Wilms vows to use his background to grow economy
NORWALK — Norwalk Republican Fred Wilms has always touted his finance background — as a banker and former chairman of the city’s tax board — as major assets in tackling Connecticut’s fiscal problems.
Wilms, who is seeking a third term representing the 142nd District in the state House of Representatives, sees the state’s economy in dire shape.
“I am running for reelection because Connecticut is in a huge fiscal and economic crisis,” Wilms said. “Our economy is down 8 percent, GE has left our state, we have a staggering $5 billion budget deficit plus we have $100 billion of unfunded retirement liabilities.
“I will continue to bring my strong finance background to get our economy growing again, produce
fiscally responsible budgets, keep taxes in check and promote new transportation solutions.”
On Nov. 6, Wilms will face New Canaan Democrat Lucy Dathan in the election for the 142nd District, which includes West Norwalk and part of New Canaan.
Wilms named growing Connecticut’s economy, reducing income tax levels, fixing transportation, cutting state spending and reducing unfunded retirement liabilities as his priorities should voters return him to Hartford.
“We can save $2.5 billion through realigning state union employee pension, retirement and health care to private-sector levels,” Wilms said. “We can save $1.1 billion by relying more on nonprofits to deliver social services. We can save $700 million by expanding home care rather than placing the elderly in nursing homes/long-term care. Finally, I want to privatize the Department of Motor Vehicles.”
To boost the economy, Wilms said Connecticut must lower small business taxes, eliminate the business entity tax, deregulate unfriendly mandates and reform the Workers Compensation and Unemployment Compensation systems. He’d also like to see lawmakers lower incometax rates to those of New York and Massachusetts, and eliminate the estate tax. The revenue losses could be offset by getting rid of sales tax loopholes, he said.
Wilms wants to contribute underutilized state assets and Connecticut Lottery Corp. revenues to the state pension fund to reduce $100 billion in unfunded retirement liabilities.
The Norwalk Republican said he supports a transportation lockbox to ensure that transportation dollars are used only for transportation projects.
“We need to prioritize state bonding to transportation and away from porkbarrel projects like the bankrupt POKO project on Wall Street,” said Wilms, referring to a stalled redevelopment project. “Our focus should be on roads, bridges, Metro-North (Railroad), train parking and bus services.”
He supports creating a new train station on Wall Street but questions the state’s planned replacement of the Walk Bridge over the Norwalk Harbor. “We do not need a $1.1 billion lift-bridge project to accommodate a few sailboats and barges,” he said.
Wilms, a father and former city councilman, has lived in Norwalk for almost 30 years. He is a senior vice president at Webster Bank and a member of The Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Norwalk Board of Estimate Taxation from 2005 until 2013, ultimately as its chairman.
“I am proud that we maintained Norwalk’s prestigious Triple-A bond ratings,” Wilms said. “Finally, I have been honored to represent Norwalk these past four years in the state Legislature, where I have fought to increase education costsharing funding for our public schools.”