The state Bond Commission borrowed a total of $725 million Friday. Funding for transportation projects made up $475 million as the largest item on a lengthy agenda.
“There is a lot of transportation dollars in this budget,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said after the meeting. “In fact, if you broke down the budget it’s largely transportation and housing, are the two largest expenditure items, two things that I am very much personally invested in.”
The housing projects include more than $38 million for a flexible housing program through the Department of Housing. The department received another $22 million for its housing trust fund and $3 million to set up a low-interest loan program for homeowners. The Capital Region Development Authority received another $1.2 million for housing projects.
The agenda included about $196 million in general obligation bonds. So far this year, the state has bonded more than $1.25 billion, which puts the governor close to the $1.8 billion “soft” bonding limit he set at the beginning of this year.
Sen. Scott Frantz, R-Greenwich, asked Malloy about the cap during Friday’s meeting.
“We’re under, but we’re right near it. So this is a big agenda, obviously with a lot of important projects. So we’re there,” Malloy said on the borrowing limit.
Although he expects the panel to meet again in September, the governor said the Bond Commission would likely have few additional meetings before the end of the year. Malloy said he has also asked some state agency heads to look for places to repurpose previously authorized borrowing.
“I said we’d be around [$1.8 billion], I intend to be around that number. But I’ve also asked them to look for reallocation opportunities, some of which appeared on the agenda today,” he said.