Democratic Representative Joe Taborsak is not seeking reelection to the 109th State House seat. That has left the door open for a young City Councilman to go up against a civic-minded volunteer.
Democrat David Arconti says he is running for State Representative because he’s been presented with an opportunity to give back to the community, which has given his family so much.
He notes that he was raised to value public service, which is why after college he dedicated a year of service to the AmericCorps program. In that program, Arconti coordinated a mobile health van to deliver affordable health care to low income and underserved populations. While running that program, Arconti says he collaborated with leaders of many non-profits and city officials, a skill set he will bring to Hartford.
As he went door to door talking with residents, Arconti says the overwhelming thing he took away was that people want their elected officials to work together as Connecticut begins to claw it’s way out of the recession. One of the things Arconti says he wants to work on is how to keep young people in Connecticut, working, buying homes and starting families.
Republican Andrew Wetmore, a City Council member, says he wants to go to Hartford to change the course of Danbury’s economy and bring back the education dollars Danbury needs. He says the Danbury tax base is really stressed in that aspect because kids bursting at the seems in the schools. He notes that with all of the unfunded mandates placed on municipalities by the state, overburdened taxpayers have to pick up the slack.
Wetmore says bringing in more dollars in for education will help alleviate the tax base, which would, in turn, drive up sales tax revenues. He would also like to lower the sale tax back to 6%, lower the business entity tax and the corporate surcharge tax. Wetmore says cuts in spending need to be looked at first, similar to how Danbury looks at raising revenue last. He would like to see Hartford follow Danbury’s lead.
Wetmore says Danbury has great proximity to New York and Boston and would like to see high-speed rail come through the area. He notes that the coastline tends to get a tremendous amount of attention, while interior Connecticut, especially western Connecticut, seems to be forgotten by Hartford.
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