Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she’ll consider releasing more than $500,000 in road improvement money owed to towns in the lower Valley.
The news came a few hours after state Democratic lawmakers Theresa Conroy and Linda Gentile released a statement Friday morning saying Rell was withholding the cash due to the state budget deficit.
“Gov. Rell’s decision to hold this funding back is wreaking havoc with towns’ budgets,” Conroy said in a statement. “She needs to release these funds today.”
The money, from “Town Aid Road” grants, is usually released in January and July.
“Gov. Rell said that this is a commitment she will meet and that she will consider including these funds on the next bond (commission) agenda,” Rell’s spokesman, Adam Liegot, wrote in an e‑mail to the Valley Independent Sentinel.
The bond commission’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 29.
According to the statement from Conroy and Gentile, lower Valley towns are owed:
Ansonia – $159,536
Beacon Falls – $91,077
Derby – $132,957
Seymour – $148,674
