Economic disconnnection

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – It is not just that after filling your gas tank the digital register reads like your July 1 property tax bill.

It is also that too many people are ordering $97 lobster salad at the yacht club, yet too few can pay the student loans from their days at State U where they studied everything from B.F. Skinner to Ray Bradbury, threw their FRISBEE across the Quad and spent countless nights in their dorm rooms eating Klondike Bars.

“Income disparity is very high in Connecticut,” remarked Julie Kerton of Brookfield, the Democratic candidate in the 107^th state House District.

Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu wrote recently in The New York Times that, “The most important political division in our times is not between Democrats and Republicans, or socialists and capitalists; it’s between those who think today’s economic system is fair and working well for most people and those who do not.”

Kerton agrees, saying that, in particular, the younger Millennials and Generation Z are in “a very scary place.”

They grew up through the Great Recession, the pandemic, the high inflation of the Biden Administration and the second Trump Administration and now wonder if artificial intelligence is destroying job opportunities.

Kerton, a real estate agent, chairs the Brookfield Board of Assessment Appeals, which she has served on for about a decade.

Mortgage rates have surged to 7.28 percent, the highest since November 2023.

Kerton, a real estate agent, commented, “Hopefully, it doesn’t do much to the market because of the very low inventory that we have.”

Real estate professionals have said that some potential sellers are reluctant to put their homes on the market because their current mortgage has a low interest rate and they are concerned about moving into a same-size or larger residence with a higher mortgage rate.

In contrast to the consumer price index, the stock market is in splendid shape.

Kerton commented that her investments “are going up for the most part.”

“Are we going to see a bubble?” she said.

Economists Ray Fishman of Boston University and Michael Luca of Carnegie Mellon wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the average price for a home nationally rose 87 percent from 2015 to 2925. However, over that same span the Standard & Poor’s index increased by 235 percent, indicating a cost-to-capital shift in building wealth for young people interested in buying t heir first home.

Kerton said she isn’t going to recommend that people forego buying homes to invest in stocks. Besides, most people don’t have seven-figure checking accounts to invest on Wall Street.

However, she added, “At certain points in your life renting has a lot of pluses. There is less maintenance to worry about. I think more senior citizens are interested in renting.”

Economist Mark Skousen recently stated in The Wall Street Journal that the construction of data centers has produced “explosive growth" in “business activity."

However, Kerton cautioned that, “Data centers use an awful lot of energy. I don’t know if they’re good for the environment.”

She noted that there has been grass roots “push-back” to the data center that has been proposed in Beacon Falls.

Kerton said when the next term begins in January legislators will have to continue to address funding gaps in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program the federal government’s 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill.

“The General Assembly is the firewall,” she asserted.

Kerton said she supports Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D-Greenwich) proposal for additional state spending on special education costs in the public school districts to help ease the municipal property tax burden.

She has worked as a child behavior specialist and in special education in the Newtown schools. She said special education is “expensive, but those programs work effectively for children.”

To get new objectives accomplished, Kerton endorses raising taxes on the residents with annual salaries that make Bruce Wayne’s bank account look puny.

”I know that Lamont is not on board with this,” Kerton commented.

Lamont has underscored: “No new taxes, just new taxpayers,” - his pledge to attract more residents to a state that recently was losing population.

However, Kerton commented that most millionaires are not going to leave Connecticut because of higher taxes.

“It is not a transient state,” she remarked. “It’s not like Florida.”

Connecticut has a number of residents with mansions where every room has a water view, yet the state has one of the highest minimum wages in the country. It was $10.10 per hour when Lamont took office in 2019. It currently stands at $16.94 per hour and will increase to $17.48 per hours in January.

Lamont has said that Republican naysayers were wrong when they said a higher minimum wage would jeopardize Connecticut’s economy.

Kerton applauds the progress, but said she wants to be even higher.

“It is really a sad situation when someone has to work two and three jobs to afford their home and pay their bills,” she exclaimed.

But what do employers get in return? Do people work harder when the minimum wage is higher?

“I think so,” she replied. “I think most people find a dignity in hard work.”

The last time a Democrat won in the 107^th District, Jack Nicholson was starring on the big screen in “Chinatown.” It was 1974.

From 1976 onward, voters have elected six different Republicans.

The current occupant, Republican former Brookfield Frist Selectman Marty Foncello, is running for a third term.

Kerton describes him “as a very nice man.”

Patch.com left two voice-mail messages for Foncello seeking comments for this story. Foncello’s “campaign advisor” replied by e-mail, stating that, “Unfortunately his schedule does not include any additional time for one-on-one discussion. As a current State Representative we have to balance his campaign activities, meetings in Hartford and constituents’ issues.

Patch.com was invited to submit questions by e-mail. It asked for a statement on Foncello’s position on increasing taxes on the wealthy. Apparently there was no response from Foncello’s campaign. Patch.com had asked for a statement by Saturday afternoon, October 3.

Aaron Zimmer has served as chairman of the Brookfield Democratic Town Committee and ran an ambitious campaign two years ago, losing to Foncello in the 107^th District. He is now running for the seat in the 30^th state Senate District.

In 2024 Zimmer captured the small slices of Newtown and Bethel in the district but lost Brookfield, which has seventy-one percent of the residents in the 107^th District.

State Senate Republican Leader Stephen Haring (R-30) of Brookfield, won four races in t he 107^th state House District before ascending to the Senate in 2022.

He said voting Brookfield’s District I – near Candlewood Lake - is more “conservative” and has mostly trended Republican.

However, Democrat First Selectman Steve Dunn has won in District I in recent municipal elections.

Harding commented that in Brookfield's District II – which takes in much territory in the central and eastern parts of town -“A Democrat has to make it at least really close.”

Dunn has won regularly in District II in the municipal races. Why don’t the Democrats prevail in the even-number years?

Zimmer said, “I’m not sure the answer to that.”

Former Brookfield Board of Education Chairman Matt Grimes told Patch.com earlier this year that Brookfield's District III – which includes area near the Bethel border – is “more of a bellwether district.”

Zimmer said, as usual, many voters largely focus on national politics even though it is not a presidential election year.

He said with Republican President Donald Trump’s low approval rating there appears to be a potential “blue wave” for Democrats nationally, although “there is not necessarily as much evidence of that in Connecticut.”

In addition to her work as a child behavior therapist, Kerton also served as a volunteer for the Lord’s Pantry, which provided services to HIV-positive individuals and their children.

She said that, among other things, the organization supplied groceries “two to three times a week.”

Although Kerton said she is concerned about the large increase in apartment buildings in the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road, she credits municipal Community Development Specialist Greg Dembowski with doing “an awesome job” in helping turn it into a vibrant New England-style central business district.

In the last decade retail and housing has opened at Brookfield Village and Emporium Plaza and considerable streetscape has been added.

“Some people complain that the town seems different,” she commented. “But I grew up in White Plains (N.Y.), which was a city then, but since then they have added high rises and it looks different.”

Kerton said years ago she enjoyed going to Rickyl’s diner, which was located for 35 years, until 2015, at 800 Federal Road in what is now Brookfield Village. Rickyl’s had many regular customers, but Kerton said “for the most part” before the Brookfield Town Center plan the area near the Four Corners was “not a destination place.”

She acknowledged that the closing of The Food Emporium supermarket in Emporium Plaza, after about eight months, this summer was a setback.

“I think it may have been a little too expensive” in comparison to the supermarkets about two miles away along the Miracle Mile of Federal Road. However, there are four retail businesses that have either opened or are projected to at Emporium Plaza and there are dozens of apartments that are occupied.

Kerton has qualified for a state Citizens’ Election Program grant.

She said she is “impressed” with the program, which was signed into law about 21 years ago by then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) who held the seat in the 107^th District from 1985 to 1995.

Kerton said it is a “challenge” having “to dial for dollars” to reach the funding threshold through small contributions form residents living in the district.

However, she said it has made candidates less reliant on contributions from special interest groups.

“In the federal government it too much about money,” Kerton lamented.

Kerton has joined other municipal and state candidates in opposing the proposed $272 million expansion of the Iroquois natural gas compressor station near High Meadow Lane.

She shares the concern that it is a hazard to the adjoining neighborhood and nearby Whisconier Middle School.

“It doesn’t benefit Brookfield,” said Kerton regarding the additional gas, which will be transported outside Connecticut.

On another topic, Kerton said she disagrees with Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Fazio’s call to abolish the public benefits charge on electric bills.

She said, “It cannot be eliminated” since part of the funding provides nuclear power to keep the grid at the Millstone plant operating.

Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has co-authored two books recently on the status of the Democrats.

He contends that the Democratic Party has become unbalanced.

Teixeira recently stated on Substack that the party would benefit from having more conservatives.

He wrote that in 2000, 28 percent of the party’s members identified as liberals and 24 percent as conservatives. Now those tallies are 59 percent liberals and eight percent conservatives – a better than seven to one ratio.

Teixeira stated that with more conservatives, for example, the party would be placing greater emphasis on law and order, as it did in the 1990s.

Kerton said some Democrats have gone too far in their calls for more police accountability.

She said, “I think that defund the police never should have been spoken.”

Resources:

Interview with Julie Kerton, Patch.com, on Monday, September 28, 2026.

Interview with Julie Kerton, Patch.com, on Sunday, October 4, 2026.

Phone interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

Phone interview with Aaron Zimmer, Patch.com, on Monday, September 28, 2026.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/opinion/affordability-democrats-midterms.html

What This Country Needs Is More Conservative Democrats!

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/gross-output-signals-an-economic-surge-ee8e462e