McCarty, Welch-Collins face off in 38th
Incumbent faces challenge from Waterford RTM member
Republican incumbent Kathleen McCarty, an educator, businesswoman and volunteer, faces a challenge for the 38th state House District from Waterford Representative Town Meeting member Baird Welch-Collins, a Democrat who recently began a teaching career after studying government and education.
McCarty, 68, of Waterford is seeking her third term serving the district, which encompasses Waterford and part of Montville. She serves on the General Assembly’s Appropriations, Education, and Public Health committees, and also is a ranking member of the Legislative Internship Committee. She says her legislative, business and volunteering experience bolsters her ability to serve constituents, get things done and spur the troubled economy.
Welch-Collins argues residents need a new voice that will advocate for progressive measures he says
could help stem the tide of millennials and seniors packing up to live, work and pay taxes in other states.
McCarty taught French at Wilton High School for 13 years and later served on Waterford’s Board of Education. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Sacred Heart University and holds a pair of master’s degrees, in teaching French from Fairfield University and in medieval studies from Fordham University.
Business acumen
During her time at Fordham, McCarty — who developed a fascination with aviation early on and wanted to be an astronaut as a child — co-owned a small commuter airline out of Bridgeport, building up time as a co-pilot with flights to Philadelphia and Albany. Now she’s co-owner of a bowling center in Brookfield and other commercial properties.
“That’s why I know how businesses are struggling,” she said, adding that she entered politics to try to make a difference for small businesses, students and educators, seniors and individuals with mental health problems and disabilities. She noted that she worked with Thames Valley Council for Community Action for 20 years and “understands the needs of the community.”
Welch-Collins, 23, of Waterford was elected to the Waterford RTM in 2017. He’s served on the town’s Flood and Erosion Control Board since 2016; for the last year he’s been the board’s treasurer. He also sits on the town’s Long Range Fiscal Planning Committee; Finance, Wage and Personnel Committee and Public Health, Recreation and Environment Committee. If elected, he would have to resign from the RTM.
Raised by a pair of English teachers, Welch-Collins joked that he’s “broken ranks” by conducting his student teaching in U.S. history at Norwich Free Academy. He plans to earn his teaching certificate within a couple months and eventually earn a master’s degree, with an eye toward teaching civics and history. He earned a bachelor’s degree in government at Connecticut College.
“I felt fortunate to grow up in a place like Waterford but I’m very cognizant our community is facing a lot of challenges,” he said. “I thought it was my duty to see if I could give something back.”
When not teaching or fighting for issues in Waterford such as a ban on single-use plastic bags, Welch-Collins plays a number of instruments including guitar, Scottish small pipes, Irish bouzouki and banjo, and also is an amateur blacksmith after seeing an online video, picking up “a piece of railroad tie and banging on metal.”
Both candidates call for creating greater efficiency in Hartford, but they differ on some strategies the state should employ to boost the economy and turn around the budget crisis.
McCarty calls for “evidence-based budgeting” with a comprehensive plan to cut spending but maintain critical services; growing tourism and cultural opportunities to create more jobs; using excess monies and potentially lottery funds to pay down teacher retirement funds; cooperating with tech schools and community colleges to maintain a skilled workforce; and streamlining what she describes as a burdensome regulatory process to draw and sustain businesses small and large throughout the state.
Welch-Collins said he’d push for regionalizing services to cut down on wasteful spending and reduce property taxes; selling off the state’s underutilized assets to help pay off state pension liabilities; legalizing recreational use of marijuana to generate revenue and put money toward educational and drug awareness programs; boost high-tech manufacturing training programs; and work to ensure Connecticut increases its stock of affordable housing for young people and seniors.
Neither candidate supports phasing out the income tax as proposed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski.
McCarty said a slow reduction in state income taxes possibly could occur if lawmakers paired a comprehensive plan with job growth and a stronger economic climate. Welch-Collins called the idea unrealistic and akin to “having a two-income household and one of the parents stops working.”
Divided on tolling
The candidates are divided on the notion of establishing tolls to generate revenue for transportation infrastructure.
Welch-Collins said he supports limited tolling using cameras, noting “we are the drive-through state” between New York City and Boston, with ample need for road and highway fixes and a local deadly interchange at Interstates 95 and 395.
“It sounds like it might be the only practical way of fixing roads and lowering the gas tax,” he said.
McCarty said she is not in favor of tolls but “will keep an open mind” if a referendum for a constitutional amendment creating a transportation fund lockbox — eliminating the ability of the state to raid infrastructure repair funds to cover other expenses — is backed by voters on Election Day.
“Right now the plan that was proposed had tolling throughout the state ... it was 70-plus tolls; that would be unacceptable to me,” she said. “If we moved toward tolling, we have to do it in a very logistical and definite plan associated with it, and the security of the funds.”
McCarty touted her work helping to rally lawmakers around a regulatory review that opened the door for Millstone Power Station to compete among low-emitting and zero-carbon resources. The yearslong bipartisan effort helped temper threats from Dominion Energy that the plant could close prematurely.
“It’s not over yet,” McCarty said of the state’s zero-carbon auction, for which Millstone submitted a bid earlier this year. “We need to watch the process and make sure the regulatory piece all goes through. If we were to lose this tax base, that would not be good.”
Planning ahead
Welch-Collins commended McCarty for her work supporting Millstone, which he described as “vital to our community.”
But Welch-Collins said McCarty and other state and local lawmakers also must plan for a day when Millstone no longer generates power or provides tax revenue to Waterford.
“Whether in two years or 10 years, Waterford is going to be looking at a financial crisis,” he said. “We need to be willing to say we have a real problem that’s coming and we need to act now.”
Both candidates support renewable energy initiatives in the state, particularly the advent of offshore wind off the coast of New England and its potential as an economic driver in the region.
McCarty noted she voted to protect women’s essential health care benefits last session, and has fought for the Care 4 Kids program, schoolbased health centers and Educational Cost Sharing funds for Montville and Waterford.
Welch-Collins said he adamantly supports paid family leave, student loan forgiveness for graduates who choose to live and work in the state for at least five years, and a greater emphasis on the educational needs of southeastern Connecticut communities and “bringing back more ECS funding.”