By Ken Valenti
WESTPORT–Affordability is the key issue in the elections for Connecticut state legislative races in districts that include Westport. All serve two-year terms.
The races are:
Connecticut Senate District 26
Weston First Selectwoman Sam Nestor, a Democrat, is running against Westport Representative Town Meeting member Alma Sarelli, who is on the Republican and Independent Party of Connecticut lines. They are competing for the seat being vacated by Ceci Maher, a Democrat, who did not run for re-election.
The district covers Westport, Wilton, Ridgefield and Redding and parts of New Canaan, Weston and Bethel.
Both candidates proposed ideas to ease tax burdens. Sarelli called for an end to school property taxes for senior citizens and for having the state pick up the public benefits charge on electric bills. She opposed state income tax on social security, highway tolls, new taxes and any steps toward regionalizing school districts.
“Families, seniors, and young people across this district are being squeezed by property taxes, electric bills and the overall cost of living in Connecticut,” said Sarelli, who describes herself as a moderate Republican. “I’ve been running on affordability and fiscal responsibility from day one.”
Nestor wants to lower taxes, including property taxes, by addressing key drivers to local budgets – healthcare, energy and infrastructure. On healthcare, her plan is to hold insurance companies accountable on pricing and fees and to support a public option for healthcare by opening the state partnership to non-profits, small businesses and others, creating a larger pool of participants.
She plans to encourage more state funding for local schools in construction grants and to scrutinize energy company charges and improve access to clean energy.
She supports the proposed state child tax credit of $600 per child, arguing that such programs “work better than almost every other anti-poverty, pro-family program out there,” freeing up money for groceries, gas and childcare. She also supports the Early Childcare Endowment, which helps more families to access childcare.
Sarelli challenged Nestor’s commitment to affordability, saying that annual budget requests in Weston under Nestor’s tenure have increased more than 4% every year, including 5.4% this year. She also said Weston’s proposal on the ballot to allow up to five members of one party to hold positions on the seven-member town board left people fearing they would be shut out of decisions.
Nestor faulted Sarelli for focusing on the town’s operating budget. When the schools and capital budgets are added, the percentage increase averaged about 1.7%, lower than the rate of inflation, she said.
Nestor said she has not advocated for the town board change concerning party representation. The suggestion came from a town charter revision committee, and Nestor supported putting the idea on the ballot to let voters decide.
Connecticut House of Representative District 136
Democrat Lee Goldstein, chair of the Westport Board of Education, is running against Douglas Ouellette. A call to a Westport-based senior care company that lists Douglas Oulette as its CEO was not returned.
They are competing for the position being vacated by Jonathan Steinberg, who did not run for re-election. The district covers most of Westport.
“As a local leader, I understand how state laws and policies affect our public institutions, and I want to represent Westport to ensure state support for our schools and infrastructure,” she said, adding that she would also work to make healthcare, energy, and housing more affordable.
“It’s also vital at this time to protect reproductive freedoms, gun safety laws, voting rights and our environment,” she said.
Connecticut House of Representatives District 143
Incumbent Democrat Dominique Johnson, seeking a third two-year term, is effectively running unopposed. Republican Greg Helms, corresponding secretary of the Norwalk Town Republican Committee, appears on the ballot, but Helms said in an email that his name was included as a “placeholder” and that he is not campaigning for the position.
The district covers parts of Norwalk and Westport. The Westport portion is the west side of town to roughly to Wilton Road and Riverside Avenue between the Merritt Parkway and the Metro-North Railroad tracks.
Johnson said affordability has become an umbrella term for the burdens the middle class face, and argued that the state must do more than react to cuts in federal funding.
“We can’t just do triage on the federal funding that is going to be withheld,” Johnson said. “We in Connecticut have to figure out what we need to do to ease the middle-class burden. It has to be more holistic than making cuts here and there.”
She touted $12 million in state funding she helped secure for the new Long Lots Elementary School in Westport. That money helps families’ bottom lines by lessening the number of local tax dollars needed for the project, she said.
Johnson is running on the Democratic, Independent and Working Families lines. A Norwalk resident, her career experience includes working as a nonprofit consultant, a college professor and a researcher, according to her campaign website.
Ken Valenti
A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.
For the record , Sarelli voted to spend a whopping $110 million to build a new school, and voted to approve a town budget that resulted in a property tax increase of 10% or more on average.so where was this fiscal conservatism of which she speaks.
Also, she is through-and-through a Republican, so why present as an Independent Party candidate? Smoke and mirrors. I can’t think of one thing she has done in our community on her own initiative, other than Republican Party politicking.
Vote Blue up and down the ballot.
Ms. Sarelli’s extensive record of “fiscal conservatism” should be detailed in the press. She’s a public figure running for state office. It’s all online.
To be fair, the Long Lots School Project is Lee Goldstein’s baby. One can’t criticize those for voting for it without criticizing the person who foist it upon us (and lied about not knowing about their desires upon the Community Gardens and Preserve).
This is just like last year, when Democrats were in a panic about David Rosenwaks and criticized him for Long Lots votes but said nothing about Kevin Christie’s role on the BOE.
I’m voting for every Democrat on the ballot except for one. I can’t vote for the duplicitous Lee Goldstein.
Affordability, Affordability, a famous buzz word now, funny all the career politicians ( both sides) are using this word , well my question is how long do you have to be a politician to to actually do something about it , you use it to get votes you talk about the middle class what about those that are below middle class hmmm you don’t even know who they are, you know why, because you NEVER come to where they live , you never see the conditions they have to deal with, surprise surprise Westport has 3 neighborhoods where they live, can you even name them , I doubt it, so go ahead get elected pretend your doing something special for all the people, well I can tell you your NOT, if you want a tour of the neighborhoods I’m talking about, let me know, I’ll open your eyes to something new ,,,