Corby O'Neill believes innovation centers can help ailing economy

By Scott Benjamin

Ruby Corby O’Neill says part of the answer to Connecticut’s economic woes is investment in incubator innovation centers, attracting information technology companies and developing organic farming.

She said, for example, the hackerspace innovation centers in Danbury and other parts of the state will help stimulate the economy. She said there is potential in the state for more high-tech firms and organic farming could become a factor in the smaller towns.

Corby O’Neill of Southbury, who is running in a three-way primary race for the Republican congressional nomination in the Fifth Congressional District, says the state’s economy has too long been stymied by “high taxes and high debt.”

The state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness reported in March that the pensions for the state employees were only 29 percent funded. Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) has been criticized for signing large tax increases in 2011 and 2017.

The Nutmeg State is the only one in New England that has not recovered all of the jobs lost from the 2008 recession. Michigan and Connecticut are only states with fewer jobs now than in 1989.

LinkedIn recently reported that Hartford, which is in the First District but employs many residents from the Fifth District, lost more jobs than any American city over the last 12 months.

“Connecticut is at the bottom of everything,” said Corby O’Neill, a former college psychology professor and researcher, who faces the convention nominee, former Meriden Mayor Manny Santos, and Watertown manufacturing executive Richard DuPont in the August 14 primary for the seat that three-term Democrat Elizabeth Esty of Cheshire is vacating.

The district runs through 41 municipalities from Salisbury to Newtown, encompassing most of Litchfield County and a portion of the metro Danbury area. There are five cities – Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, Meriden and Torrington.

Voters have not elected a Republican since former U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson of New Britain captured a 12^th term in 2004. She served for 20 years in the now-defunct Sixth District before being initially elected in the Fifth District in 2002.

Former state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) of Goshen lost to Esty by less than 8,000 votes when the seat was open in 2012 after the former congressman, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Cheshire) opted to run for higher office.

The Democratic primary, which will be held the same day, pits convention nominee Mary Glassman, a former first selectman of Simsbury, against former national teacher of the year Jahana Hayes of Wolcott.

John Pistone of Brookfield is seeking signatures to run as a petitioning candidate.

Corby O’Neill - who is married to state Rep. Art O’Neill (R-69) of Southbury, who was initially elected to the General Assembly in early 1988 - said to address high unemployment in Waterbury, she said elected officials should try to attract companies working in the New Economy and in high-end manufacturing.

The Connecticut State Department of Labor reported last month that Waterbury had the fourth highest unemployment rate – 7.4 percent - among Connecticut’s five cities with more than 100,000 population, exceeded only by Hartford, which had a rate of 8.1 percent.

Stamford had the lowest rate in the group - at 4.1 percent.

University of California-Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti reported in his 2012 book, “The New Geography of Jobs,” that 56 percent of the workers in the Stamford metro area have a college degree, the highest percentage in the country.

Only 15 percent of the workers in the Waterbury metro area have a college degree, the 12^th lowest in the country.

The average salary for a college graduate in the metro Stamford area is $133,479 and in Waterbury it is $54,651.

She said that the district’s bio-technology hub will likely grow when asked about the establishment of the Jackson Labs facility in 2014 near the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington.

However, Corby O’Neill said she objects to the $292 million that was used to bring Jackson Labs to Connecticut and other projects under Malloy’s First Five/Next Five program in which taxpayer money has been used to keep companies in the state if they pledge to expand their workforce or in other cases to attract new companies to the state.

“It’s corporate welfare,” she said in a phone interview.

Corby O’Neill, a native of Honduras, said she also believes there are opportunities for increasing employment in the district in financial services, investments and health care.

She praised the $1.5 trillion tax reform that Republican President Donald Trump signed seven months ago.

“It has stimulated the economy,” Corby O’Neill said. “There are new jobs. Unemployment has decreased. There has been more business investment.”

She said the maximum deduction of $10,000 for state and local taxes under the Trump tax reform was too low and should be increased to $20,000.

CT Mirror reported that Malloy announced this week that Connecticut has joined Maryland, New York state and New Jersey in a lawsuit contesting the new limits.

Matt Corey, the convention-endorsed Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has told Patch.com that the lower deductible level will impact homes in lower Fairfield County and in West Hartford, but overall it won’t have much effect in Connecticut, since many homes are sold in the $350,000 to $450,000 price range.

Brookfield Democratic First Selectman Steve Dunn has told Patch.com that a municipal study earlier this year in his town, which is the 31^st wealthiest of the 169 municipalities in Connecticut, indicated that only seven percent of the homeowners would be impacted and that the lower deductibles would have little if any impact on property values in Brookfield, which is located in the southern tier of the Fifth Congressional District.

On the Trump tax reform, Harvard economist Jason Furman, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under former Democratic President Barack Obama, told CNBC last week that although the economy is now strong the tax reform will worsen the budget deficit, which had declined under Obama.

Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson wrote this spring that the federal government would need $1 trillion in tax increases/spending reductions each year for a number of years to achieve a balanced budget.

The federal government has not had a balanced budget since 2001.

Corby O’Neill said Congress should reduce spending.

“There are too many people in the cookie jar,” she said regarding congressmen seeking pet projects for their districts.

However, she said she has “concerns” about the Simpson-Bowles plan from the 2010 National Commission For Fiscal Responsibility, since it would include tax increases.

Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker of Bridgeport, who sought the Republican nomination for governor this year, has said the plan, named after commission co-chairman Alan Simpson, a former U.S. senator, and Erskine Bowles, a former White House chief of staff, would “have more than gotten the job done” in balancing the federal budget over the long term since it included both tax increases and spending reductions.

Corby O’Neill also said she has “concerns” about instituting the Pay As You Go budget controls, since they might increase taxes. Under those controls any increase in spending would have to be paid for through additional revenue or a reduction in another line item of the budget.

Historian Jon Meacham wrote in his 2015 biography on former President George H.W. Bush, “Destiny and Power,” that H.W. Bush increased taxes in 1990, when the economy had entered a recession, on the condition that Congress enact the Pay As You Go controls.

ABC News has reported that the first economic report following the 1992 election, which H.W. Bush lost decisively to Democrat Bill Clinton, indicated that the economy was in recovery.

“Just because it was used in 1990 doesn’t mean you should plug it in today,” Corby O’Neill said.

She said she does support a balanced budget amendment.

Corby O’Neill has said she also supports Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Corby O’Neill told the Meriden Record-Journal in a podcast that, [Trump’s] trying to be a champion of fair trade because under Obama we were taken advantage of.”

However, Reuters has reported that the International Monetary Fund has “warned specifically that a developing tariff war between the United States and other large economies could lop half a trillion dollars off global growth by 2020.”

On another topic, Corby O’Neill has said that she opposes any reductions in payments to Social Security recipients in an effort to reform the system.

The trustees for Social Security and Medicare have reported that those two programs comprised 42 percent of federal spending and if you added Medicaid it was over 50 percent.

Samuelson of The Washington Post has stated that the current system is not sustainable and is taking away potential funding for areas such as defense, which made up nearly half of federal spending in 1950s and recently has only been at 16 percent.

Corby O’Neill said she opposes former Democratic President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign proposal to expand to $250,000 the amount of income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. Currently only the first $128,400 is subject to the payroll tax.

On a separate subject, she said she supports Trump’s selection of Brett Kavanaugh to succeed departing Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Murphy and Connecticut’s senior U.S. Sen., Richard Blumenthal (D-Greenwich), have announced they will oppose Kavanaugh’s appointment because of his position on several issues including the landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion decision. Democrats have expressed concern that his appointment would tip the balance of power on the court since Kennedy, who was appointed 31 years ago by former President Ronald Reagan, was considered a swing vote.

Politico has reported that polling indicates that, “Americans are more divided over Kavanaugh than any pick in recent history.”

Corby O’Neill said Kavanaugh has “impeccable credentials.”

“He is working in the court that makes him most qualified for the U.S. Supreme Court,” she said of his current position as a United States Circuit Judge in the U.S. Court of appeals for the District of Columbia.

“He will be an independent jurist,” Corby O’Neill said. “He won’t lower the bar. He’s an excellent constitutional scholar.”

Regarding the calls for more federal gun legislation, she said that she is “a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.

“We should leave the gun owners alone and invest in solving the mental health issues,” Corby O’Neill added. “We need to get to dangerous people before they act.”

On spiraling college costs, Corby O’Neill, who has taught psychology at Naugatuck Valley Community College and Teikyo Post, both in Waterbury, said part of the problem is that some colleges have too many administrators.

“Students are not getting back in the classroom the dollars that they spend,” Corby O’Neill said.

On another topic, she said there should be more people in Congress with her skills as a college professor and as “a trained researcher.” She also is a founding member and executive board member of the Latino National Republican Coalition of Connecticut and serves as vice chairman of the state Commission on Equity & Opportunity.

Corby O’Neill said, “We have enough lawyers and enough Washington insiders.”