Politics & Government
Godfrey: 'This isn’t a job, it’s a vocation'
Veteran Danbury state representative says General Assembly should use surplus to enact tax credits and assist non-profits
Bob Godfrey Ned Lamont Stephen Harding
Ryan Fazio Donald Klepper-Smith Bob Stefanowski
By Scott Benjamin
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Last fall, voters in Danbury talked about how Mayor Mark wasn’t on the ballot.
Former Republican Mayor Mark Boughton had first been elected in 2001 and often won in landslides, and along the way ran for the GOP nomination for governor three times and was the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor in 2010.
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In late 2020 Boughton became the state Commissioner of Revenue Services in a Democratic administration.
However, what about Democrat Bob Godfrey, whose 110th state House District takes in much of the Hat City’s downtown?
He’s been at the State Capitol so long that he is on a first-name basis with everyone from the shoeshine boy to the governor.
Godfrey first captured the seat in 1988, when Ronald Reagan was president . . . Bill O’Neill was governor . . . Boughton was teaching Social Studies at Danbury High School. . . Connecticut didn’t have an income tax. . . former Red Sox relief pitcher Sam Malone was tending bar at Cheers. . . Kareem Abdul Jabbar was still playing center for the Lakers . . . and Joe Montana was directing the 49ers to their third Super Bowl crown.
Godfrey, 73, told Patch.com in a recent phone interview that he was about to file campaign paper work to run for an 18th term.
“This isn’t a job, it’s a vocation,” said Godfrey, a former attorney, who for many years has been a full-time legislator. He is currently the deputy speaker pro tempore of the state House, and is tied for the third longest active tenure in that body.
State Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose district includes a slice of northern Danbury, stated in an e-mail message, “Bob's experience and connections with the various departments throughout our state government have been invaluable in securing funds for the city.”
Godfrey said he’s hopeful that the pandemic will recede soon and activity will return to close-to-normal at the State Capitol when the regular session of the General Assembly convenes on February 9.
He said that he has been frustrated about “the inability to go into the office where my colleagues are, where advocates are. Go to the cafeteria with people, discuss issues and get things done. Relying on e-mail and electronics drives me crazy.”
For decades, Danbury – the seventh most populated city in Connecticut and one of the few that is experiencing significant growth – has been noted for being multi-cultural.
However, in recent years Godfrey has pointed to a 2018 United Way study that indicted that 32,000 households – nearly half of those in Danbury – are, at best, living slightly above the poverty line.
Godfrey said on Main Street, which is part of his district, developers are building luxury apartments that are occupied by people moving into the city.
“My constituents say there is not enough affordable housing in Danbury,” he said. “We need to build apartments for people who already live here.”
Harding stated that there also are a number of young professionals that work in Danbury who are seeking affordable housing options in the city so they could be closer to their place of employment.
The 110th District has a high number of young single professionials as well as concentration of elderly residents.
It also had some notable representatives in the mid-1970s to the late-1980s while Godfrey was first a legislative aide in the General Assembly, then a vice president at the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce, then attending law school, starting his career as an attorney and also serving on the Danbury City Council.
The roster included Democrats Don Esposito - the father of Danbury’s current Republican mayor, Dean Esposito - Jimmy Dyer, who at age 33 was elected mayor of the Hat City, and then Paul Garavel, who was elected at age 21 as he finished his final semester at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU).
The district’s current boundaries extend to the White Street parking garage at WCSU’s midtown campus and also include the local branch of Naugatuck Valley Community College.
Godfrey said legislators have “a high concern” that the ongoing contract negotiations between the Board of Regents and the faculty for its 17 campuses – which include WCSU and Naugatuck Valley – have stretched beyond a year without any sign of a conclusion.
The faculty have held protests at various campuses in the system, objecting to a number of proposals, including having the full-time faculty teach more classes. The Board of Regents has pointed to lower enrollment and revenues.
There is already campaign media attention about a rematch between Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) and financial executive Bob Stefanowski of Madison.
Just a little more than two years ago during Lamont’s first year in office, Godfrey told Patch.com that he not only disagreed with his plan to toll highways, but that Lamont was “a little bit naïve” . . . “a little bit cavalier”. . . and that “he doesn’t understand deadlines.”
He added that his legislative liaison team was the worst of the six governors that he had served under.
Hartford Courant political columnist Kevin Rennie wrote an analysis of the stories on his Daily Ructions blog with the headline: “Godfrey: Public and Legislators Don’t Trust Lamont.”
Has Godfrey’s evaluation of the governor changed?
“It has,” he replied.
“He’s actually got some people in his office now that know what they ‘re doing,” Godfrey commented. “He also has the realization that the Legislature is a partner.”
In particular, he praised Lamont’s performance during the pandemic.
“Connecticut’s response to the pandemic has been a model nationally,” said Godfrey. “Connecticut has been safer than other states.”
After more than a decade of warding off budget deficits and increasing taxes, the General Assembly is now looking at a projected $1.5 billion surplus for the current fiscal year and another $1 billion to make a payment on large pension obligations, according to CT Hearst business columnist Dan Haar.
The state is projected to receive, all told, $2.6 billion of federal pandemic aid into early 2024.
Godfrey noted that the funds all are to be directed toward services that were “unfairly impaired by the pandemic.”
“We can’t use it to change the tax rate,” he related. “We have to be careful about that.”
Economist Donald Klepper Smith, who headed Republican former Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s economics team more than a decade ago, said there are serious misperceptions about Connecticut’s current fiscal health. He cited high pension debt from obligations going back decades that were underfunded; a work force that as of October was 104,000 employees lower than it was at the start of the Great Recession in 2008; and the continued outmigration of residents.
Remarked Klepper-Smith, “We’re living off of Uncle Sam.”
Marc Fitch of the Yankee Institute warned last fall that deficits are projected to appear in 2024.
“There are doomsayers from the Republican Party all the time, and they support that rich people shouldn’t pay taxes,” Godfrey remarked. “I don’t subscribe to that.”
With a surplus, Godfrey said legislators are looking at a host of proposals to make Connecticut more affordable.
Trimming the sales tax is “first and foremost,” he said as inflation has soared to 7 percent nationally.
The Republican state senators have called for slashing it from 6.35 to 5.99 percent from February 15 to the end of the calendar year.
“It’s temporary,” Godfrey remarked. “I think we need to reduce the tax on sales permanently.”
He said he also thinks there as be “an overreliance” on the property tax, and is encouraged that Lamont has called for placing $300 million toward property tax credits.
Godfrey said the General Assembly should consider offering relief to people who rent their homes.
Then there are proposals to pump more money to lower and middle-income families through a state child tax credit, which Godfrey said would become particularly needed when the federal child care tax credit lapses later this year.
“With the surpluses that we have and the Wall Street money coming in I think that we can work this out,” the state representative said.
Godfrey said legislators are talking about making another payment on Connecticut’s pension liabilities. As a result of the 2017 bipartisan budget agreement the state paid $1.7 billion toward that bill during the last fiscal year as capital gains revenues soared.
CT Mirror budget reporter Keith Phaneuf told a League of Women Voters forum in Wilton in 2019 that the state employee pensions were structurally underfunded each year from 1939 through 2010.
Godfrey said there also have been proposals to increase state funding for non-profit providers, including those that provide child care. He said the number of day care facilities has dwindled during the pandemic.
CT News Junkie reported recently that the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance recently announced that many of its employees have left for higher-paying positions and the services are facing unprecedented demand as well as soaring job vacancies.
What about enacting the public option on health care? The argument has been that it would make health insurance more affordable but would hurt the 18 major insurance carriers that have a presence in the metro Hartford area.
“The biggest blow to that was the retirement of Kevin Lembo, who was the leading champion of the public option,” remarked Godfrey.
Lembo, a Democrat from Guilford who was initially elected as the state comptroller in 2010, resigned in December due to a heart ailment.
Godfrey commented, “I don’t know who the new champion will be” for the public option. “But my idea is that it is a great thing to do.”
On another topic, Stefanowski has made reducing crime a signature issue for his current bid for governor.
Patch.com reported recently that state Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36) of Greenwich pointed to a 30 percent increase in homicides in Connecticut between 2019 and 2020. He added that Hartford and New Haven – the only major cities to report statistics for between 2020 and 2021, have indicated that there was a 30 percent increase over that span.
CT Mirror reported last October that the GOP state senators support "making it easier to move some young people accused of breaking the law from juvenile court to adult court," where they face more serious penalties.
Godfrey exclaimed, “We can’t lock up each teen-age offender. That’s not going to work.”
“I suspect that there is a huge mental health component to this,” he said in an apparent reference to the limited services that have been available during the pandemic.
“The Republican Party thinks that by locking all these kids up, our troubles will go away,” declared Godfrey. “More money on prisons is not the answer.”
Resources:
E-mail interview with state Rep. Stephen Harding, January 31, 2022.
https://patch.com/connecticut/...
hthttps://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Alongside-14-foot-inflatable-skunk-CSCU-faculty-16175430.
phptps://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/01/18/nonprofits-say-they-need-more-money/
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/godfrey-praises-connecticuts-commitment-gun-responsibility
https://www.dailyructions.com/godfrey-public-and-legislators-dont-trust-lamont/
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/economist-says-connecticut-s-revenue-surge-misleading
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/fazio-supports-trimming-sales-tax-inflation-surges
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/01/21/lamont-pitches-tax-cuts-to-business-audience/
https://www.ctpost.com/opinion...
https://www.ctinsider.com/columnist/article/Dan-Haar-A-1-5-billion-state-su
