Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will announce a major transformation of the University of Connecticut Health Center today, including adding 100 students to the medical school, 48 students to the dental school, and 3,000 construction jobs in Farmington.
The $864 million plan includes the construction of a new, $318 million patient tower and parking garage, which would be used to treat patients. The current tower would be renovated for $163 million and would be used for research, Malloy said in an interview Monday with The Hartford Courant.
A new ambulatory care center would cost $203 million, while another $155 million would be spent to renovate the existing research facilities on the Farmington campus.
Malloy is taking the $362 million proposal that was already approved last year by the state legislature under Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and is more than doubling it.
"I was underwhelmed by the approach that the prior administration took,'' Malloy said in the interview. "It ignored the job-creating potential of that institution. It's a multi-pronged approach.''
While the Malloy plan is both larger and more expensive than the Rell proposal, it includes $338 million in bonds that have already been approved. As such, the latest plan calls for $254 million in new bonding, $203 million in private fundraising, and $69 million from the health center, according to Malloy's outline of the proposal.
A key change from the Rell plan is that the state lost its high-profile quest to obtain $100 million in federal money for a public hospital that had been inserted into a bill by then-U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd. Many insiders believed that Connecticut would receive the money because Dodd inserted the language into the landmark healthcare bill at the 11th hour, but the measure was a competitive grant that was won by Ohio State University's medical school.
Although he is not ruling out the possibility of receiving federal money in the future, Malloy noted that no federal funds are anticipated for the new plan.
The proposal would need approval by the Democratic-controlled legislature, but Malloy did not set an immediate timeframe as the General Assembly is rushing to complete its work by the deadline of June 8.
"It could be done by the end of the session. It could be done in a special session,'' Malloy said. "There's lots of different ways to do it.''
Senate Republican leader John McKinney, who was briefed on the plan by UConn officials and a representative of the governor's office, has questions about the funding of the project. Besides UConn, the state is considering spending millions of dollars on multiple projects, including the New Britain-to-Hartford busway and the rail line from New Haven to Massachusetts.
"The state has huge issues with respect to debt and unfunded liability,'' McKinney said Monday night. "At some point, we're borrowing too much money. ... The UConn people bristle when I say it, but Harvard does not have their own hospital, and Harvard, as far as I know, is world-renowned as the best there is.''