Democrats Want to Cooperate
By Bill Shortell | Chairman of the New Britain Democratic Town Committee at July 20, 2024 | 3:45 pm | Print
Anyone who is trying to follow the state budget negotiations in Hartford knows how difficult they have been. Our budget shortfall is caused by the income tax receipts from rich people in this state decreasing temporarily, as they wait for the market to top out before they sell their stocks. Their overall wealth is UP, but their income is less as they hold assets without selling them. Unfortunately, we don’t tax wealth, just short term income. This has caused a huge decrease in income tax receipts from the super rich.
Our four Democrats in the General Assembly can’t change that, of course, but they DO have some ideas about how to raise more tax revenue, without hurting the working people in New Britain.
Our clout in Hartford is considerable, because our Reps are so good, and they stick together. But, we could do much better if our Republican Mayor cooperated with our state Reps, it would double their effectiveness. We could get support for New Britain from both parties. But, unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. I have all the emails between the two sides, including the last one where her office backs out of the one meeting she agreed to have with them.
Our State Reps and Senator have been trying since January to get together with the Mayor, with no luck. Instead, she has hired a private lobbying firm, at a cost of $40,000 to the New Britain taxpayers, who are only accountable to her.
How come?
It seems like a mystery why the Mayor doesn’t roll up her sleeves and get into the struggles in Hartford, but now we know why. On Wednesday morning, July 5, on WPRX, she announced that she is running for governor. Many of us had suspected that, but now it is out of her own mouth. She has other fish to fry in Hartford…lining up support for her run for Governor.
Time for a change
We can only conclude that to get good cooperation between the Mayor’s office and our delegation to Hartford, to get the full amount of state aid to education, for example, we need a Democratic mayor, who is only thinking about New Britain.
