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Dear West Hartford Residents,

As many of you may recall, I spent the last eight years on the Town Council trying to highlight the town and the state’s ever-increasing problems with unfunded pension and health care liabilities. West Hartford has taken many of the needed steps by working with the unions to adopt changes in our contracts in order to address these complicated issues going forward, while also trying to deal responsibly with past costs. Ideally, the state would change collective bargaining regulations so that contract negotiations and subsequent cost reductions proceed more quickly. We need people in state government who understand these issues that have the courage to press for those same changes. If we don’t fix our state’s pension issues, the deficits we are facing will crowd out spending for essential services in the near future. We can’t take care of the neediest in our society if we don’t have the funds to do so.

Thad Gray is the only candidate for State Treasurer with the resume, experience, leadership and vision for the role. As Connecticut’s Chief Elected Financial Officer (CFO), the Treasurer is responsible for a $42.3 billion diverse pension investment portfolio in addition to providing needed guidance on pension and health care liabilities. Thad Gray is a professional with 35 years of financial experience investing and managing money. I urge you to support Thad in the Aug. 14 Republican primary – and again in November!

Sincerely,

Denise B. Hall
West Hartford