Harding Says He Can't Support Malloy's Robin Hood Approach

By Scott Benjamin

Incoming residents say they quickly learn that Connecticut is very diverse.

That is even true when comparing the three municipalities that state Rep. Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield serves in metro Danbury.

Danbury has the fifth largest shopping mall in New England and generates the most sales tax revenue in the Nutmeg State. In contrast, Brookfield objected to a recent proposal to build a six-story structure in its emerging Town District Center. Bethel has long had the kind of pedestrian-friendly downtown shopping area that Brookfield is trying to create. It also has a train station, but, unlike Brookfield, it doesn’t have immediate access to Interstate-84.

Danbury, according to CT Mirror, would get an additional $10.4 million in municipal assistance under Gov. Dannel Malloy’s (D-Stamford) proposed $40.6 billion budget for the two-year cycle that starts in July. The Hat City is one of 31 municipalities that would benefit under the package.

Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn has said his town would take a $3.68 million reduction and CT Mirror has reported that Bethel would lose more than $4 million.

Malloy and the General Assembly are grappling to offset a projected $1.7 billion budget gap for the next fiscal year.

All of the municipalities would have to pay for one-third of the pension benefits for their school teachers, which the state has covered since 1929.

“I completely disagree with the governor’s plan,” said Harding, even though Danbury would gain more municipal aid.

“All the governor is saying is we’re pushing this onto the towns, because we can’t handle it anymore,” said the state representative, who is in his second term.

In Bethel and Brookfield, residents vote directly at referendum on their municipal budget each spring, a power that they don’t have regarding the state or federal budget.

So if annually far less than 50 percent of them turnout at the budget referendums, do many people in those towns care about their municipal taxes?

There is “not a high turnout at the polls,” said Harding. “But this [state] budget will have a major impact in my district and my constituents see that the governor’s proposed plan is a step in the wrong direction.”

Dunn has said under Malloy’s plan taxes would go up 5.6 percent in Brookfield.

Harding said he would vote against any state tax increases.

However, University of Connecticut economist Fred Carstensen, a noted analyst on state fiscal issues, recently told CT Mirror that taxes will have to be raised. He has insisted that “austerity to prosperity” isn’t a viable alternative considering the size of the projected deficit.

Harding, a 2005 graduate of Brookfield High School, said he generally supports Malloy’s goal of seeking about $700 million in concessions from the state collective bargaining units over the next fiscal year and hopes that he takes steps to address the abysmal 35.5 percent funding of the state pension plan through give-backs from state workers.

However, overall, what is the solution?

Harding, an attorney, said first, the state should grant less overtime to its employees, attempt to reduce the work force through attrition, eliminate the Citizens Elections program grants, privatize where possible and turn some social services over to non-profit providers.

The last two years, the Republican caucuses have offered their comprehensive counter budget proposal around April 24 as the budget-related committees are concluding their deliberations. However, Harding said this year with a fiscal crisis he would like it to happen before the Daffodils sprout through the grass.

He said he supports the proposal by state Sen. Mike McLachlan (R-24) of Danbury to require that the state approve its budget by March 1 so that municipal leaders would not have to guess how much state assistance they would receive. Most municipal budgets are approved in April or May. He said to accomplish that the General Assembly would have to focus solely on fiscal issues for the first eight weeks of its session each odd-numbered year.

On another topic, George Mason economist Tyler Cowen wrote in his recent book, “Complacent Class,” that the millennial generation, in particular, has become too “risk averse,” noting that, among other things, the percentage of start-up companies have declined over the last generation.

“Student loans are a huge part of that,” Harding said.

“College debt has long been a problem, but for my generation it has been more severe because of the escalating costs,” said Harding, who graduated from law school just five years ago. “For me, my wife and all our friends it has been a challenge. I think more people in our generation have seen college debt keep them from buying a house or even a new car.”

It may be getting worse.

CT Mirror reported last month that Mark Ojakian - the president of the Board of Regents, which oversees 17 schools, including Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) in Danbury and the recently expanded Danbury campus of Naugatuck Valley Community College – told a legislative committee that the system “might even consider declaring financial exigency, which he said is the equivalent of declaring bankruptcy.”

Harding said some of the “salaries at the high end are a little egregious” for the administrators in the Board of Regents.

Since at least 2013, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who is exploring a third bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has called for abolishing the Board of Regents - which was established in 2011, in part, to save costs by merging the central offices of the Connecticut State University and the community colleges. Instead, the mayor wants to institute site-based management in which each college president in the current system would not have a president of the Board of Regents to report to.

Boughton has said the current system is ”wasteful” and “redundant” and that money could be saved be abolishing the positions in the Board of Regents central office in Hartford, which would lower tuition for students. The mayor has added that the college presidents are intelligent and well-paid and should only have to report to a Board of Trustees consisting of alumni, community members and students related to their own campus.

“I would likely support site-based management,” said Harding, noting that even under the former system in which the four-year schools, such as WCSU, were part of the Board of Trustees for the Connecticut State University, the four campus presidents, in effect, almost became vice presidents since they reported to the chancellor of the trustees in Hartford.

He said under site-based management any oversight or jurisdictional issues could be handled by the state Board of Governors for Higher Education and, if needed, the Education Committee of the General Assembly.

However, beyond that, are Connecticut’s public colleges operating efficiently?

For example, WashingtonPost.com reported in 2008 that of the people 25 years of age and older in Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all three of the municipalities that Harding represents, only 29.9 percent of them had at least a four-year college degree.

University of California economist Enrico Moretti wrote in his 2012 book, “The New Geography of Jobs,” that the Stamford metro area is the only one in the United States in which more than 50 percent of the population has a college degree.

So even though the state’s commitment to its public colleges has declined steadily since 1989 – when a budget crisis plagued the administration of former Gov. William O’Neill (D-East Hampton) - is it realistic to continue to spend even this smaller percentage of the state budget in schools where so few students graduate?

“It’s worth making the investment” since it provides a chance for people to be educated for high-paying jobs and it’s difficult to determine which 18-year-old is going to succeed in college, said Harding.

He added because of that it would be “dangerous” not to have a public college accessible to residents in each part of Connecticut.

Harding acknowledged that there will be pressure to consolidate higher education operations since the state’s high school enrollment is declining and fewer mellennials are going to college following the 2008 financial crisis.

Harding said he agrees with Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson who wrote in her 2015 book, “The Selfie Vote,” that more online classes should be available. He said he hopes that the Board of Regents schools and the University of Connecticut will offer more in the near future.

“It would be less costly for students and more students would be able to stay in school because they could take classes according to their availability,” said the legislator, who “enjoyed” the online classes he had in college.

Harding said the four-year schools in the Board of Regents system should consider requiring that each student take at least three credits of Cooperative Education work-study in their fields. He said in addition to getting practical experience, such as he did through his college internships, they would earn money to help offset some of their tuition costs. His proposal would include a waiver for students with extenuating circumstances. Currently, Cooperative Education is optional at the four-year campuses, with only a tiny percentage of the students utilizing the program.

Regarding revitalizing colleges, Harding said he is intrigued by radio commentator Hugh Hewitt’s plan in his recent book, “The Fourth Way,” where the federal government would ask tech titans such as Apple, Google and Microsoft to bring their offshore revenue back to America and pay a 15 percent corporate tax instead of the current 35 percent.

Hewitt wants to use some of that money to pay for general road and bridge improvements, and also require the technology giants to operate on a college campus in a middle-class or impoverished city, hiring at least 1,000 workers over the next 10 years.

“That sounds like a very innovative idea,” said Harding. “That seems to make sense.”