By Kim Rose
(Democrat)
Representing Milford at the State Capitol in Hartford is a privilege and honor. Milford is my home and a wonderful community to be part of, and working to improve the quality of everyone’s lives here is a responsibility I take very seriously.
That is why one of my consistent top priorities is always fighting to make sure our town receives its fair share of state aid and resources. Whether it is funding for our local school system or maintaining our roads, it takes experienced leadership to ensure we get our piece of the pie. Earlier this year I successfully fought against Governor Malloy’s mid-year cuts to our town education funding, which could have caused Milford to have to redo our town budget and raise property taxes.
Going forward, I will also work to reduce the current amount of mandates the state places on local school systems. This will save money for local taxpayers, and allow communities to make more decisions locally about how best to run their education system, which is how it should be.
On a statewide level, Connecticut is facing real fiscal challenges due to the unfunded liabilities of long-term pension and debt obligations. It took decades to get into this situation as a result of underfunding of these costs by both political parties, and solving this requires a long-term plan.
First, we must control spending and be careful to not add to our debt. That means finding ways to do more with less. The state must stop balancing budgets on the backs of the middle class and we cannot have further tax increases to try to fix it. It’s simply not fair.
I will focus on strengthening the economy by working to make Connecticut a more attractive place to young people looking to build a career, and better tying our education curriculum to employer needs. By attracting and developing a skilled workforce, companies will want to come here, stay, and expand here.
When the issue of a toll study came up I held a forum in Milford in an effort to educate the public on what we were being asked to vote on and to get their opinion. I agree that tolls are not the way to go and when the governor pushed through bonding for a 10 million dollar “study” I wrote leadership to ask for a special session to rescind the funding. Unfortunately that did not happen but we have a ways to go. We do need to fund our infrastructure but must find ways to do it without burdening the residents of Connecticut any further.
And I will continue to encourage public input by updating my constituents on upcoming bills. I will also continue to hold public forums, talk with local media, and keep my social media outlets updated. My cell phone number is (203)701-6098.
By working together, I know we can make Milford, and Connecticut, an even better place to live, work and raise a family. I ask for your vote on Nov. 6th.