Herbst Insists College Debt Will Trigger A Great Recession

By Scott Benjamin

Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst says “the next Great Recession” will result from college student loan debt.

“As was the case with mortgages [during the 2008 financial crisis], we have given out student loans to people who can’t pay them back,” the first selectman said in an interview.

Herbst said since the federal government-backed loans are guaranteed, there’s little incentive to colleges to reduce tuition.

“The cost for tuition at Trinity College has gone from $36,000 to almost $70,000 a year since I graduated in 2002,” the first selectman said. “Have salaries doubled in 15 years?”

Herbst said a saving grace is the Connecticut Higher Education Trust (CHET) program, which allows families to set aside money for their children’s college educations through low-risk investments.

The program was established under Republican state Treasurer Chris Burnham of Stamford in 1997 and has been expanded under current Democratic state Treasurer Denise Nappier of Hartford since she took office in 1999.

“It has worked very well for a lot of families,” said Herbst, who lost by six-tenths of one percent of the vote to Nappier in the 2014 treasurer’s race.

Generally, he is critical of Nappier’s performance, but he said he received a lot of favorable comment from voters on CHET during the campaign and believes it was a factor in her narrow victory.

Later this week he will formally launch a campaign to try to become the first Trinity graduate to be elected governor of Connecticut since Thomas Meskill of New Britain, who held the job from 1971 to 1975 after being a mayor and congressman.

If he wins, he could become the hottest Trinity alumnus this side of Tucker Carlson and George Will.

Regarding the higher education system, retired Webster Bank economist Nick Perna told CT Mirror in April that Connecticut has “a boatload” of public campuses.

Does at least one of them have to close since enrollments are declining?

Herbst said that would be an option “of last resort” since opportunities need to be available for a wide range of students in different parts of the state.

He said that he agrees with Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, another of the Republican gubernatorial aspirants, that the state Board of Regents that oversees the state universities, the community colleges and the online division should be abolished.

Herbst said, for example, the presidents of the four-year schools can more effectively make decisions themselves instead of reporting to the president of the Board of Regents and the state would save money by eliminating the Board of Regents operations in Hartford.

"I also think there is more accountability when you have a local Board of Trustees overseeing a single campus than having a Board of Regents for 17 campuses," the first selectman said.

Herbst also said he supports increasing online class options.

“I think online learning provides people an opportunity to get degrees who otherwise might not be able to because of work and family responsibilities,” said Herbst.

Economist Donald Klepper-Smith of DataCore Partners in New Haven has noted that Connecticut ranks last among the six New England states in job recovery since the Great Recession in 2008.

Herbst says Trumbull, a suburban town of 36,000, is proof that there can be jobs available for the college graduates.

The first selectman said that since being elected nearly eight years ago, the commercial section has grown from 14 percent to 23 percent of the grand list.

“The level of responsiveness from our permitting departments has never been so good,” he said. “That’s what businesses want.”

Herbst said Connecticut’s cities also can prosper, even though they are burdened with some of the highest tax mill rates among Connecticut’s 169 municipalities.

The first selectman said a combination of re-establishing commercial air service at Igor Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford and high speed-rail from President Donald Trump’s proposed infrastructure program could make Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, far more accessible to people traveling to and from Manhattan.

The General Assembly still hasn’t voted on whether to reinstitute the tolls that were abolished for safety reasons a generation ago. With gasoline prices having been down in the $2.50-per-gallon neighborhood for about three years, there might be interest in imposing higher taxes to help pay for a $100 billion infrastructure upgrade over the next 30 years.

However, Herbst said no one should consider either alternative until a lock box is established for the special transportation funds. He said he’s worried that it could be violated just as the state constitutional spending cap has been since it was established 25 years ago.

He said once there is a lockbox, the state should study the impact of tolls on border municipalities and evaluate the gasoline tax receipts over the last 10 years before determining a course of action.

Herbst said the top areas for potential job growth are health care, bio-tech and financial services.

He said the biggest task Connecticut faces is how to tame the state bureaucracy, which he refers to as the “800-pound gorilla.”

Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) and the General Assembly are still grappling with how to close a projected $5.1 billion gap for the two-year cycle that starts next month.

Herbst said he supports the recent state Senate Republican proposal to save $2.2 billion on state employee costs. The Senate GOP package would suspend or eliminate arbitration, replace overtime with compensatory time, increase worker contributions to their health care plans and require more service before they receive a benefit and triple their pension contributions.

The governor reached a tentative $1.55 billion agreement with the collective bargaining units, whose rank and file must still ratify it. He has told CT Mirror that it is unrealistic to seek further concessions following months of negotiations. State labor officials have called the Republican Senate plan an “attack” on the working class.

If elected, Herbst said he would dismantle the Department of Motor Vehicles so that residents could renew their drivers’ licenses at the town hall or a shopping plaza, as Massachusetts has recently done under Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.

He said the state needs to reduce its Bond Commission appropriations.

Additionally, Herbst said the establishment of a state Inspector General, a proposal by former state Senate Republican Leader John McKinney (R-Fairfield), could guard against waste.

In particular, he said he’s concerned about misuse of the state reimbursement for local school construction.

“I think it is a piggybank for big contractors and architects,” Herbst said. “The bigger and better the design, the bigger and better the fee.”

He has opted to not seek another term as first selectman this fall and will devote more time to annexing the GOP gubernatorial nod.

Herbst said he “tells it like it is” and has “sharp elbows,” a style that he believes will resonate with voters. Yet, he insists he has been bipartisan in Trumbull, working with Democrats to accomplish pension reform, debt and spending reform, charter revision and ethics in contracting reform.

The Republicans already have a prospective baseball roster of candidates for the gubernatorial race, which will be open, since Malloy announced in April that he would not seek a third term.

The potential contestants include McKinney, former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker of Bridgeport, state Rep. Prasad Srinivasan of Glastonbury, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, former Secretary of the State contender Peter Lumaj of Fairfield, former congressional candidate Stephen Obsitnik of Westport, state Sen. Tony Hwang of Fairfield and Boughton.

Herbst said he is running against the “Hartford insiders,” and will not accept campaign contributions from lobbyists to reach the $250,000 threshold for the state Citizen Election Program. His goal is reach that sum by early next year.

He said he would make his income tax returns public before the state convention next May.