up action on it as soon as possible.”
Voters in Windsor Locks, home to Bradley, elected three new selectmen — the entire board — in Tuesday’s elections.
Although Friday is the stated deadline for municipalities to respond to the tribes’ request for casino proposals, MM4CT has indicated it will consider responses from developers who have yet to secure the backing of a “host” town.
Earlier in the week, Pearce Real Estate, the firm managing the RFP (request for proposals) process for the tribes, said on its website that it “recognizes that the timing of the municipal elections may not permit adequate consideration by a municipality of whether it wishes to respond to the RFP. Rather than extending the deadline for submission of responses ... the Venture has determined to encourage responses, even if incomplete.”
Chris Kervick, Windsor Locks’ first selectman-elect, told The Day on Wednesday that he plans to revive the Board of Selectmen’s consideration of the Bradley casino proposal soon after he takes office Nov. 24.
Last week, current board members failed to second a motion calling for the town to join the airport authority in responding to the RFP. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Farmington School Board Requests Conditions For Proposed Apartments Next To Union School
FARMINGTON — The school board Wednesday formally expressed its concerns about a 268-unit apartment complex proposed for the property next to Union School, and asked that if town officials approve the project they consider seven conditions of approval formulated by the board.
The board of education voted 5-1 in favor of a motion that states that board members "strongly disagree" with the proposed zoning amendment that would allow CenterPlan Development Co. to build a $60 million complex on 10 acres next to the school and bordering the Farmington River.
"Union School … has a history of being a collaborative school," member Jean Barons said. "There have been changes inside and outside. The space today is being used like it's never been used before. Union School has always been a forward-thinking school, open to change, but this an enormous change."
In the motion, the board asks the commission to consider requiring the developer to replace the deteriorating school playscape. This request is tied to a new plan created by the developer that would renovate the existing parking lot with a new drop-off and pickup plan; the new lot would encroach on the existing fields and play space.Initially, developers had proposed building a loop road for apartment residents around the back of the school property that would direct traffic away from the front of the school, where students are picked up and dropped off on Perry Street. That plan would have provided a new side street where parents could drop off and pick up their children. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New Haven’s West River flowing freely again in Westville after dam removal
NEW HAVEN >> For the first time in 250 years, the West River is flowing freely again through a 2.6-mile expanse that is commonly known today as the Pond Lily Nature Preserve.
And by the time alewife fish and herring start migrating upstream in February, the West River in that channel will be between 40 and 50 feet wide.
Connecticut Fund for the Environment Save the Sound announced the launch of the Pond Lily Dam Removal Project Thursday morning, a more than $800,000 project that will restore the natural fish habitats and reduce risk of major flooding in the surrounding community.
“It’s not good enough to do a little less environmental harm,” said Curt Johnson, executive director for Connecticut Fund for the Environmental Save the Sound. “We will lose the planet if that’s as good as we can do.”
Mayor Toni Harp attended the launch of the project Thursday and applauded local, state and federal representatives present for their support and work on making the project a reality.
“Thank you to all of the advocates for understanding how important (the environment) is,” Harp said. “Thank you for cleaning this out and showing that there’s actually a river there. … I congratulate all of you and look forward to more work.”
Johnson said removing the Pond Lily Dam and restoring the natural flow of the West River begins a healing process for the ecosystem and the community will see a resurgence of wildlife and health in the region.
“All we have to do is clear the way for nature and she will do the rest,” Johnson said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Plans for fuel cell power plant in Beacon Falls scrutinized
BEACON FALLS >> Plans for what is being billed as “the world largest fuel cell power plant” in a former gravel pit west of the Naugatuck River got some up close and personal scrutiny Thursday during a pair of hearings held by the Siting Council.
There were two meetings regarding the Beacon Falls Energy Park on Thursday, one during the afternoon and one during the evening, both held in the three empty bays of the town’s Fire Department on North Main Street. During the afternoon session, Council members heard testimony from William Corvo, president of CT Energy & Technology, a Middletown company that will own the facility once it is completed.
“We didn’t start off thinking that we would do fuel cells,” Corvo told Siting Council members. “But there isn’t enough land for a solar park and their are number of factors that make a wind farm here impractical.”
Plans for a fuel cell-powered electric generation facility were submitted to the Siting Council in late August after being announced in spring. The Siting Council is the regulatory agency charged with determining where Connecticut’s energy infrastructure should go.
Corvo earlier this year said that if the Beacon Falls Energy Park approves the project, the first phase of the 63-megawatt fuel cell park will be producing electricity by the end of next year. But in testimony before the Siting Council Thursday, Corvo said the park won’t begin commercial operation until sometime in 2019.
The generation facility will be built on part of the 25-acre site of a former sand and gravel plant located near Lopus Road. The fuel cell park will be built on property owned by Torrington-based O&G Industries Inc., one of the Northeast’s largest construction companies and the parent company of the generation facility. O&G also will be the lead contractor for the project, according to Corvo. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE