Marty Foncello is a husband and father of one and the current Republican State Representative for the 107th district, currently campaigning for re-election. District 107 covers Brookfield and parts of Bethel and Newtown.

Foncello has served as State Representative since 2023, but the position is only one of many that he has had over the years. Foncello was the first selectman of Brookfield from 1999 to 2003, and also served in the US Army for 28 years between the Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard.

When 9/11 happened in the middle of one of his first selectman terms, Foncello says that he got called to active duty and, for a period of six months, served as both first selectman and a US Army Officer. When he left his role as first selectman, he joined the newly formed Department of Homeland Security, which he retired from in June of 2022.

Foncello shared with The Newtown Bee that his long-standing drive for supporting others, whether from his years of serving as first selectman or in the US Army, carry over into his role as State Representative.

“I want to build on what I started in my first term [as State Representative], and try to lower taxes and keep costs down,” Foncello said.

Concerning energy and rising utility costs, Foncello referred to them as “the number one issue.” He said that the state needs to separate the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

“They have to operate independently,” Foncello continued. “We need to oversee that process because they need to be working in the best interests of the consumer.”

Foncello said that, whenever he goes door-to-door and sees people at various events, energy and rising utility costs are at the forefront of issues that people bring up to him. He joined fellow State Representative (R-106) Mitch Bolinsky and State Senator Tony Hwang for a Legislative Town Hall at Newtown Community Center in September to exclusively talk about the issue with the public.

“So many people were surprised with the additional costs and with the transparency that was put into the bill this year,” Foncello said. “We have to work on making things affordable for everyone, to work on a way to minimize the impact on people.”

Foncello adds that “the Republican caucus offered a solution to kind of bring the costs down and our suggestions were unheeded, but we’ll go back and work on it in January, given the opportunity.”

One of Foncello’s other goals, he said, is to continue to try and make it affordable for seniors to live here.

Foncello said that, “We want people to live here all their lives. I have three towns that I deal with, but I also want to make it affordable for everybody.”

He adds that they have made strides with affordability this past term by pushing for aging in place. Another way Foncello said they made strides in terms of affordability is through ArrayRx, a prescription drug discount card program that works to make prescriptions more affordable for people.

As a member of the House’s Aging, Appropriations, and Education committees, Foncello said that he has worked closely alongside Bolinsky for affordability for seniors. Foncello said he initiated legislation, which he and Bolinsky later co-sponsored, that creates a property tax exemption for veterans who have a permanent and total disability rating from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

“This makes it so veterans do not have to pay property taxes anymore on their homes, or on a car if they are renting a house,” Foncello said.

Should he be re-elected, Foncello said that he looks to “hit the ground running” at the start of January. He adds that he hopes to continue working on legislation to support seniors and veterans, and that he also wants to support local zoning and first responders.

Foncello said that he is opposed to state mandates or control over local zoning and that he believes “it’s up to the municipalities to decide for themselves how their towns and cities should develop. It shouldn’t be dictated to them.”

As for first responders, Foncello said that he wants to unshackle police departments that had been, with the police accountability bill, “kind of restricted in what they could do.”

“We need to go back to allowing them to do the job that we need to have done, and keep our people safe, both in the towns and on the highways,” Foncello continued. “There’s been a spike in accidents … so we need to do a better job of making sure to hold those who are impaired accountable and to minimize their impact on the others who are driving.”

Foncello said that he was ultimately excited to work with colleagues across the aisle, Republicans and Democrats alike.

“We work together to get things done, and I look forward to seeing them again,” Foncello said. “I know everybody has an election this year, so we’ll see how it turns out in a few weeks. It’s not that far down the road.”

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.