Hartford - Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposed 2011 budget would terminate almost $390 million in proposed state bonding projects for everything from athletic fields and courthouse renovations to housing for the poor.

When her list of more than 330 projects to be cut was released Tuesday, the reaction from legislators who had voted to fund those projects was fairly subdued.

They're used to governors proposing such cuts. And through her control of the State Bond Commission, Rell has already blocked much of this state spending, anyway.

Many of the projects Rell would officially remove from consideration for bonding have languished for so long that local officials already consider them dead, said Rep. Kevin Ryan, D-Montville.

"This is an annual event," said Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, noting that Rell had proposed repealing many of the same bonding authorizations a year earlier. "Every governor does it."

But Rell's proposal would formally pull the plug on hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to towns, cities, nonprofit organizations and companies that many legislators have already victoriously announced to constituents back home, only to wait in vain for money to be released into their respective communities.

"Some of them were there since she's been governor, and she hasn't been doing the appropriations," said House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, who said his staff is reviewing Rell's proposed cancellations to see which his caucus can support and which it will try to save. "They could be very vital programs that she just hasn't funded by putting them on a bond agenda."

As governor, Rell sets the agenda for the Bond Commission, where she controls, through her commissioners, all the votes. Once the commission has given its imprimatur to a bonding authorization, the state treasurer can issue bonds and begin directing proceeds to the recipients specified by the legislature.

Meet the new bonding

Rell's insistence on holding back allocations of bonding authorized by the legislature has long been a point of tension between the Republican governor and Democratic leaders, who have complained for years that she holds back aid for programs and institutions in Democratic districts.

Rell's proposed 2011 budget would cut bonding authorizations in part because Rell wants to do some bonding of her own.

The governor is proposing borrowing $100 million to set up a state loan-guarantee fund intended to stimulate $400 million in new lending by community banks to small and medium-sized businesses, which have struggled to get access to credit.

Rell also is proposing $21 million in funding for the state Department of Information Technology to build a new data center.

To do that bonding without blowing through the state's cap on bonded indebtedness, and without endangering the state's bond rating, legislators have to cut back on some of the pledges they have made but not yet filled to cities, towns and charity groups.

"We have billions and billions of dollars of bonds that have been authorized by the legislature over the years," Rell said in her budget address, when she proposed a new rule that would automatically cancel unused authorizations if they have been on the state's books for five years. "Some are for worthwhile statewide needs; many are not. But all could bankrupt us and all are counted by credit-rating agencies as liabilities."

But she may struggle to convince lawmakers to pull the plug on individual earmarks to their districts.

Donovan said a "blanket approach" to canceling old bonding authorizations was inappropriate, and lawmakers like Stillman said Rell's resistance to release bond funds over the past several years had shortchanged worthy agencies and also deprived the economy of investment that could create or preserve jobs.

Stillman pointed to an authorization of $1 million in state funds to help Waterford Country School, which is raising funds to build a gymnasium.

"They're waiting to build a gym and they're out there raising money," she said. "To cancel state support for a project that could provide construction jobs right now, and to make it more difficult to work with the children in their programs, I don't think shows much foresight."

Stillman also noted that she and other Senate Democrats had offered to meet with Rell to compile a list of authorizations that both sides were willing to see canceled, but that she had received no response from the administration.

Questioned about what the loss of bond funds would mean to projects in their communities, municipal officials had varying reactions.

One of the projects axed by Rell is a water main extension in Ledyard, a project that is estimated to cost $1 million. But the town's mayor, Fred B. Allyn Jr., said his community is not currently planning such a project. The town was working on a water main extension project about five years ago, but Allyn said he believes the town either scrapped the project or found alternate funding.

"We're researching this right now, but I have no reason now to believe it's an active situation where we need the money," Allyn said. "We're researching this in the planning office just to be sure this isn't something that is alive and needed."

Montville Mayor Joseph Jaskiewicz was frustrated but not surprised by the announcement of having funding for two major projects dismissed.

"I've been suspecting it for a while, even though people kept telling me it's not dead," he said Tuesday evening. "I respect the fact that the state is having financial difficulties … but give us something."

Jaskiewicz submitted the request for $800,000 to convert the old town hall along Route 32 into a new police station about four years ago. At that time, legislators submitted a new resolution that would have enabled the town to use the funding to build a new public safety building farther up Route 32.

"It definitely would have been a big help for us, especially on the public-safety building. We would have been way ahead of the game," Jaskiewicz said.

Regarding approval for $5 million for the Water Pollution Control Authority, the mayor said that request was made a couple of years ago to cover some costs of upgrading the treatment plant.

Backus seeks help

To The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, $1 million would help pay for a recent expansion project, and the hospital has contacted local legislators asking their help in saving the grant, spokesman Shawn Mawhiney said.

Backus was slated to receive the money to help pay for the expansion of its Emergency Department. Although the expansion was completed in 2007, Mawhiney said, the hospital is still paying off debt on the $50 million project.

"If we don't get it, that means that's less we have to spend on other health care needs," he said. "Hospitals are nonprofit organizations with slim operating margins, and emergency department visits are increasing every year because more people don't have insurance and aren't getting primary care."

Last year, the Backus emergency department cared for 60,000 patients, up from about 50,000 per year before the expansion. Mawhiney said the expansion was built in anticipation of the increase.

Also on the chopping block are two grants for the Community Health Center. The center's Groton site would have received $500,000 to enable it to move to a new location and renovate that space. The larger New London site would have received $1 million toward an expansion project that has been planned for several years.

Those funds would have been combined with a $900,000 federal grant announced this fall to pay for the first major expansion of the center since it opened in 1992.

Mark Maselli, executive director of the Community Health Center, said the loss of the state funds will hurt not just the health center and the patients who receive care there, but also those who would have been hired to do the renovations and build the addition.

"The one thing that will create jobs is construction dollars," he said. "I think the president realizes the importance of community health centers and the importance of getting jobs going right now. These are vital construction jobs. We're ready to do these projects. We hope she has a change of heart."

t.mann@theday.com

Day staff writers Matthew Collette, Megan Bard and Judy Benson contributed to this report.