Army Hero Wants To Reduce Top State Salaries

By Scott Benjamin

Republican gubernatorial contender Micah Welintukonis says he’s appalled that Connecticut has a debt stream that stretches from the State Capitol to the Milky Way.

n A $5.1 billion projected budget deficit for the current fiscal year.

n A pension account that is only 35.5 percent funded.

n Future unfunded health care obligations for state employees that make the Powerball jackpot look meager.

n A downgraded credit rating.

n Bond appropriations that need to be reined in.

n The distinction of being the only one of the six New England states that hasn’t recaptured all of the jobs loss during the 2008 recession.

n A declining population.

n A General Assembly that apparently is contemplating boosting the sales tax from 6.35 to 6.99 percent, when he insists it should be below 6 percent.

Welintukonis – an Army veteran who served in Kosovo, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan and was awarded the Purple Heart with Valor – said the state needs to slash expenses and become more attractive to businesses.

He declared that the state agencies don’t need so many “top dogs.”

“Why is the president of the University of Connecticut (UConn) making more money than the president of the United States?” he asks.

CtMirror has reported that UConn President Susan Herbst is slated to make $831,070 in 2019. President Donald Trump has an annual salary of $400.000.

Welintukonis said the middle-class state employees shouldn’t be punished. He supports pay increases for middle- and lower-level state employees and opposes making them take furlough days.

The concessions agreement approved by the General Assembly last month freezes salaries for two years and includes furlough days.

Instead, Welintukonis, who lives in Coventry, wants to freeze the salaries of the top earners in state government. In fact, he would trim the governor’s annual salary of $150,000 – which was last increased in 2003 – in half and use the $75,000 in savings to fund scholarships and grants for students.

He is not seeking to enter the Citizens Election Program in which, if he qualified, he could get $1.4 million in public funding for primary next August.

Welintukonis, who attended one of former President Barack Obama’s State of the Union addresses, insists that elected officials don’t listen enough to their constituents.

Before making decisions, he said he would seek constituent input through social media, including the Polco.us Web site that solicits feedback on policy issues.

Welintukonis said in a phone interview that if the governor isn’t paying attention to his constituents then he should be removed from office. He wants to have a mandatory recall provision.

While the General Assembly is mulling whether to increase the sales tax from 6.35 to 6.99 percent, the candidate wants to slash it to below 6 percent.

He also wants to trim corporate taxes.

“Connecticut is not business-friendly,” Welintukonis declared in response to the vast number of regulations that companies must comply with.

He insists that the state can expand its job base and still allow its small towns to retain their rural charm.

Although enrollment has been declining for years, Welintukonis opposes closing any of the public colleges and universities in the state after they underwent a major expansion in the late 1990s and early 2000s under former Gov. John Rowland (R-Middlebury).

Instead, he wants to freeze tuition, which hasn’t been done in more than 15 years – during the Clinton economic expansion.

Welintukonis said the most valuable lesson he learned from his Army service was “the ability to work under pressure.”

The scope of the phone interview was slightly limited.

In an e-mail message before the session, Welintukonis’ campaign manager, Jeff Lyons, stated that Welintukonis would not comment on “national-level politics Donald Trump, North Korea current or future military engagement, or anything outside of the duties of the CT governorship.”