DeStefano: 3 Things To Think About

The Westport News featured an article on DeStefano which opened with this:

"Gov. Rell's leadership is pessimistic and vastly underestimates the potential of this state."

DeStefano's take on the potential of Connecticut focuses on transportation infrastrucutre.

"I-95 down in this part of the state cannot be widened or double decked," DeStefano said. "The state just recently spent $30 million on a pier in New London that should be able to handle growth off the moving cargo. You know, 98 percent of the cargo that comes into the state comes by truck up through I-95, starting in the northern New Jersey ports and coming here.

"I think this state needs to aggressively invest, therefore, in cargo rail into all three of its ports and their port-handling capabilities, in addition to making roadway links throughout the state, especially in regards to the importance of Route 7 down here," DeStefano said. "That all said, here is the distinction between Gov. Rell and myself: I'll get it done." (source: Westport News)

Sounds like DeStefano is supporting Super 7.

According to DeStefano, the larger issue of housing in this part of the state is that "we don't build the kind of housing we built after World War II, which was entry-level housing."
...
A reason why people don't build is because cities and towns don't permit entry- level housing, he said. The largest type of expense in every city and town's budget is public schools, and Connecticut ranks first among the 50 states in using the property tax to pay for its public schools, DeStefano said.(source: Westport News)

He's for decoupling school budgets from property taxes, but doesn't say how.

Taxpayers ultimately pay for the service through uncompensated care to hospitals, DeStefano said. He added that each family pays $600 more every year in premiums to providers to cover the cost of what the providers are giving to the uninsured in services without compensation.

Other consequences to this problem, DeStefano said, are that smaller community hospitals are beginning to collapse under the cost of uncompensated care. He said the state is delivering the most expensive kind of health care it can provide, and businesses identify this as a problem.(source: Westport News)

And insert complicated health care program here.

DeStefano proposes setting up a system where, if 50 businesses or less participated and paid 80 percent of a low premium, the corporate income tax could then be eliminated. If 51 businesses or more participated, the corporate income tax could be cut it in half, paid for, he said, by repealing half of the corporate loopholes that have been passed in the last 15 years. (source: Westport News)

Westport News, DeStefano Says He Can Do Better By Brian J. Foster, 11/1/06