Budget Headlines Candidate Forum
WETHERSFIELD - Incumbent legislators forecasted tougher budget days ahead, while Republican challengers renewed calls for â€"common sense” prioritization when it comes to spending and a trimming of what they characterize as a bloated â€"bureaucracy” within state departments during a Meet the Candidates event hosted by Sacred Heart Church last night.

       The event brought Senate candidates John Fonfara, (D) Barbara Ruhe, (R) and Paul Doyle, (D) along with State House hopefuls Russ Morin, (D) Mike Hurley, (R) and Tony Guerrera, (D).

       Missing from the group was petitioning candidate Lee Johnson-an attorney from Wethersfield who served on both the Town Council and the Board of Education-Senate District 9 challenger Earle Roberts, 29th Assembly District challenger Todd Brown, and Barbara Barry-who is running against Fonfara and Ruhe in Senate District 1.

       The event-which drew a good crowd-kicked off with candidate introductory statements and followed with an hour-long question and answer session.

       During the latter segment, candidates heard everything from concerns about the preservation of the arts and services for the disabled, to requests for their take on the national election, but from the opening statements on, the issue of the state budget was central to the discussion.

       Typically, intervals of decline-usually between 3 and 4 years-would be balanced by surpluses after, but with a combined near $3 billion deficit looming over the next two fiscal years, it just hasn’t happened, Doyle said.

       â€"We’ve had no upswing this time,” he said. â€"Next year will be a difficult budget no matter who is elected. We’re in a new world up there-the money just isn’t there.”

       Democrats said that it would get better, but only after a few years of â€"tough decisions” over how to prioritize the allocation of critical areas such as human services and education state aid to towns while preventing Connecticut’s fiscal disarray from adding to the burden shouldered by taxpayers.

       Morin, who is running to retain his 28th Assembly District seat against Hurley, voted against the last approved budget, saying that the layoff-inducing cuts to departments such as Human Services were just too deep for him to support.

       â€"I voted against it for a whole host of reasons,” Morin said. â€"This budget unfairly hurts people that can least afford to be hurt.”

       Republican candidates approached the budget matter with a different take. Ruhe, who has run against Fonfara in past elections, is calling for a brand of creative cost cutting that would focus on trimming the â€"bureaucracies” in order to get more for less while shifting away from wasteful spending.

       â€"We also don’t spend enough things that are important,” Ruhe said, echoing Morin’s call for the prioritization of human service areas. â€"We need to invest in people-not on bricks and mortar.”

       Guerrera, who has run on promises to prioritize the repair of the state’s transportation infrastructure-he chairs the Transportation Committee-pointed to the issue as a factor in drawing new businesses to the state and bolstering the job market. But the state’s most vulnerable, he said, need to come first.

       â€"There are a lot of people that need help, and that’s what we get elected for,” he said.

       Hurley, a current Town Councilor, is running with his eye on taxes-the issue he says drove him to get involved with politics at the local level. Low taxes bring in businesses, which ultimately boosts the economy-and it’s worked in Wethersfield-Hurley said.

       In previous statements, Hurley has called for the state to shift away from what he describes as a business climate of overregulation.

       â€"The more government tries to do, the less it does well,” Hurley said. â€"We should only have the government we need.”

       Fonfara, a South Hartford resident who has represented District 1 since 1986, lamented the exodus of the pharmaceutical and hedge fund industries-which he described as an inevitable and â€"restructuring” driven.

       â€"The fact is, these industries restructured and not to the benefit of Connecticut,” he said. â€"And we did not build a base to replace them.”

       The first question from the audience actually related to the national election, with the attendee asking Hurley and Ruhe to â€"take the opportunity to distance themselves” from comments made by Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump.

       Ruhe jumped on the question eagerly, denouncing her party’s candidate and admitting that she wasn’t high on either Trump or Hillary Clinton.

       â€"I’m first a person of faith, then I’m an American, and then I’m a Republican-oh, and by the way, I’m also a woman too,” she said. â€"Donald Trump has offended me on all of those levels.”

       Hurley said that although he supports Trump-something he has fielded criticism for from local democrats-he does not condone the more incendiary comments that have dominated national coverage of the candidate.

       â€"I support all the candidates we [the Republican Party] have running for national office-including Donald Trump,” Hurley said. â€"I think they’ll move the country in the right direction. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I’m not running in a national election.”

       Morin fielded an old question-about his employment with the CEUI union and how he balances what some might see as â€"a conflict of interest”.

       Morin responded, saying that it was a â€"legitimate question”-one he said he looked into with the Office of State Ethics when he first took the position with CEUI. Legislators can serve on committees and even vote on matters related to their profession as long as they do not â€"benefit unfairly”, Morin said.

       He said that his role with CEUI is to represent union employees during disciplinary hearings, and that although he can technically vote in the legislature on contract matters, he recuses himself.

       â€"We are a citizen, part-time legislature, so any of us also have to have another job,” Morin said. â€"We have lawyers who serve on the Judiciary Committee-probably for good reason.”

      
STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA   |  Nov 03 2016  |  COMMENTS?