The governor this morning said that last month, when Democrats held up action on the State Bond Commission to purchase a final batch of 38 rail cars (for $81.6 million), they weren’t doing it at his bidding. Still, the fact that Democrats delayed the purchase and embarrassed Gov. Rell, thus giving Malloy the credit when the purchases get approved this Friday at the State Bond Commission meeting, is a fact. “Honestly, I didn’t send any signals. I think people saw it, probably, as a large purchase and figured that perhaps it should wait until the next governor had taken office. I asked people to verify that there would be a reasonable expectation that the prices would increase significantly on a reorder. The people that I asked to do that are convinced as, by the way, the governor, my predecssor, was convinced of that case. So it just made sense to order them. But I didn’t have discissions with folks about the prior governor’s last bond request.”
Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, as a member of the bond commission in her former role as state comptroller, gave the two December meetings of the bond commission a miss, as did then-Attorney General Dick Blumenthal.
Malloy defended his $444-million agenda. “In invbesting in infrastructure there’s a short-term gain, which is obviously the jobs that are created, and there’s a long-term gain, which is the ability to compete with the other 49 states and on an international basis. I did not hide my desire to see the state of Connecticut appropriately reinvest, just as I have not hidden my distain for borrowing for operational costs. I have been nothing but consistent when it comes to what I’ve said about the bond market, about investing and about I think what is frequently a mistake.”