🔒Tweed-New Haven expansion, ‘various grants’ find place in budget

Legislators described the 717-page bill implementing a $28.1 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year as largely free of earmarks and significant policy changes that often are tucked into Connecticut’s budget with little or no public input. But the legislation adopted Saturday on bipartisan votes by the Senate and House does include about $60 million in new undefined “various grants” and a provision intended to nudge forward the expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport, language drafted without vetting by a legislative committee or public hearing. Avports LLC, the operator of Tweed-New Haven, has been struggling for years to make progress on a new terminal and longer runways, a project favored by New Haven, which owns the airport, and opposed by East Haven, where it is located and where residents object to the noise and traffic of a busier Tweed. The Tweed provision in the budget is aimed convincing East Haven to suspend its opposition while the project is fleshed out. One sweetener would give East Haven two additional seats on the authority that oversees the airport if a building permit is issued and a commitment to $4 million in payments in lieu of taxes. With the changes, the authority’s board would have eight members appointed by the mayor of New Haven and seven by the mayor of East Haven. Rep. Joe Zullo, R-East Haven, described  the language signed off by municipal officials in East Haven and New Haven as intended to coax “a reorientation” in his community’s posture, not a surrender. “We're going to take a small step back and say, we're going to let them at least make their case. We're not giving up any rights. We're not saying we're going to say yes, but we're going to stop putting up every roadblock,” Zullo said. But Zullo, who is opposed to expansion, said the provision would make him vote against a budget he otherwise could support. “Tweed is the poison pill on this budget for me,” Zullo said. House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, whose district includes a portion of East Haven, said, “I am concerned, just like Rep. Zullo, that it did not get public hearings, it did not get properly vetted.” Candelora said the public would get its say when the project goes through the local zoning process. The Tweed language drew little attention in the budget debates Saturday. Off the floor, Candelora said the language “creates a framework for the permitting process. It creates a framework for financially compensating” the local communities that would be impacted by the expansion. The bill passed 127 to 21. Candelora and Zullo were among the 21 lawmakers who voted no. Candelora said he had been a yes until the Tweed provision was added. House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said the bipartisan support for the budget implementer bill reflected that it did not become a vehicle as a shortcut to passage for unrelated bills that never came to a vote. “I think it's a pretty skinny-downed implementer, compared to some ones in the past. Thus, it can be a bipartisan vote," Ritter said. Republicans mildly objected to the undefined grants in the budget bill, which were spread throughout the budgets of different agencies. Candelora said they lacked transparency. Last month, the House passed a bill proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont that would set new rules to increase transparency around millions of dollars in legislative earmarks, which lawmakers direct to favored nonprofits and other organizations every year. It has yet to pass the Senate. “We would be much more comforted if the Senate had passed the earmarks bill that put some guardrails around that type of money,” Candelora said. Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said Saturday he is committed to calling the earmarks reform bill for a vote before the annual legislative session ends Wednesday night.