UConn Plan Passes House, Heads to Malloy

Just three weeks after its initial unveiling, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s $864 million plan to turn UConn Health Center into one of the state’s primary economic drivers has cleared the legislature.

According to a CT Mirror report, the plan passed in the House just after 2 a.m. this morning. It cleared the Senate June 1 and now awaits Malloy’s signature.

Malloy is calling the plan Bioscience Connecticut to stress its potential to propel the state to the forefront of the bioscience industry by adding funds, staff and facilities for research and startup companies to Farmington's UConn Health Center, which includes John Dempsey Hospital, the medical and dental schools and research facilities.

“This is about creating new jobs, sustained economic development, and staking out the ground that will again make Connecticut a leader in an emerging industry,” Malloy said in a statement after the vote. “It sends a clear message and plants a very firm flag in terms of Connecticut’s commitment to being a leader in the bioscience industry. The state’s flagship public university and its Health Center must be looked at as more than just a school or just a hospital – we need to view them as economic drivers and ways in which we can leverage our education system into long-term, sustained economic growth.”

The plan would also construct a new 234-bed patient tower, up from its the hospital's current 224. But its 40-bed neonatal intensive care unit would be transferred to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center control, allowing for an additional 40 adult beds. A garage and ambulatory care facility would also be added.

By Malloy’s numbers, construction of the facilities would create 3,000 jobs annually from 2012 to 2018, a number that brought New England Regional Council of Carpenters representatives to endorse the plan. It would leave the state with 16,000 permanent, high-quality jobs by 2037, Malloy said.

It would also cost the state $254 million in new bonding, combined with $338 million approved last year. The health center is expected to contribute $69 million and $203 million for an outpatient center would come from private financing.