Senate candidates face off at forum
Environment, taxes, school funding among hot-button issues ahead of special election
GREENWICH — The final face-off before Tuesday’s election between the three candidates running for State Senate took a contentious tone, particularly between Republican Ryan Fazio and Democrat Alexis Gevanter.
The two are looking to replace former state Sen. Alex Kasser and are in a three-person race with petition candidate John Blankley. Gevanter and Fazio traded fire during the debate: Gevanter claimed Fazio’s views were not representative of the district;
claimed Gevanter would support a Democratic super majority in the legislature that he says is holding Connecticut back. Blankley kept referring to himself as “the man in the middle.”
The special election for the 36th district seat, which covers all of Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan, will take place Tuesday.
Thursday’s forum, put together by the Round Hill Association, was the third debate between them. Questions were sent in advance by members of the public.
Among the issues debated: environment, taxes, school funding and the Transportation Climate Initiative.
Fazio has repeatedly criticized the TCI, which is made up of 13 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states who vowed to develop clean energy and reduce carbon emissions, as a “new gas tax,” a claim that Gevanter has pushed back against.
“With gas prices rising over 100 percent in the past year, I don’t think that’s acceptable to impose a new burden at the pump for regular middle class and working class citizens,” Fazio said. “We need to stop all future tax increases and reduce taxes and we need leaders who will explain how they will do that.”
Gevanter said the TCI was not a gas tax but a fee against oil companies.
“Just this week, the United Nations climate change report made clear that the planet is literally burning,” Gevanter said. “We need to combat climate change and we need to do it now... TCI is a regional approach we would take with our neighboring states that would levy a fee on oil companies. That fee, if it were to be passed down to consumers, would be five cents a gallon” or $32.80 over the course of the year.
“TCI is a small price to pay to save the planet,” Blankley said adding he would look carefully at where the money raised by it is spent, quoting from the UN report that climate change was “a red alert” for the planet.
On the state budget, Gevanter noted her support for no tax increase balanced budgets and her support for repealing the estate tax. Blankley said he had business experience managing budgets larger than the state’s in his career. Fazio said he would focus on “reducing the income tax burden” on residents and putting the state on the “debt diet” promised by Gov. Ned Lamont in his 2018 campaign and, according to Fazio, not delivered on.
For school funding, Gevanter accused Fazio, as a member of the Representative Town Meeting, of voting against the parent-led effort last year to support restoration
of a potential $3 million cut in school funding because of the pandemic and of needlessly delaying work on North Mianus School repairs.
“I would never vote that way,” Gevanter said. “Funding our public schools, especially in a time of critical need, is something that would be a top priority for me.”
Gevanter pledged as a state senator she would work to change the formula for educational cost sharing, which sends state money to school districts, to make sure Greenwich gets its “fair share.”
Fazio said he had voted in favor of funding public schools and said that his opponent “continues to distort my record.
“Every single binding budgetary and funding vote that came up to the RTM while I was a member I voted in favor of education
funding…I’ll place my record as an advocate for public schools against anyone,” Fazio said.
Blankley was asked if he wanted to rebut either of their comments and declined.
“The man in the middle has no time for this partisan bickering,” Blankley said. “Let’s get on to something that’s really important which is education for our technical colleges. We have 17 in the state and we can do more.”
All three candidates maintained support for local control of housing decisions regarding affordable housing projects. Greenwich has less than the mandated 10 percent of its existing housing stock set aside as affordable.
Round Hill Association President John Conte, serving as moderator, questioned what could be done to manage the need without “oversized buildings and awkFazio
ward structures ruining the long-term aesthetics and visual balance of our streetscapes and neighborhoods.”
“The affordable housing stock we have is being underestimated and that is because of a random rule imposed by the state,” Blankley said. The date for how current housing stock was calculated did not include already online affordable complexes like Armstrong Court and Wilbur Peck, he said. He said he would lobby to change that date if elected.
All three candidates supported a new housing trust fund that will allow for private fundraising to support affordable housing development in town. That proposal is currently being worked out before the Representative Town Meeting with a report slated to come in the fall.
Fazio noted the push from legislators outside of Fairfield County to impose new mandates on communities to
build affordable housing. He said as a Republican he would fight to preserve local control.
“The best chance that Greenwich, Stamford and New Canaan have at preserving local control of town planning and zoning is to elect the Republican candidate in this race to the State Senate in order to stop a Democratic super majority in the State Senate that is veto proof,” Fazio said.
Gevanter took issue with what she said was Fazio’s assertion of how she would vote if elected to Kasser’s seat.
“Ryan’s implication that I would automatically become a part of a super majority…is just disappointing this far in the campaign,” Gevanter said. “The implication is that I am a weak woman who couldn’t possibly stand up to a Democratic super majority. But I’m not weak. I’m strong.”
As a private citizen, she said, she fought for common sense gun legislation against pushback that included harassment and threatening letters. “I kept going. I kept fighting,” she said.
Gevanter said her position has been “clear and consistent from day one” where she supports local control of affordable housing because towns are best equipped to reach the 10 percent goal while preserving green space and keeping the town’s feel.