44°
Democrat Cristin McCarthy Vahey and Republican Carol Way are running for the seat, which is now held by Democrat Kim Fawcett, who is running for State Senate.
They sat down at a recent candidate forum at the Pequot Library hosted by the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association to discuss how government can support business in the state.
Vahey, who is on the Fairfield Board of Selectmen, said the town has had a lot of success building up its downtown and bringing in business in recent years.
“These things have happened because we have tapped the talent and resources of the community. We’ve created partnerships between government and local agencies and communities, and invested in transportation infrastructure,” she said. Similar partnerships need to be made on the state level to support businesses and decrease regulations, she said.
Voters need to think of Connecticut as a team competing against other states, Way said, and they need to make sure that their tax dollars are being spent to support businesses and keep them from moving to other states.
“Poverty has grown here in Connecticut. The Top 1 and 2 percent have done well in Connecticut, but our middle class is beginning to move to other locations. It’s just not affordable for them anymore, and many people have lost jobs, they’ve been unemployed, and the new jobs that have been created, are not at the same level,” Way said.
Both agreed the state needs to do more to support trade and technical schools to increase the number of skilled workers in Connecticut.
“When we invest in education, we need to invest in higher education at our state university system, but we also need to make sure we’re supporting our trade and technical schools,” Vahey said. “Precision manufacturing is something we’re focusing on here in Connecticut. We need to make sure that folks are trained in those areas so that employers who do have jobs have a trained workforce who’s here, who’s able to have the skill set they need.”
The legislature needs more people who know what it’s like to operate a business, Way said.
“I think that there really needs to be more people in the legislature who have that kind of experience, who can help to bring a balanced view in terms of what’s going to be done to expand business, to take away the regulations that are unnecessary ones, and to really realize that some of the laws that are passed really create a lot of burden on these small businesses and it’s sending them away.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice Fairfield and receive free news updates.
