BY PATRICK GALLAGHER and ALEXANDER SOULE
Even as Connecticut overhauls its Department of Transportation to better compete for discretionary federal funding, the state in June found itself fighting to secure regular funding it had already counted on in its existing budget.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Connecticut stands to lose $520 million and thousands of jobs over two years if the U.S. House of Representatives does not pass a surface transportation bill by the end of this month.
Blumenthal addressed the bill during a June visit to Deloitte”™s Wilton offices. Later that same day, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy held his own teleconference with the mayor of Los Angeles to press Congress to reach an agreement on the transportation reauthorization bill.
“It”™s a fact that across the country, there”™s a huge backlog of new transportation or repair projects that must be done,” Malloy said. “The Highway Trust Fund is running out of money, but for nearly three years states like Connecticut and cities like Los Angeles have operated under a cloud of short-term extensions that have not addressed the solvency of the fund.”
Connecticut DOT lists 13 big projects under way at present in Connecticut, perhaps the most significant being plans for a high-speed rail running north from New Haven through Hartford and beyond; and the replacement of New Haven”™s Q Bridge.
Malloy recently participated in a groundbreaking for the CTfastrak bus line that will provide rapid service between New Britain and Hartford. CTfastrak is being constructed on an abandoned railroad corridor from New Britain to Hartford”™s Union Station. Buses will operate from 4:30 a.m. to the following 1:30 a.m, including at intervals as tight as three minutes at peak rush hour.
The federal government will cover $455 million of the $567 million project cost, with the remaining $112 million funded by the state. An estimated 4,000 construction jobs and at least 100 permanent jobs will result.
Across the border, New York State Thruway Authority officials say the federal impasse could have a big effect on sources of funding for a new Tappan Zee Bridge.
A bipartisan group comprising U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and thirteen members of New York”™s congressional delegation addressed a letter in May to the 47-member conference committee seeking a compromise between separate transportation bills passed by the Senate and the House.
In the letter, they urged the committee to adopt a funding level of at least $1 billion for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program as specified by the Senate-passed transportation bill.
By funding the TIFIA program, which provides direct loans, loan guarantees and credit assistance for major transportation infrastructure projects, developments such as a new, $5.2 billion Tappan Zee Bridge will be able to move forward with greater ease.
New York state sought a $2 billion federal TIFIA loan for the bridge”™s development, but the state was not invited by the U.S. Department of Transportation to apply for such a loan under the current round of funding. State transportation officials have said they would continue to seek federal assistance during the next round of TIFIA disbursements.
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Harrison, N.Y.) called on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring the Senate-passed version of the bill to a floor vote should the conference committee fail to reach an agreement by June 30.
“Kicking the can down the road with another extension fails to provide businesses with the certainty they need to invest and hire workers to rebuild our nation”™s infrastructure,” Lowey said, adding that the highway funding measure currently supports 113,000 jobs in New York state.
