Incumbent Republican 106th District State Representative Mitch Bolinsky and his Democratic challenger, local Board of Education Vice Chairman Rebekah Harriman-Stites, both sat down with The Newtown Bee recently to offer perspectives on where Connecticut stands today and how they hope to address a number of primarily fiscal challenges that impact everything from local property taxes and Newtown’s education budget to state pensions and revenue shortfalls.

Rep Bolinsky, vying for his fourth term, currently serves on the Connecticut legislature’s Appropriations Committee, Education Committee, and Aging Committee. But he said that he still considers one-on-one constituent service as his top priority — one that he makes himself available to address, “24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

If given the opportunity to return to Hartford for a fourth term, Rep Bolinsky said he is ready to work collaboratively to tackle the state’s long-term economic concerns, which he refers to as, “...30 years of fiscal tomfoolery,” with transparency and inclusivity — tapping bipartisan relationships he has successfully forged (and will hopefully continue to develop) since he first took office days after the Sandy Hook tragedy.

In the most recent session, he looked back on accomplishments that included increasing local Education Funding $360,000; collaborating to deliver a second straight no tax increase compromise budget; and playing a role in introducing and passing legislation to prevent the Governor’s “draconian” midyear cuts to Newtown’s educational and municipal state revenue-sharing grants.

Regarding his work on the controversial Educational Cost Sharing formula, Rep Bolinsky was pleased that a new working formula was put in place.

“Whether it’s a success or not, time will tell,” he said. “But it’s a beautiful thing because it doesn’t have ten years of political baggage weighing it down. So right now, the ECS is probably as true as it’s going to be because we start it again this year. The question is how do we address it — and is money the thing we address it with?”

Among many constituent-driven initiatives, Rep Bolinsky said he worked with a Newtown advocate for criminal justice reform to pass a law requiring the admission of newly-discovered evidence to retry and free wrongfully convicted persons; worked with a Sandy Hook parent to pass first-in-the-nation law recognize Amniotic Fluid Embolisms (AFE) as a rare disease — requiring education, as well as requiring Connecticut hospitals to treat and track it; and legislated to end pesticide misting devices to protect pollinators.

He also cosponsored legislation on school counselors, classroom safety, dyslexia education, and restoring an employment program for special needs high school grads; cosponsored and advocated expanded use of domestic abuser registries for women, families, and pets; and legislated to end the dual arrest requirement in domestic violence situations.

Speaking about what he referred to as the missing element of the dyslexia legislation that mandates certain levels of educator training to identify youths with the learning challenge, Rep Bolinsky said he is ready to go back and fight to include requirements for minimum staffing levels in special education departments. He said districts that strive to provide the best special education services are too often victims of their success and see a disproportionate number of families requiring special needs supports flocking to those communities demanding, and in many cases initiating, legal action to get services.

“I’m convinced that if every school district in the state is cooperative [regarding minimum special education staffing levels], it would cost less to have the specialists necessary to properly educate kids with slightly different learning needs than litigating for services on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

‘The Funding Beast’

This year, Rep Bolinsky said he’s prepared to join with his legislative colleagues to battle once again with “the funding beast.”

“The liabilities of the state are absorbing our programming budgets everywhere we go,” he said. “We have to start addressing paying down our obligations and literally come to the table together and make commitments.”

Rep Bolinsky said his many constituents in Newtown work in unionized jobs, and “they are not all or nothing people.”

“They understand Connecticut has a pension system that could go insolvent if we don’t give it some sunshine, and then they get nothing,” he said. “We don’t want their jobs; we just want permission to re-evaluate the defined benefits in favor of a defined contribution plan for all new hires. And then let’s talk about a two-tiered program for all who are in the program now, where they get to keep their vesting in everything they’ve invested in so far. And leave the retirees alone; we’ve made a promise to them, and we’ve got to figure out a way to make the process solvent.”

Rep Bolinsky sees a need to return experienced incumbents like himself and those in the Newtown delegation, which is exclusively Republican, to Hartford for the next two years because so far, he said, both major party gubernatorial candidates “have staked positions that they haven’t elaborated on enough.”

“Stefanowski doesn’t explain how he’s going to eliminate the state income tax,” Bolinsky said. “I’d love to get rid of it, but let’s be real — we’ve got $80 million in state pension liability.”

Turning back to the budget challenges and the need for continuity in the statehouse, Rep Bolinsky noted that since 2017, he and his colleagues successfully fought to maintain the state spending cap, the bonding cap, and helped maintain the volatility cap. If reelected, he said he will focus on developing and improving revenue sources — but not on the backs of his constituents.

“I will not vote for tolls or taxes under any circumstances unless we find ways to cut the waste first,” he said. And he claims to have a very good idea where to find that waste.

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Rep Bolinsky said he requested and received a “one million cell” budget spreadsheet from the state Office of Policy and Management (OPM), “that was designed to confound me.” Then he applied his expertise to reformat it in a way that made it much easier to identify areas of waste by both agency and category.

“I can tell you with confidence that the waste is more than ten percent,” he said. “And we need to cut into that with transparency and honesty that builds trust and protects the jobs of current state workers. Those are not people who should be messed with, so let’s build a plan and look at the waste, and then think about how to re-structure our most expensive state agencies.”

One critical step, he said, is making the existing technology in some of the most cost-heavy agencies compatible. That way, staffers have the tools to identify the comparative few who are gaming the system because of its current lack of integration, but who are currently doing so for a measurable amount of money.

With state of the art technology and appropriate training, he believes it could eliminate $1.5 to $2 billion in state government waste annually.

“The reason I think I’ve gotten good at this is because of the way I work,” Rep Bolinsky said. “I don’t mean harm to anybody, and if I need to ask a favor on the other side of the aisle, I am always prepared to reciprocate. I never get into a fight or talk badly of anybody unless they stab me in the back. And I have a much longer fuse when it comes to defending myself than when it comes to defending a constituent or a cause that needs my help. I like to solve problems — that’s in my DNA.”

A Foundation

Of Experience

Ms Harriman-Stites moved to Newtown about a year and a half after Rep Bolinsky, about 17 years ago. According to her biography, she has long dedicated herself to building a foundation of public service and community advocacy.

As the parent of a Newtown public school student, she believes maintaining strong schools are a top priority. To that end, she ran for and was elected to the Newtown Board of Education in 2015 and named the Board’s vice-chair in 2017.

She told The Newtown Bee that if elected, she would go to Hartford and apply those first-hand insights and her considerable committee experience, which includes chairing the Newtown school district’s Policy Committee, the CIP/Finance Committee, and the district’s Superintendent Search Committee. She has also participated as a member of the district’s Safety Committee and Contract Negotiation Committee.

In 2010, Ms Harriman-Stites became co-founder and chief development officer of HK Consulting Group, a boutique fund development firm focused on building the resources and capacity of nonprofit organizations and municipalities throughout the Northeast. If elected, she will bring more than 15 years of fundraising, communications, and event planning experience to Hartford on Newtown’s behalf.

“I really think that the key to growing our economy is not only looking at bringing in and retaining large employers, but focusing on small businesses and figuring out ways to support them so they can be sustainable, hire more workers, and be competitive,” she said. “Training is really important, so we need to look for ways to make community colleges more affordable so we can get our workforce skills to work in jobs of the 21st Century — especially green jobs and tech jobs.”

Ms Harriman-Stites is also a founding member of the My Sandy Hook Family Fund, which raised more than $1.5 million to directly assist the families of the victims of the December 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Working with Connecticut’s federal delegation, the My Sandy Hook Family Fund was the only charity formed in response to the shooting that was able to distribute funds directly to the most impacted families, and for her work, she was named a “Hero” by Money Magazine.

Ms Harriman-Stites believes a critical way to retain and help state businesses of all sizes become more sustainable is by reducing the multitude of taxes that inflict “a million cuts.”

“There’s the business entity tax, along with sales taxes, and the cost to manage and administer paying those taxes,” she said. “There also has to be a way to impact property taxes on businesses in a way that is equitable, but helps those businesses grow. Becoming a women- and minority-owned business, I learned about all these regulations and steps that are difficult to navigate and all the agencies you have to visit to get established. If we had a more cohesive system to get established, it would go far to making Connecticut a more business-friendly state.”

Another critical element that Ms Harriman-Stites says affects business costs, productivity, and the quality of life for those who commute to work in the state — and anyone who is simply trying to get from point A to point B — is fast tracking transportation infrastructure improvements.

“By making it easier to get around, we can make Connecticut an even better state for people to live and want to work,” she said. “We want to keep our kids here after they finish school to live and work, and we’re not competitive with other states, including those surrounding us, right now.”

Tapping her background in social work, Ms Harriman-Stites believes as an elected representative, she will head to Hartford with an ability to unite stakeholders around the same table who are most affected by decisions that state government is making — often without the knowledge or consultation those affected constituents can contribute.

“For example, you need to ask small business owners how we can make it easier for them, set some benchmarks through honest conversation, and then be willing to stick our necks out and lead,” she said, “not get mired down in a ‘this is the way we always did it’ thing. This is what’s been hurting our state for a very long time. We have too many folks in Hartford sticking to the same formula of kicking the can down the road and not being willing to propose real change. I’m not scared of that.”

Constituent Feedback

As she talks with constituents and knocks on doors, Ms Harriman-Stites is hearing they want state government and those who serve it to do more than just the requisite to keep getting reelected.

“It’s not just about being a nice person. It’s about what you actually do in a real and significant way to give a voice to the residents of Newtown — even if it means doing things that take you out of your comfort zone,” she said. “I’ve also heard a growing divisive narrative — the cities are trying to take your money; it’s the seniors versus the school parents; it’s the Democrats’ poor economic policies that are preventing us from getting where we need to go. But you won’t hear me speak like that.

“You’re not a true collaborator and you’re not truly working across the aisle if you’re coming from a place of us versus them. People are sick of it,” she added. “We’ve knocked on over 5,000 doors, and that’s what people are talking about. They want to know how I’m going to lead from a different place.”

And they are not necessarily referring to Republicans.

“It’s Democrats, people digging their heels in, and it’s not moving Connecticut forward,” Ms Harriman-Stites said. “It’s things like the governor developing budgets in a vacuum and not bringing people around the table and keeping Republicans out of the room — that’s despicable. I don’t buy that, and I’ll fight against it every chance I get.”

Looking at other revenue opportunities, Ms Harriman-Stites is willing to look at developing efficiencies along with alternative sources, including a carbon tax that will also help the environment, tolls, and the eventual legalizing of marijuana for recreational use.

“I support legalizing marijuana, but not before looking at it a little closer to be sure there is not a direct correlation to opioid use,” Ms Harriman-Stites said. “For me, that would be the one caveat. But if it happens, it will have a positive impact on revenues as well as the cost of operating our criminal justice system.”

Regarding tolls, Ms Harriman-Stites sees them as virtually inevitable.

“I don’t like tolls, but I don’t trust people who say they will never support tolls because the state is not in a financial position to close the door on anything,” Ms Harriman-Stites said, adding that she likes the idea of giving a state tax credit to state residents to offset out-of-pocket toll expenses, congestion pricing, and having out-of-state users pay more than in-state drivers.

Among other constituent services, Ms Harriman-Stites said she would support additional tax credits to help keep seniors in Connecticut, developing alternatives to train and provide a greater pool of home companions and health aides, boosting transportation access, and developing other ways to help the state’s aging population age in place.

Ms Harriman-Stites said she is concerned about Newtown getting its fair share of education funding, making decisions about our education system that do not reflect a true need, and looking at the costly area of funding special education both at the state and local level.

“I’d love to look at a ‘money follows the child’ system because our first priority should be to ensure that every student has what they need to be successful,” she said. “I think in a lot of districts, budget considerations play a role in decisions about what support services to give a child, and that should never be the case.”

Defining herself as a “socially liberal person,” Ms Harriman-Stites said she is a Democrat ready to go to Hartford to “fight for a woman’s right to choose, equal access to health care, preserving and strengthening our gun laws here, increasing access to mental health services, paid family leave, and because I’m a business owner, I’m a little more fiscally conservative than some would give me credit for — and that’s important.”

Learn more about Rep Mitch Bolinsky [naviga:u]by clicking here[/naviga:u]. Learn more about Rebekah Harriman-Stites [naviga:u]by clicking here[/naviga:u].