Assembly Candidates Relate Their Views On Seven Key Issues
Each of the three Assembly Districts that overlay Newtown have major party candidates vying for seats.
The 106th District has Democratic challenger Matt Cole facing incumbent Republican first-term Representative Mitch Bolinsky; the Second District has Democratic challenger Candace Fay taking on incumbent Republican Dan Carter; and the 112th District has Republican J.P. Sredzinski facing Democrat Jen Aguilar for a seat being vacated by five-term incumbent DebraLee Hovey.
Ms Fay and Ms Aguilar each dropped out of The Newtown Bee’s October 21 Candidates Forum at Edmond Town Hall because of sudden family health concerns, so they responded to identical questions asked of Mr Cole, and Reps Bolinsky and Carter at the forum.
Below are those questions, and the Assembly candidates’ encapsulated responses to help Newtown voters better understand their positions on key issues facing the state in the coming months and years.
1. Since you are seeking to represent Newtown in the legislature, what is your assessment of the Newtown community in 2014, and how will that that inform you as a state legislator or a potential legislator?
Ms Aguilar said Connecticut needs to ensure its children are getting the best education they can to become a skilled workforce to attract employers.
“We also need to keep businesses in our towns and state by ensuring we have a tax code that is competitive with other locales that want our jobs. We need to ensure we are funding the maintenance and improvement of our roads and railways so employers can efficiently move their goods and employees can easily commute,” Ms Aguilar added. “All the monies appropriated for the transportation fund should be used for the transportation fund and not the general fund.”
Finally, the 112th District Democratic challenger cited studies showing early intervention as key to mental health stability.
“We need to ensure our school staff is adequately trained to pinpoint any behavior red flags,” she said. “We need to support programs such as Community Support Programs offered through the DMHAS [Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services], looking for alternatives to mental health through individualized therapeutic care.”
Mr Sredzinski said he lives in Monroe near the border of Newtown, and that he shops and visits restaurants and other businesses here.
“What I think is important to Newtown is maintaining its character which it has done [tremendously] even in the wake of the local tragedy we had,” he said. “Economy, taxes, and affordability are things I hear nonstop. Whether it’s a senior who no longer can afford their home; a 21-year-old who is looking to find a job in Connecticut; or maybe someone in their 30s who is trying to keep their home but just can’t afford to stay in the state.”
Mr Sredzinski said Connecticut must shrink the tax burden on residents while creating a business-friendly environment where businesses want to come, and to stay.
Rep Bolinsky said Newtown is “the shining star of the State of Connecticut — plain and simple.”
“We have great schools, we’ve always had great schools, and we do it sometimes on a shoestring budget. The can-do attitude of the people who serve our schools is remarkable and something everybody in the state has to be jealous of,” Rep Bolinsky said.
He noted a number of local leaders who continue to serve and build strong financial and leadership foundations, helped the community attain a AAA bond rating.
“Things are truly nicer in Newtown,” he said. “But what we have to do is get down to the business of letting the State of Connecticut be as good as Newtown. We need to work on the affordability issues; we have to help our seniors living on fixed incomes stay in Newtown; we’ve got to stop job losses.”
Rep Bolinsky said other lower-tax states are not only taking jobs from the state and Newtown, but those states are taking Newtown’s children.
“Our children are educated here and they move away — it’s a brain drain,” he added. We’ve got a lot of work to do to be as good as Newtown, as a state.”
Mr Cole said he has interacted with more than 800 local families knocking on doors in recent months, and that he has learned everyone from families to seniors to singles are struggling.
“Property taxes for seniors are a serious burden,” he said, noting that during the recession, the state did not cut aid to municipalities.
“So we were fortunate there, but more needs to be done — talking to elected leaders in town and [appointed] commissioners to get a more complete picture of how people are struggling,” he said.
Mr Cole also called for public investment to improve infrastructure, especially bridges and roads, creating new jobs while making a better environment for businesses to locate to Connecticut.
“People are frustrated — they feel like they are not being listened to — and it’s time for them to be listened to, long past time,” he said.
Rep Carter said each town in Connecticut has its own challenges, and there is a vast difference between the needs of cities like Hartford, and other much smaller communities. But he observed that Newtown does share many of the concerns of its larger and smaller counterparts across the state.
“It’s important that I recognize that Newtown is still coming off the tragedy of what happened in Sandy Hook,” Rep Carter said. “And there will certainly be things we will continue to address as a legislature, to make sure we are funding adequately for mental health services. For instance, in the last session we fought to put money in the budget for a school-based health center here in Newtown.”
Rep Carter said Newtown is also facing having a lot of homes for sale, and bringing in jobs to Connecticut is something he believes the current administration has failed to deliver through its strategic funding allocations to specific or key commercial developments and retention initiatives.
He also believes the next session will see a heavy focus on education.
“Basically, what’s happening is teachers and administrators feel they are losing local control over what’s happening with their curriculum,” Rep Carter said. “As you know this was pushed down from the top.”
Ms Fay said she believes Newtown community is ready for a change.
“They have seen a state representative voting No to proposed legislation simply because he can — not because it is what his constituents are asking him to do or because it is in the best interest of our community,” Ms Fay replied.
2. If you had the opportunity to roll back the gun legislation passed in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School would you? And what aspects of those gun laws would you change? Conversely, if you had the opportunity to strengthen those laws, would you?
Ms Aguilar said she fully stands behind PA 13-3.
“Part of the bill deals with more security in our schools,” she added, “I would also like to look into more early intervention in the schools concerning mental health.”
Mr Sredzinski said when considering the state’s new gun laws, that most legislation, perhaps all legislation, is not perfect. And as a municipal emergency dispatch supervisor in Stratford, he sees the issues and challenges facing individuals with mental health challenges.
“It is something that needs to be addressed at the state and the local level, with the consideration of providing funded mandates versus unfunded mandates,” he said. “Also the school security portion [of the law] is a nice start, but it should be expanded to parochial and private schools as well.”
Rep Bolinsky said he voted to support the state’s new gun laws, “even though it was not a perfect bill.”
The incumbent lawmaker said the content of the gun bill could be improved, and lamented how quickly the bill was implemented, lacking adequate guidance and input from the public.
“We’ve literally made felons out of what were legal gun owners in some cases,” he said. “There has to be some form of look back, where there should be some consideration or amnesty for people who are and were legal gun owners to come out of the closet.”
Rep Bolinsky said on the other hand, the state needs to strengthen aspects of the law tied to background checks, mental health look-backs — supporting the integration of local, state, and federal computer networks that track possible threats.
Rep Bolinsky also touted legislation he supported providing school safety funds to private and parochial schools in Connecticut.
Mr Cole said the gun law should not and will not be repealed, adding that “it should be strengthened.” He favors making the states open carry laws more restrictive as well, while doing more to strengthen the state’s mental health systems, create more early intervention for elementary children, and supporting more community intervention programs.
He cited two large organizations that serve mental and developmentally disabled populations that had to merge to survive.
“We need to work on taking all the compassion we’ve always had, not just since 12/14, but the compassion I have known my entire life in this community,” the 106th District challenger said, “and take it to the rest of the state — show them that we can do better, we must do better.”
Rep Carter recalled a constituent who was arrested for breach of peace when he was sighted at a pizza restaurant with a firearm being visibly carried, and said while the state legislature was expected to address open carry laws, its members did not because “the gun debate itself is a can of worms nobody wants to touch.”
As a member of the legislature’s gun violence working group, he was shown a Democratic and a GOP proposal saying it was dubbed a “bipartisan proposal.”
“The vitriol itself in the gun debate we had was sad to see,” Rep Carter said. “This bill pitted neighbor against neighbor — I saw a level of political correctness in Newtown that was really bad because there were people here who were really hurting, who also wanted to talk about their Second Amendment rights, and nobody could talk about it honestly.”
He said the bill should have gone through committee — but the legislature needs to look forward, instead of looking back at repealing the new gun legislation.
Ms Fay said she would not roll back the 2013 gun safety legislation.
“I would strengthen the law by adding safe storage aspects for both firearms and ammunition as well as enhancing penalties for illegal gun trafficking,” she replied. “I think what gets lost on some people is that the law that was enacted was targeted at enhancing gun safety and awareness — it was not targeted at the criminals who possess illegal firearms on our streets.”
The Second District challenger believes that the carriers of illegal guns need to be punished more severely.
“Specifically, I would like to see it as a statutorily ineligible crime for the Accelerated Rehabilitation Program, which allows many first-time offenders a get-out-of- jail-free card,” she said.
3. Last spring the legislature raised a bill that would roll back some of the privacy protections enacted in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook School, specifically regarding the release of crime scene photos of homicides. The bill stalled and was not enacted, but the issue is still on the “to do” lists of several interest groups. What, specifically, is your position on this issue and more generally on the topic of privacy protections for crime victims?
Ms Aguilar believes a victim’s right to privacy when tragedy occurs outweighs the public’s right to know.
“There are ways to release information without releasing photos which infringe on individual rights,” the 112th District challenger said. “I would not stand behind any effort to roll back privacy protections laws.”
Mr Sredzinski said Freedom of Information laws are important, particularly in terms of what local and state political bodies are doing, but he supports protecting documents and pictures that were withheld following 12/14.
Rep Bolinsky said FOI is vital to a free and democratic society, but there are limits to decency, privacy, and dignity. And the release of crime scene photos, or tabloid reporters looking for 12/14 death records, is offensive.
“We are not a circus, we are a community where a terrible, terrible crime happened,” he said. “When you have minors who are victims of violent crimes, I think it’s ok at the discretion of the victims’ parents to lock down graphic images.”
Mr Cole talked about how he studied issues in emergency management before going into social work training. He said he learned that there are certain things that “the public does not need to know — and never needs to know because they don’t serve any public good. Among those are crime scene photos of victims and the location of where those victims are buried.”
He said post 12/14, he could not come up with a reason to justify making the victims crime scene photos public.
“There was no public good to be served by releasing those photos,” he said.
Rep Carter said he, and Reps Bolinsky and Hovey were instrumental in arguing to protect victims rights by blocking the unchecked availability of homicide crime scene photos. He said they were trying to balance victims’ privacy with open government.
“I don’t think anybody should have their picture, whether it’s a murder or horrible accident, you have some right to privacy,” Rep Carter said. “I don’t think that picture should be allowed for public dissemination.”
He also supported providing journalists access to view such photos in a controlled viewing environment.
“Just because the state comes in and investigates something that happened, it doesn’t necessarily mean all that has to be public information,” he added. “I think that’s what we wrestle with now. We want to make sure we’re [(supporting] Freedom of Information, but also protecting families.”
Ms Fay said that crime victims and their rights are often forgotten.
“I will do everything I can to protect and advocate on behalf of the victims of all crimes, including those of domestic violence,” she added.
4. The people of Connecticut pay a mix of taxes and fees including income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes. Nobody likes them; everybody pays them. Is Connecticut’s system of taxation fair? If not, who are the winners and losers? Does our tax system need to be reformed, and if so, how?
Ms Aguilar said lawmakers need to examine Connecticut’s entire tax structure as a source of revenue.
“A long-term plan should include tax cuts, but right now we need to stabilize spending and work on the growth of business as a source of revenue for our citizens and government,” she said. “To bring in new business we need a top-notch transportation infrastructure, a trained and talented work force, and to ensure our tax dollars are being spent where they have been intended.”
Ms Aguilar said the state needs to ensure its tax code is completive with neighboring states so businesses want to come to and stay in Connecticut.
Mr Sredzinski noted that this year, May 5 was “tax freedom day,” the last day Connecticut residents stopped contributing all their earnings back to the state in the form of taxation.
“In 2011, Malloy and the Legislative Democrats put together a budget to close a gap in revenue,” Mr Sredzinski noted. “He increased sales tax, he increased income tax for people making over $100,000 a year, he put tax on the cabaret that plays music, removed tax exemptions on inexpensive clothing and footwear, and put a tax increase on yarn.”
The 112th District contender said the state’s leadership in recent years levied $2.6 billion in new taxes and three years later, the state is facing a $1.1 billion deficit.
“Until we get [spending] under control, we can implement all the taxes we want until everybody leaves the state,” he said. “We need to make Connecticut’s tax policy more fair, more consistent and more predictable so businesses know what they are getting into, and what they are getting when they come to Connecticut.
Mr Cole said Connecticut’s tax system can be more progressive, and that there are ways to reduce the sales tax burden, which has a ripple effect on financially struggling families. He said when lower income families are disproportionately saddled with increasing tax debt, it creates a drag on the entire state’s economy.
“I think we need to have a Buffett Rule in Connecticut where those that make [seven-figure salaries] or more a year pay more taxes, so we can fund programs for people who are underserved, or the people who are scraping by, or not scraping by at all,” the 106th District challenger stated.
Rep. Bolinsky said taxes are among the biggest problem facing the state.
“Connecticut is the most reliant state in the nation on property taxes. We need to overhaul the tax system altogether,” he said. Referring to his opponent, the incumbent lawmaker said there are not enough rich people to tax to offset the needs of Connecticut’s underserved.
Rep Bolinsky countered that the state is raising taxes on everybody, which is driving residents and businesses out of Connecticut.
“When businesses leave the state, jobs leave the state, and when jobs leave the state, people leave the state,” he said. “It’s a never-ending circle of doom.”
He favors lowering corporate, sales, fuel, and income tax rates to attract residents and businesses back to the state — creating a larger pool of taxpayers that will begin to generate more revenue than could be gained from taxing its richest individuals.
Rep Carter questioned whether the tax system in Connecticut can be revisited, if spending is not also brought under control. He also criticized regulatory enforcement that sometimes punitively punishes small businesses.
“There are ways to privatize things that make sense — farm out prison cafeterias is one way. There are hundreds of things like that we can’t get pushed through,” Rep Carter said. He also said lawmakers need to look harder at state nonprofits to be sure they are not unnecessarily wasting state funds.
“These are things politically that nobody will touch,” he said. He also criticized the sweeping of funds from the general fund for special interests; creating a busway in Hartford at the expense of fixing bridges; and warned about a looming deficit that will trigger further tax increases if spending is not brought under control.
Ms Fay stated that Connecticut’s tax system is fair.
“You’re right no one likes to pay taxes, however they are a necessary evil,” she said. “Connecticut is still in the worst recession experienced since the Great Depression. I think we could be more creative about taxing the illegal immigrants that are present utilizing our communities’ resources and agencies. She noted that Connecticut’s House Democrats have proposed numerous times a $20,000 exemption on car property tax; unfortunately it has never been passed.
5. Gov Malloy has said “There is no going back” on establishing Common Core educational standards in Connecticut. What is your assessment of the implementation of Common Core standards? Is there a need for universal benchmarks? And if you oppose the implementation of Common Core standards, what would you propose for setting and enhancing educational standards for Connecticut’s schools?
Ms Aguilar says as a mother of three in the Monroe school system she knows how important Common Core is.
“The standards of Common Core are definitely standards I want my children to have,” Ms Aguilar said. “What I don’t want for them is to have teachers teaching to the test.”
With the teacher evaluations so highly emphasizing test scores [45 percent] as part of their evaluation, the 112th District contender says she knows many teachers who feel this is how they must teach now.
“I would like more meetings with parents and administrators to talk about the concerns over Common Core and explore necessary improvements and ways to help those having problems with it,” she added. “Change takes time, but there always needs to be discussion while it is going on and exploring ways to smooth the transition.”
Mr Sredzinski said he had issues with how Common Core was implemented.
“It was declared by the governor and that was it,” he said. “We need to have standards, consistent standards across the board. And a framework that we can follow.”
The candidate said the state needs to involve teachers and administrators in the same way police officers and chiefs are involved in new laws related to law enforcement.
“You need to include the people you are working with, and who are working with [Common Core] on a daily basis,” he concluded.
Rep Bolinsky said Common Core implementation has failed so far, and noted that he supported the idea of holding a public hearing on its implementation.
“Standards are important, very important, but individuality and allowing children to thrive within their community needs the expression of individuality of the teachers,” Rep Bolinsky said. “We need to take this thing apart and remove the overwhelming focus on testing, benchmarking, and the collection of data on our children.”
The lawmaker also expressed concern about children’s privacy related to the amount of personalized data that would result from Common Core practices as they exist today.
Mr Cole said that he favors Common Core, while admitting its implementation in Connecticut was rushed locally and nationally. He said he talks a lot about Common Core with his girlfriend, who is a teacher. “There are some pros — it develops critical thinking skills, and allows teachers more resources to work with children who are at different levels,” he said. “However, one important stakeholder group is left out — the students. They need to have a voice in this.”
Mr Cole said there is confusion at all levels about implementation, and “we owe it to our kids to get this right.”
Rep Carter said the governor is “dead wrong,” when he suggests the state cannot revisit Common Core implementation.
“When Common Core came out, the ideals behind Common Core made sense,” he said. “The problem was in the implementation, as I see it.”
Rep Carter said standards are ok, but administrators and educators still need to have local control.
“I know we want to make everything objective in politics, but some things are subjective. With Common Core, we need to focus more on a feedback system than a heavy-handed implementation,” he concluded. “Part of that is getting the legislature involved. Remember, this was pushed through. We can step in and fix that and make sure when Common Core is implemented it makes sense.”
Ms Fay believes the Common Core educational standards were well intentioned, however, the implementation of them was not done effectively.
“Our public school teachers were not trained on these new standards, they were simply handed a test to teach to. This is a problem,” the Second District challenger said. “In my opinion, teaching to a test is not learning. I don’t believe that a blanket mandate is the answer.”
Ms Fay said communities hire teachers who are capable, and it is the community that should be responsible for gauging whether those teachers are performing their job adequately.
6. Three quarters of state roads, according to the federal Department of Transportation, are in poor or mediocre condition. Connecticut's Transportation Safety Board has calculated that the state's congested highways cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity losses, increased operating expenses, and less effective employee recruitment efforts. How did Connecticut drive into this economic pothole, and how can the state get out of it?
Ms Aguilar said the state is subject to a harsh climate that is not kind to roads and railways.
“We can’t do much about that, but we can fund our transportation infrastructure better,” she said. “Since 2005, $1.2 billion has been taken from our state special transportation fund and shifted to the general fund. Much of this shift has been used for deficit reduction.”
To correct that mistake, Ms Aguilar supports reducing spending that feeds the deficit reduction, while ensuring the state uses transportation fund money only for transportation needs.
“We also need to develop a long range transportation plan that prioritizes investment in maintenance and improvements,” she added.
Mr Sredzinski said public safety, education and infrastructure are three main pillars of government.
“We have a lot of work to do when it comes to state roadways,” he said. “The state of our roads is (connected) to our state’s economy. UConn’s recent report shows that the economy is stalled at 2007, and I believe our infrastructure is a big reason for that. The only thing that can come from ignoring our infrastructure is a worse economy, more dangerous roads and a poorer quality of life.”
Rep Bolinsky said Connecticut comes up low in rankings of states on several fronts, but the state’s rating in one study for infrastructure is 49 of 50.
“Aside from [addressing] the neglect we’ve seen, one of the ways to start is to stop sapping money from our transportation fund,” Rep. Bolinsky said. “Every project we handle is on an emergency basis. You don’t wait for things to break to fix them, and you plan for capacity.”
Citing the high gas and diesel taxes, the incumbent lawmaker said the state needs to sweep those taxes back into the transportation fund instead of the general fund.
Mr Cole said Connecticut’s infrastructure failures are rooted in the state’s lack of investment.
“We can make the decision that it is important enough to us that we can spend the money on it,” he said. “Where’s the action on expanding our highways, to handle the volume of traffic for our population now, not our population of 40 years ago.”
Rep Carter compared the 40 years of degradation to the state’s infrastructure to nearly 40 years of Democratic control in Hartford.
“The reason it happens is because we make political decisions about practical matters,” Rep. Carter said. “It’s difficult in politics to get people together and to do something long term. Whoever the next governor is, needs to get the legislature together to agree on a long-term plan that will take our infrastructure out 10 or 15 years.”
The lawmaker criticized the targets of spending, returning to the Hartford bus way that he said will not have enough ridership to cover its own operating costs, and will end up being funded on the backs of taxpayers across Connecticut.
Ms Fay believes Connecticut got into the situation it’s in because of deferred maintenance of its roads and bridges.
“We must leverage more federal dollars to match our monies to fix our aging road system,” she said. “I would suggest that we convene a summit of our state legislative leaders, our state transportation officials and our congressional delegation to find a joint solution.”
7. Since small business is the backbone of this country - what two things will the candidates do to find new business and retain the present small businesses in Connecticut during their stay in office? And while we're on the subject, maybe you could offer your views on the possibilities and/or the limitations of state grants and incentives for business and industry.
Ms Aguilar said to attract new business, the first thing to do is invest in the future employees of this state, and to ensure that public school students are getting the best, affordable education, continuing their education in the State of Connecticut and staying here for employment.
“We also need to ensure our roads are safe and efficient for the people who are working and living here, our commuters,” she said. “The gas tax must be used exclusively to fund the transportation budget so that we can do maintenance and improvements when and where needed. We also need to ensure we are lowering the cost of energy in the state, by investing in natural gas expansion and renewable energy and to continue to offer incentives for alternate energy use.”
Ms Aguilar believes offering incentives to companies to come or stay here is a Band Aid – “One that I do not object to but it cannot be a long term solution.”
“We need a trained workforce that employers want to attract and retain; we need to have a tax code that is competitive with other locales who want our jobs; and we need to face reality and prioritize and take actions now or we will continue to implement ad hoc actions that mask but don’t eliminate problems,” the 112th District challenger concluded.
Mr Sredzinski said it is important for lawmakers to realize the true local value of small businesses, and that Connecticut supports programs that spur and are friendly to small businesses.
“Connecticut has some of the worst licensing practices for small businesses,” he said based on his conversations with local small business owners.
He criticized the state’s business entity tax, “a tax just for existing – it’s completely inappropriate, it’s unfair, and in my mind, it needs to be repealed.”
“As a representative in Hartford, I hope to bring these concerns up there and get them fixed,” the 112th District challenger said. “The macro, as well as the micro issues.”
Rep. Bolinsky said Connecticut can attract more business to the state is by lowering corporate taxes, and reforming income tax laws, with the effect of the resulting improved economy being increasingly lower tax rates.
“We have a problem, we can isolate the problem, now it’s just having the courage to deal with it,” Rep. Bolinsky said. “Picking winners and losers is not what government is supposed to do. Level the playing field and everybody gets to thrive – those that innovate can thrive.”
The incumbent Republican also supports rolling back the business entity tax, and rethinking the state’s regulatory climate.
Mr Cole said the state could do better by promoting programs like “Step-Up,” which helps small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to hire veterans and long-term unemployed with subsidies partially devoted to retraining.
“Another thing we can do for construction companies…is address the oversight of those insurance costs,” the 106th District candidate said. Mr Cole said an associate who owns a small construction firm told him he would more than double his work force if he was able to get a handle on excessive state insurance costs.
Rep Carter believes small businesses are an economic backbone of communities, but business owners are very challenged to sustain themselves. He criticized state departments that are overzealous in fining small businesses for minor regulatory infractions.
“With respect to grants, we worked on a bipartisan Business Express program where businesses in Newtown took advantage of the program, where they were able to gain more employees,” Rep. Carter said. “But a grant program needs to be open to everybody. We get into a problem when we’re picking winners and losers.”
As a small business owner, Ms Fay said she knows how hard it is to start a business.
“I also know what it takes to succeed,” she said. “We can attract more small businesses to our community by enhancing our public education system and modernizing our transportation system. These are the two key areas that businesses look at when they are deciding where to establish or relocate jobs.
The Second District challenger said making more funding available for small businesses would certainly encourage small business start-ups.
“We should closely monitor where the money is going and ensure that it is being used wisely, i.e. funding for employee positions,” she suggested. “We need to attract more manufacturing companies to our area. We can do this by investing in our vocational and technical schools and giving those teachers the resources they need to teach these students - who will then be ready to work upon graduation.”