Gubernatorial candidates discuss solutions to balance state finances
http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/01/30/news/doc4b63c4bf99a03840769818.txt
Saturday, January 30, 2010
By DAVID HUTTER
BARKHAMSTED — Democratic gubernatorial candidates discussed their views on balancing the budget, at a forum held by the Barkhamsted Democratic Town Committee.
Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont and former Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy introduced themselves to dozens of people at a meet-and-greet at the Barkhamsted Senior Center. Candidates suggested ways to close the state’s budget gap, improve education, close the disparity between rich and poor people, and retain college graduates.
Glassman declared the lack of new jobs in Connecticut as a major problem. She and her husband raised three children in Connecticut and want to create a place where young people can afford to live. As the highest ranking office-holder in Simsbury, she compared her town’s balanced $18 million budget with the state’s unbalanced $18 billion budget.
“Our state fiscal house is a mess,” Glassman said. “We need a whole new approach to government. … We face difficulties as municipal leaders because we do not know our state aid this year.” She identified public transportation as another important investment. The neighboring cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis identified a need in a rail project and successfully built one.
“We are sending our kids to Central Connecticut State University and UConn,” Glassman said. “Then they graduate and leave Connecticut.”
“Imagine our state if you could catch a bus every hour from Hartford and head to New York or Boston.”
She identified another problem as the lack of small towns combining services, she said.
“We operate as 169 towns doing 169 things,” she said.
Lamont burst onto the state’s political consciousness in 2006, as a candidate for the United State Senate. He won the Democratic primary versus incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman yet lost to him in the general election.
Lamont described Connecticut as being in a crossroads. As a businessman for 25 years, Lamont drew a parallel between his professional practice and the state’s governance during that same time.
“If I was doing business today the same way I did it 25 years ago, I would have been out of business many times.”
Connecticut ranks dead-last in the nation in creating jobs, he said. “Education is the civil rights issue of our day,” he said. “We are not going to be a low-cost widget-maker. We are the most highly educated workforce in the world.”
Malloy shared his personal life prior to discussing his professional life as mayor from 1995 to 2009. As a child in the 1960s, he dealt with severe learning disabilities and a lack of hand-eye coordination. While he struggled in school, his mother saw his abilities as a natural-born leader and a skilled oral communicator.
After struggling through much of primary school, Malloy earned a college education and a law degree. After law school, he was a prosecutor in New York City, he said. “I am not a millionaire — I am a public servant,” Malloy said. “Education is no longer affordable in Connecticut. We are more reliant on property taxes to pay for education than any other state in the nation.”
During his 14 years as the highest ranking office-holder in Stamford, he introduced a crackdown on crime that made his city among the safest of its size in the United States. He increased the city’s bond rating, attracted major employers, and the city grew in population by 14,000.
“When I hear about a fire, I raise my hand and run to the fire,” Malloy said. “I have been fighting all my life.”
Matthew Kelly, the chairman of the Barkhamsted Democratic Town Committee, said he intends to host forums for candidates seeking other state offices as well.
David Hutter can be reached by e-mail at dhutter@registercitizen.com.
© 2010 registercitizen.com, a Journal Register Property
Join us on Facebook. Fight the Lies.