Government Accountability and Responsibility
Connecticut’s major employers and small business owners pay their fair share in taxes. State leaders should prioritize reducing the state’s budget deficit by focusing on delivering services at a cheaper cost, cutting waste, trimming expensive benefits for government employees, and cutting millions of dollars from programs we can no longer afford.
- Make reducing the size and cost of state government the legislature’s top priority.
- Provide critically needed human services more affordably and more effectively through greater use of nonprofit agencies.
- Bring state employee wages and benefits in-line with those in the private sector.
Improving the Business Environment
State Government can play a substantive role in keeping companies and jobs in Connecticut and attracting new firms here.
- Provide more incentives to companies to encourage them to stay in Connecticut rather than relocate elsewhere.
- Hold the line on business taxes so Connecticut’s taxes are competitive with other states.
- Provide assistance to companies to help them comply with state regulations rather than fining them for paper work or process violations when they do not threaten individual or public safety or harm the environment.
Support Public Education
Connecticut has some of the best public schools in the country. Nonetheless, we are losing ground to other states and other countries. In order to remain competitive in today’s economy, state policy leaders must advance education policies that will support our children and better prepare them for higher education and the workforce. A strong workforce is one of the best ways to keep businesses and jobs in Connecticut.
- Require schools to place a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and math, also known as STEM curricula, in order to support the demands of our future workforce.
- Give school administrators more authority to remove poorly performing teachers.
- Give parents more choices in determining which public schools their children attend.
- Renegotiate union contracts to help school districts control their education costs.
