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To the Editor:

As West Hartford residents contemplate their options for down-ballot races in the upcoming election, we would like to recommend alternatives to the status quo (i.e. the Democrat party). The status quo has given Connecticut residents one budget crisis after another because, simply put, they are ineffective at managing state finances and promoting a business-friendly environment. This ineffectiveness has had a significant impact on West Hartford by forcing us to deal with an ongoing deficit of educational cost sharing (ECS) dollars from the State. ECS funding is determined through a State-developed formula (that takes into account a myriad of factors and funds are then disbursed to local municipalities. Pretty straightforward, right?

Well, year after year, the Democrat-led state legislature continues to woefully underfund West Hartford relative to its recommended funding level. This year is no different. Based on the ECS formula for 2016-2017, West Hartford was supposed to have received just over $37 million. Instead, we received just over $21 million. This is a deficit of roughly $16 million. Let that number roll around your head: $16 million dollars in funding that should rightfully be in our district but is not.

The impact is twofold. First, West Hartford residents have to assume more of the education burden through ever increasing property taxes. Second, the district’s ability to address the growing and changing needs of the students is constrained. West Hartford’s student population is far different than some of those in the State would have you believe. The inability of Senator Beth Bye and Representative Andy Fleischmann to effectively communicate the needs of West Hartford’s students to deliver the appropriate level of ECS funding is unconscionable, not to mention an affront to the taxpayers of West Hartford who are giving plenty but not getting their fair share in return.

Senator Bye will tout the extra $1 million she managed to cajole out of the State for the district, but the truth is that West Hartford is not going to receive that money. Our State’s finances are in such dire shape that Governor Malloy had to claw back those funds. Perhaps more importantly, the $1 million would not have come close to addressing how deeply West Hartford has been shortchanged on ECS funding over the past few years under the stewardship of Senator Bye and Representative Andy Fleischmann and for at least twenty years under the general stewardship of the Democrat party. Derek Slap will not be a solution either. He will become a part of the philosophical Democrat apparatus that promised voters lowered health care premiums through the power of government intervention and that has run our state’s economy into the ground. Up and down the levels of government, results continue to fall short relative to the Democrat promises of grandiosity.

The Democrat representation we have in West Hartford talks a great game, but as the saying goes, talk is cheap. West Hartford cannot afford any more cheap talk and certainly cannot afford more of the failed leadership exhibited by Senator Bye and Representative Fleischman. We would love to know what candidate Slap thinks, but since he has bashful sharing his plans in an easily accessible public domain (such as a website), we can only infer that he will get his marching orders from up on high and continue to steer Connecticut down the path it is currently on.

We are asking voters to consider the alternatives to the status quo, which simply is not working. We need effective action. We need Mark Merritt, Chris Barnes, and Rob Levine in office to begin to correct the mistakes made by Governor Malloy and his amen corner for ineffective government. It won’t be easy to undo the damage, but we encourage votes for all three because we know that they will fight for West Hartford. All three offer a compelling vision of how effective government should work and will work to direct funds back to West Hartford. And all three have websites so that you can review their plans for how they will represent West Hartford.

Jay Sarzen & Mark Zydanowicz
Members of West Hartford Board of Education