Best wishes to the state’s governor-elect, from Republicans

Last month, in a hotly contested election, Connecticut voters elected businessman Ned Lamont to be our next governor.

As Governor-elect, Mr. Lamont is staring down one of the most dire fiscal and budgetary situations of any state in the country. While the rest of the country is seeing nearly unprecedented economic growth and employment levels, Connecticut has a massive budget deficit, tens of billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, and an economy that has still not recovered from the 2008 recession. In order to solve these pressing and crucial issues, Mr. Lamont will need to think outside the box, listen to solutions from both sides of the aisle, and bring in a talented team of individuals to advise him.

One thing Mr. Lamont must keep in mind is that a majority of voters, 712,298 to be exact, voted against his candidacy. This being the case, Mr. Lamont should be acutely aware of those with varying opinions from his, and he should make a serious effort to govern in a bipartisan manner. This means actually working with members of the opposing party in the Legislature to come up with solutions to the problems facing our state, not just paying lip service to bipartisanship, as his predecessor, Dan Malloy was often wont to do.

As a resident of Connecticut, I want to see Ned Lamont succeed as governor, because that means our state will be succeeding as well. In his victory speech, and in the weeks following, Mr. Lamont signaled that he hopes to govern in a moderate, bipartisan matter; something I found to be encouraging. However, some of his ideas on how to turn this state around are troubling. To start, the very idea of putting in tolls or raising taxes even further in this state is a non-starter to a very large percentage of Connecticut residents. Many of us feel taxed to the bone already, and adding on to that burden is only going to drive more people out of the state.

Conservatives and moderates in Connecticut hope that Governor-elect Lamont will examine solutions to our budget crisis that don’t increase the already oppressive tax burden on our tax payers. We hope that Mr. Lamont will look at ways the State Government can reduce its sometimes excessive spending, and how it can reduce costs and streamline operations.

While Ned Lamont and his Republican opponent in last month’s election, Bob Stefanowski, may have disagreed on many issues, I hope that Mr. Lamont will seriously look at some of Mr. Stefanowski’s ideas on how to turn this state around. While phasing out the income tax may be out of the question for a Democrat, there’s no reason a Democrat governor and legislature could not consider something like Mr. Stefanowski’s proposal of zero-based budgeting. After all, Mr. Lamont himself said that Connecticut needs “structural changes” to its budgeting system. We are looking at a $1.9 billion deficit; something drastic must change in the way we do business in Hartford, or this state is looking at a fiscal disaster.

I and other Republicans in New Haven want to wish Ned Lamont the best of luck as our next governor, and we hope to work with him as we all try to better this state.

David St. Hilaire is a New Haven resident and secretary of the New Haven Republican Town Committee. He can be reached at secretary@newhaven.gop.

David St. Hilaire