Like Senate Republicans, the House Republican proposal would rely on dollars from the Rainy Day Fund.

Klarides is proposing taking $500 million from reserves to pay down pensions, the interest savings of which would go toward transportation.

She also is calling on allocations in the Special Transportation Fund that go toward wages, pensions, and health care costs for employees at the DOT and the Department of Motor Vehicles to be transferred to the general fund, as well as limiting new hires throughout state agencies.

Citing numbers from the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, she said that about 1,300 people are expected to retire from all state agencies per year each year in the near future.

Klarides is suggesting that one out of every four positions be left unfilled in order to find savings.

The job positions wouldn’t be cut from essential services, such as state police or correction officers, she said.

Klarides’ proposal also would require the creation of a Transportation Advisory Board to ultimately determine which projects move forward, as well as an audit of DOT to determine if dollars are being spent efficiently.

The goal, she said, is to spend existing taxpayer dollars most efficiently rather than establishing a new funding source, such as tolls.

Overall, the House Republican plan would create only about $52 million in savings from the pension interest payments, and $100 million over five years from the hiring cuts, according the Klarides.

It would rely on some bonding that is not yet specified in a bill, which committee co-chairman, Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, said he’s eager to see because he’s skeptical of the math of the proposal.

The Senate Republican plan calls for using $1.5 billion of the Rainy Day Fund, but Senate Minority Leader Leonard A. Fasano, R-North Haven, said Monday he’s willing to take as little as $750 million.

The proposal would take the reserve money and use it to pay down long-term pension obligations, the interest savings of which then would be used to fund transportation.

Like Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling plan, the Senate Republican proposal relies heavily on accessing low-interest federal loans.

With budget reserves at a historic high of about $2.7 billion, Fasano argues the state still would be in a safe position in the event of a recession.

However, Comptroller Kevin Lembo opposed the Senate Republican plan, calling it “the wrong approach” considering the state has seen its economic position lauded by credit rating agencies due in part to the balance of the Rainy Day Fund.

Leone noted that the reserve fund balance is the result of a bipartisan budget, and questioned why Republicans would now want to take “a step backward” by draining the Rainy Day Fund.

Now that Democrats in the majority have stopped continually pushing the unpopular toll plan, they say they are open-minded to working collaboratively toward a transportation solution, but remain opposed to using reserve funds.

Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, committee co-chairman, noted that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree the state needs close to $20 billion over the next decade to fund transportation infrastructure improvements.

“There is so much that we do agree on. We have been caught up in a disagreement that we are paused on now,” he said. “We will come up with a solution. We will address the underlying urgency that we have in our state.”

Klarides is optimistic legislators can work collaboratively now that Lamont has halted toll discussions.

“I’m glad he put this on pause,” she said. “Whether you supported it or you didn’t, it was becoming very unproductive and it was also stopping all the other great things in this building that are important to all or our colleagues and people in the state of Connecticut from moving forward.”

Klarides added that the toll debate that has dominated the legislature for two years led to a lack of open dialogue between the two parties.

With tolls at a rest for the immediate future, Republican caucus leaders and Democratic leaders on the committee are hopeful they can work collaboratively.

“I think that’s what’s been lacking in this whole process,” Klarides said.

Arts magnet school project almost derailed after school board debates sending plans to state
SUSAN CORICA
BRISTOL - In a contentious debate over approving plans and cost estimates for the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School project, some newer Board of Education members sought to delay approval, which the project backers warned could have derailed the entire project.
In the end, the board voted six to one to send the plans and estimates to the state, with John Sklenka voting against and Allison Wadowski abstaining. Sklenka and Wadowski were among the four members newly elected to the board last November.
The city and school board are collaborating on the project to transform the closed school into an arts magnet school for grades six through 12. The opening date is projected to be August of 2022.
Sklenka and Vice Chair Kristen Giantonio were concerned that the newer members were not given enough information about the motion, and the project generally, to be able to approve it.
Giantonio has served on the board for almost two years now, but she said even she feels information has been lacking.
She said when she first saw the motion on the meeting agenda she asked what it was all about and received an email Monday with a link to more information. “But when we tried to access the link it required a log-in, which we did not have,” she said.
“There’s a lot of missing details for I for one to be comfortably able say that I have reviewed this thing and can vote on it in good faith,” she said.
Sklenka said he wasn’t comfortable “going forward with something that I personally have no idea what was done, how it was done. My biggest concern from day one when I got here was -- how we are going to finance a new school, and I cannot get an answer for that. I feel like we’re buying a house and we’ll figure out how we’re going to pay for it afterward.”
He asked to table the vote until at least April, to allow time for “a serious discussion at our next operations meeting.”
Superintendent Michael Dietter explained that the city has an agreement through the Connecticut Office of School Construction Grants & Review, which has committed to funding 60% of the total project cost of $63 million, with the city bonding the rest.
Dietter said there could be potentially serious ramifications to postponing the vote, because it would delay the committee from being able to go out to bid on the project, which could jeopardize the state grant.
The building committee approved the documents Feb. 27 at a public meeting, he said. “The information is always available in the facilities office for review.”
Tim Callahan, the district’s project manager for the arts magnet school, said the plans and cost estimates needed board approval as simply the next step in the process. He pledged to bring up more aspects of the project at the board’s operations committee meetings to keep people informed.
He said the state has set a deadline of May 31 for breaking ground for haz-mat removal at the building.
This step “gets us in the queue for the money,” he said. “If we’re not done in time we can jeopardize getting that funding, and we’re very tight right now with the schedule.”
Giantonio said she is also is concerned if any other school would have to close once the arts magnet school opened and how students would be moved around among different schools.
She recalled the difficult process when four old schools were shut down and the new Greene-Hills and West Bristol K-8 schools opened in 2012.
“I was a parent in this district with a school age child the last time redistricting was done and it was not fun,” she said. “So we know that there are some hard things coming up in the future with regards to these decisions, and we want to know more information on how this is going to roll out for the community.”
“The fact that you are up against timing pressures shouldn’t mean that we make an uninformed decision,” she said.
Sklenka said he wasn’t concerned so much with financing the building rehabilitation so much as paying for the arts magnet school’s operation once it’s finished. “That’s what I’ve been wondering about since November,” he said.
Superintendent Catherine Carbone noted there are costs for operating each of the district’s facilities. “I can’t think of this building, and I don’t think you should either, as a standalone addition to this district.”
She said she has received many questions from the public about class sizes and school enrollment is proving to be slightly higher than projected, which means bringing an additional school on board is important, especially one that will have state-of-the-art facilities.
Board member Chris Wilson said the city already has contracts with the architect and the construction manager. “If we violate those contracts and someone thinks they can stop this project there would be significant litigation,” he said.
Wilson noted that the previous school board, the Board of Finance and the City Council all unanimously approved the project, something he has never seen before in Bristol.
“We have already made this decision to go forward. If we choose to back out of this project now Bristol will not get another dime from the State of Connecticut for years and years to come, not till this memory goes away,” he said.

Bridge replacement on Route 2A in Preston means lane closures through November
Preston — A 14-month project to replace two bridges on Route 2A — one over Poquetanuck Cove and one over Halsey Brook — has begun, and signaled lane closures are expected to be in place through November, the state Department of Transportation has announced.
The $3.98 million project is scheduled to be completed by May 2021 and will be done by New England Infrastructure Inc.
The work consists of complete removal and replacement of bridge superstructures with prestressed concrete deck slabs. The substructure abutments will receive extensive repairs. The bridge over Halsey Brook will be raised approximately 21 inches. The work also involves major utility coordination, including maintaining bridge-mounted electrical utilities and maintaining and then relocating a 12-inch natural gas main. Temporary utility relocation work has begun.
Temporary traffic impacts, including daily shoulder and/or lane closures, are expected.
Lane closures along Route 2A at the bridge locations will take place between now and Nov. 30, with signalized, alternating one-way traffic configurations.