House Chair of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, State Representative Tony Guerrera (D-Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, Newington) and members of the House Majority Caucus today called on Governor M. Jodi Rell to release millions in state aid that would fund paving projects and road repairs in cities and towns across the state.

“The governor’s decision to hold this funding will devastate local budgets,” Rep. Guerrera said. “She needs to make this grant money available to cities and towns immediately.”

Due to the current budget deficit, the governor proposed borrowing to cover road repair funds instead of the traditional method of issuing grants as part of the state operating budget.  To date, she has held back $30 million in Town Aid Road (TAR) from consideration by the State Bond Commission despite committing to the funding last year.   

“This state funding spurs economic growth.  Road repair projects put people to work and it is important for the state to invest in job growth,” Rep. Guerrera said.

TAR funding goes to all 169 cities and towns in the state and is usually dispersed in January and July each year.

Local lawmakers, Rep. Matthew Conway (D- E. Granby, Suffield, Windsor) and Rep. Karen Jarmoc (D-Enfield)  met recently with area dairy farmers in regard to support for a state measure to provide assistance to the Connecticut dairy industry.  According to the Connecticut Farm Bureau, which co-hosted the gathering with dairy farmers, the current milk pricing structure set by the Federal Government has Connecticut farmers losing nearly $1 on every gallon of milk they produce due to the high cost of feed, fuel and doing business in Connecticut.

Rep. Conway and Rep. Jarmoc pledged to support legislation that establishes a sustainable safety net program that makes payments to dairy farmers when the federal formula’s price for fluid milk falls below the minimum sustain monthly cost of production as determined by the USDA. The two lawmakers said that they would advocate having this measure included in the state budget.

Rep. Conway said, “We must focus on developing short and long-term solutions to this ongoing problem facing our state’s dairy farmers, It is important to note that there are an estimated 4,200 jobs indirectly associated with the dairy industry. This important measure speaks to job preservation, farm preservation and ultimately needed support for our dairy farmers.”

“Other near by states such as Massachusetts and Maine have a program such as this in place to support the dairy industry,” said Jarmoc. “The diary farms provide for some 1,500 jobs across Connecticut. It is important that we as a legislature support this measure to assist diary farmers as they work to get through a difficult period.”