State Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, made a pitch for repayment of Amistad contractors as she spoke in favor of the Sikorsky Aircraft deal during a special General Assembly session Wednesday.

"If we can spend $220 million for Sikorsky to stay in Connecticut, we can afford to pay our small businesses whose tax dollars helped pay to build the Amistad," she said in a speech on the House floor, according to a release. "These businesses then provided goods and services in good faith and got left holding the bag — in essence getting hit twice."

The now-defunct Amistad America, according to Urban, left $2 million in unpaid debts in its wake, a few thousand dollars here and a few thousand dollars there, spread across dozens of towns in the state. A new nonprofit group has taken over the ship, which is a replica of the one that was the site of a slave rebellion and the subject of a popular Steven Spielberg movie filmed partly in southeastern Connecticut, but the state has never made good on the unpaid bills.

"It's ridiculous," Urban said in a phone interview. "The state built and funded Amistad. ... I'm not going to let this go."

— Lee Howard