Thad Gray will make a better state treasurer

While the gubernatorial race is getting most of the attention in this election cycle, the race for state treasurer is crucial, pitting politics as usual against accomplishment and qualifications.

Representing the politics as usual camp is the former Hartford City Council president, Democrat Shawn Wooden. Attorney Wooden is casting himself as an aspirational story of “a kid from the North End” who made good. While his professional resume looks good on the surface, his political resume is one of a callow careerist whose ambitions far exceed his accomplishments.

Wooden was Hartford’s City Council president from 2012-15 during the last four years of Mayor Pedro Segarra’s disastrous tenure as Hartford’s mayor. The city continued its policy of tax, spend, borrow and repeat during those years speeding the city toward insolvency.

In a Sept. 15, 2017, column at bondbuyer.com, columnist Paul Burton wrote the following:

“The city faces a deficit of up to $65 million for fiscal year 2018 and projects an $83 million hole within five years. Thanks to refundings pushed out by (Hartford Mayor Luke) Bronin’s predecessor Pedro Segarra, debt service is expected to rise to $57 million in FY2019.”

Of course, we know about how Gov. Malloy approved a plan to pass Hartford’s $550 million of debt onto the rest of the state to pay over the next 20 years. He also approved a municipal oversight board for the city.

Also from the Burton article: “Malloy’s proposed municipal oversight board would approve restructurings and deficit financing backed by the state’s capital reserve fund, function as an arbitration panel for labor disputes, approve budget assumptions and appoint a financial manager.”

Essentially, a municipal oversight board had to be appointed to do the jobs that Mayor Segarra, Shawn Wooden and the rest of the City Council didn’t or wouldn’t do. Part of his work product was his role in getting the Rock Cats to move from New Britain to a what is now Dunkin Donuts Park built with $60 million of borrowed money. That caper led to the following quote from an article in Bloomberg Businessweek.

“The stadium isn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back here,” says Melissa McCaw, Hartford’s director for management, budget and grants. “It’s just some hay that was dumped on a crippled, half-dead camel.”

Now Shawn Wooden wants a promotion to state treasurer to continue his great work.

Republican Thad Gray has a three-decadelong career in money management with executive experience managing an investment team at Abbott Capital Management, managing billions in assets.

What impresses me about Thad is the fact the he doesn’t need this job to feather a political resume. He’s doing this because he’s actually committed to help get our state back on the rails. A successful tenure as state treasurer will be another example someone from the private sector using his or her skillset to make government do what it should.

Connecticut needs to elect Thad Gray, not just because he’s wildly qualified for this job. We also need to end the practice of elevating cankered insiders from political fever swamps like Hartford’s city government to statewide office.

We’ve reached high noon and we have no other options.

Todd Peterson, Washington Depot