To the editor:
Last week, the Darien Democratic Town Committee “went national” and came out with a lofty appeal to the U.S. Congress to censure the president over his alleged “racist behavior.”
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The DTC got their priorities and those of their constituents all mixed up. The committee has been completely silent on the fiscal disaster of our state under Democratic leadership.
In his two terms at the helm, [Gov. Dannel] Malloy has extended the state employees’ damaging contract, originally due 2017 (last year!) in his first term to 2022, and in his second to 2027, surrendering the fiscal health of Connecticut for at least ten more years. The untenable has now become untouchable.
At the very beginning of the current biennial cycle, and despite the absence of a viable budget for the rest of us, the union concessions were signed, sealed and delivered to the state employees — and to their loud applause.
For all other citizens and taxpayers, the Legislature had to wrestle with a budget that came in a day late and a dollar short — well, actually 117 days late and several hundred millions of dollars short.
With Connecticut the largest employer in the state, Malloy has decided that taxpayers work for the government. Welcome to a new version of the “Constitution State”! Enter at your own fiscal risk!
And where is the DTC’s voice on these developments? Have members talked to their very own [state Sen.] Bob Duff [Senate Majority Leader], standard bearer for Malloy? With fiscal authority now delegated to the state unions, perhaps the Darien DTC is looking for loftier responsibilities elsewhere.
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With a new immediate withholding of 6.99 percent on pension payments to seniors and the exclusion of the federally allowed medical expenses from state tax calculations, Connecticut has now landed at the bottom of places to retire.
Is somebody — anybody — interested in that? Or how about local traffic issues and the assault of Hartford on school funding for smaller towns?
With state elections looming in the fall, Democrats in government will not be allowed to abrogate their responsibilities for past failures and the mortgaging of the state’s future — no matter how much they try to change the conversation to the unpleasant issues in Washington. Let’s remember, all politics are local.
Bert von Stuelpnagel
The writer is a member of the Darien Republican Town Committee and the Representative Town Meeting.