Rep. David Scribner recalls Rep. Kim Fawcett’s caper to defund the DOT

Rep David Scribner, R-Brookfield, attended Gov. Malloy’s quasi-news event in Wethersfield this morning, mostly to support Rep. Tony Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, co-chairman of the Transportation Committee, who was celebrating the construction of a new bridge with Malloy. Scribner, ranking member of the committee, was the highest-profile Republican in what seemed more and more like a political event. Scribner recalled that he successfully proposed a 2013 law, which will takes effect on July 1, 2015, to prohibit the transfer of funds from the Special Transportation Fund, which is occasionally raided to help balance the state budget. Scribner supports a proposed constitutional amendment that would protect the fund, which was set up after the 1983 collapse of the Mianus River bridge along I-95 in Greenwich.

The scene was at Goff Brook, which is a border with Rocky Hill. Speaking of politics, Scribner recalled the 2013 attempt by Rep. Kim Fawcett, D-Fairfield, to defund the DOT’s capital budget in what would have been this year, if the ploy wasn’t sussed out and extinguished by leadership on both sides of the aisle. “I strongly protested and got that reversed,” Scribner said. Fawcett, who as a bonding committee co-chairman zeroed out the funding, said at the time that she was sending a message to the agency that better planning was needed. She is currently running against Rep. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, for the seat that Senate Minority Leader John McKinney will vacate next January.

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