HARTFORD, CT — One of the consequences of not having a budget for four months was an inability to put anything on the state’s credit card. Now that the state has a budget, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is proposing $1.07 billion in bonding to be approved at a special meeting next week.
The Dec. 8 meeting was canceled and a special meeting will be held Wednesday, Nov. 29, instead.
Administration officials said the delay in passing a budget has held up critical infrastructure projects and slowed certain parts of the economy, such as the construction trades.
Earlier this year, Malloy had initially planned to borrow about $2.7 billion, however, the newly passed state budget included a $2 billion cap. Bonding $1.07 billion next Wednesday will bring the total amount of general obligation bonding for the calendar year up to $1.94 billion, which is $58.7 million shy of the new cap.
“With this agenda, the state is committing its support to essential economic development, housing, school construction, fire training school, and other critical infrastructure projects that were on hold as we operated without an enacted budget for nearly four months into the fiscal year,” Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes said Tuesday. “Importantly, the proposed allocations included in this agenda fall within the new bonding cap established by the bipartisan budget. While it is imperative that we focus on a responsibly balanced state budget, we must also continue to make long term investments in Connecticut’s future.”
The Bond Commission agenda includes a number of projects, large and small.
There’s $40 million to make improvements to the XL Center in Hartford.
Malloy had sought $250 million to improve the aging facility in downtown Hartford, but that was before the state’s revenue numbers fell far below projections in April.
There’s also $20 million for the brownfield remediation the governor was touting in Hartford on Monday.
There’s $50 million to help improve the state’s information technology, including $28 million earmarked specifically for a health information system.
The Bond Commission is also looking at allocating $48 million to various companies who qualify for funding under the Manufacturing Assistance Act. Those include First Five companies like EDAC Technologies Corporation, which needs $10 million to assist in acquiring machinery and equipment at its facility in Cheshire and others like Henkel of America Inc., which is not a First Five company but is receiving help relocating its Laundry and Home Care unit from Arizona to Stamford.
There is also $1.7 million in funding for body cameras for law enforcement and $30 million for improvements to school buildings in at least 30 districts and $500 million for school construction projects. There’s another $6 million for capital improvements at charter schools.
As promised earlier this month by the governor, the Bond Commission is also poised to approve $1 million in bonding for the Connecticut Television Network to “finance production and studio equipment.”
Malloy offered the $1 million in bonding to the legislature when contract negotiations with the nonprofit operator of the network were failing. The nonprofit operator eventually ended its contract with the state and a new contract is expected to be put out to bid in the spring.
There’s $17.5 million for the Eastern Connecticut Regional Fire Training School in Willimantic.
And there’s also $9 million for construction of a bath house building, lifeguard office, concession building, and a maintenance facility at Silver Sands State Park in Milford. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
City receives $2 million grant to restore vacant hospital
MERIDEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut city has received a $2 million grant to clean up an abandoned hospital in order to redevelop the property into senior housing.
Meriden Economic Development Director Juliet Burdelski says the commitment by the state will allow them to get the project started. The Record-Journal reports the hospital has been vacant since the 1990s and has continued to degrade since then, despite efforts at remediation.Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy's office said Monday a total of $13.6 million in state funds would go to 14 municipalities in order to revitalize blighted properties.
Burdelski says developer Diversified Financial Resources will have 18 months to secure private financing for redevelopment, per an agreement with the city.
Connecticut’s economy grew more slowly from April through June than any other New England state and was 43rd among the states, according to federal statistics released Tuesday.
The U.S. Commerce Department data provides fresh evidence of Connecticut’s weak economic position, which has been a persistent source of political trouble for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the General Assembly.
The state’s economy, which is measured by the sale of all goods and services, amounted to $260.1 billion in the second quarter of the year and expanded by 1.4 percent over the first quarter.
It’s the second largest economy in New England after Massachusetts, with an economy of $523.3 billion. The Bay State’s economy grew by 2 percent. Though growth in Connecticut is lackluster, it’s an improvement over the previous four quarters when the economy shrank. Economic growth in Connecticut in 2016 was zero.
The pace of economic growth in the state is not surprising, economists say. The labor force is still struggling to regain all the jobs lost in the recession, and flat to falling tax revenue reflects weak economic activity.
Connecticut is “not powering itself,” said Peter Gioia, the economist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
“We’re being dragged along by the national economy,” he said.
On Monday, state officials announced that just three weeks after Malloy signed a bipartisan budget, the deficit has grown to nearly $203 million for the current fiscal year. Weak tax collections and higher expenses were blamed.
New Hampshire’s $79 billion economy grew the fastest in New England, at 2.9 percent. And the region’s smallest economy, Vermont — at about $32 billion — expanded by 2.5 percent from the previous quarter.The U.S. economy measured $19.1 trillion and grew by 2.8 percent.
Nationally, the fastest growing state economies were North Dakota, at 8.3 percent, Wyoming at 7.6 percent and Texas at 6.2 percent. The states benefited from a 28.6 percent increase in mining, which contributed to growth in 49 states led by increases in oil and natural gas production. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Viewpoint: Fed Approval Not Needed for State's 3rd Tribal Casino
Some say the planned joint tribal casino in East Windsor can’t go forward without formal approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior. They are wrong.
Connecticut now gets 25 percent of the annual slot revenues from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Tribe casinos. Last year, that was $265 million, close to what we get from cigarette taxes, and a lot for a cash-strapped state. But there’s a catch: the obligation to pay is in exchange for those tribes having the exclusive right to casino gaming in the state. That’s why the state is so eager avoid to losing casino business to MGM in Springfield, and won’t (despite MGM’s media blitz) allow it to operate here.
Connecticut worries that a new East Windsor casino might threaten that exclusivity as well. The worry is a bit far-fetched: how can gaming by an entity that is made up of the two tribes undermine exclusive gaming by the two tribes? But Connecticut really, really cares about its 25 percent. So the Connecticut law authorizing the new casino requires the tribes to agree that the new casino won’t threaten exclusivity. The law also required the tribes’ agreement to be approved by the U.S. Secretary of Interior, just in case the agreement counts as an amendment to the tribes’ existing, federally approved gaming compacts.
Interior approval is now the problem. The tribes duly agreed and submitted their agreement to the Department of Interior for approval. Interior looked at the agreement and wrote back that because as the tribes had agreed that the new casino did not violate exclusivity, formal approval was “premature and likely unnecessary.”
The decision makes sense. The argument that the new casino would be a violation or amendment of the initial compacts was never very strong in the first place, particularly when both parties to the compact agree that it is not.
Nevertheless, lack of formal approval might have left things at a standstill had Congress not anticipated this kind of no-action action. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act explicitly states that if a compact is not approved within 45 days after submitted, it “shall be considered to have been approved by the Secretary.” The Connecticut statute even recognizes this, requiring the agreement to be either “approved or deemed approved.”Casino opponents are now trotting out another argument. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act also requires that notice of any compact be published in the federal register 90 days after it was approved or considered approved. It’s been 90 days, but because Interior doesn’t consider the agreement a compact amendment, it hasn’t published it. Some say that the nonpublication of the noncompact means that there isn’t the approval the Connecticut statute requires.
This is just silly. Congress would hardly have provided that Interior’s nonaction can’t prevent approval and then let Interior block approval by simply failing to publish. And it is bizarre to require Interior to publish something that it does not think is a compact amendment in the first place.
The fact that this argument has gained any traction at all illustrates the effectiveness of MGM’s lobbying campaign. Interior’s letter copied Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei from Nevada. What interest could they possibly have in a third casino in Connecticut … besides supporting of the interests of one of their biggest donors? MGM has also hired former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as a lobbyist, and he has already visited Connecticut to lobby against the third casino deal. MGM is using lots of resources to ensure that any profits from casino gambling in our corner of the country go into its pockets rather than to Connecticut tribes and taxpayers. The power of their opposition shouldn’t mean that we accept specious legal arguments.
Trump: Infrastructure Plan Coming After Tax Code Changes
President Trump announced Nov. 20 that he will reveal his infrastructure package proposal once Congress passes changes to the tax code.
So far, the House passed a tax plan the week of Nov. 13, while the Senate is still working. Republicans in Washington would like to pass and finalize both of the bills before Christmas, The Hill reported.
According to Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), officials from the Trump administration have begun early talks with lawmakers about the infrastructure plan, thanks to the quick work with the tax bills, The Hill reported.
Although there have not been many details revealed about the prospective infrastructure package, White House tech policy adviser Reed Cordish stated that the administration does have a 70-page document together about infrastructure, which is in the process of being finalized. According to Cordish, Congress will eventually receive the document to use as a springboard for creating the legislation, The Hill reported.