Why The Bond Commission Should Be Powerless

The authority of the State Bond Commission should be greatly diminished. The 10-member group has the power to take money from our wallets without being elected. Worse, they wield the power to take money from the next generation — bonding means paying for goodies now with our children’s money. Most call that immoral.

The bond commission’s remoteness is what gets us

$10 million approvals for toll studies we will never use, and

$200 million school spending approvals when there are school building alternatives that do not cost taxpayers a dime.

At most, their recommendations should be a simple prioritizing for the General Assembly to scrutinize, not rubber-stamp. Between an unelected bond commission, a complicit General Assembly, and an at-times out-of-touch Office of Policy and Managment, Connecticut has no brake on spending. The OPM could stand for “Other People’s Money.”

I am running for governor to help assure a responsible General Assembly by January 2021. I will do this by disbanding the bond commission in 2019. I will not act upon the commission’s latest spending recommendations before we have our bidding, contracting and oversight processes revamped to emulate private business. Then, whatever money we approve will stretch farther, or else be returned to taxpayers.

Let the General Assembly take its spending power seriously. Let the members hear directly from the voters, not punt to the recommendations of a politically oriented commission. Mark Stewart Greenstein,

Farmington

The writer is the Amigo Constitution Party candidate for

governor.