Politics & Government
Pizzuto says crime is on voters’ minds in special election race
Recently-retired UConn Waterbury campus director seeking to capture seat in 71st state House district on February 22
Bill Pizzuto John Egan Ned Lamont
Anthony D’Amelio Enrico Moretti Scott Galloway
By Scott Benjamin
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MIDDLEBURY – Legislative special election campaigns last seven weeks, are particularly challenging in winter during a pandemic when every three days the forecast calls for snow, ice or single-digit temperatures and voters are more focused on Joe Burrow than electing someone to a $28,000-a-year part-time job.
“In a special election, the voters are not aware that it is going to happen,” said recently retired University of Connecticut (UConn) Waterbury campus Director Bill Pizzuto, who is the Republican candidate in the 71st state House District. He faces Democrat John Egan, the former Waterbury Parks & Recreation Supervisor, in the February 22 balloting in a district that includes all of Middlebury and part of Waterbury.
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To drive the message home, Pizzuto and his campaign manager Joe Pisani used a sledge hammer to post 20, four-by-four-foot campaign lawn signs.
The seat was vacated in December by Republican Anthony D’Amelio of Waterbury, who initially captured it in a 1996 special election. D’Amelio, who had been a state campaign coordinator for Republican former President Donald Trump, left the state House to devote more time to his business and his family, and promptly endorsed Pizzuto for the GOP nomination.
Pizzuto grew up in Waterbury, where he went to kindergarten with his wife, Michelle, a retired seventh grade teacher in the Brass City. He served on the Board of Alderman. Six years ago they moved to Middlebury.
Pizzuto, who has qualified for a state Citizen Election Program grant, has contacted voters through mailers, Facebook posts, e-mail blasts, phone calls and limited door-to-door canvassing.
“What’s been missing during the pandemic is the direct contact between each other,” he lamented while speaking in a rapid, urgent delivery. He personalized the conversation by calling his interviewer by his first name about every seventh phrase.
Pizzuto said what he is hearing most frequently from voters is concern about a recent increase in crime.
“The laws have become too lax. You should feel safe in the world,” said Pizzuto, who formerly served on the Waterbury Police Commission.
“Cars stolen, exposed to violent crimes,” he explained in an interview with Patch.com. “At some point you have to provide a deterrent.”
He said he supports the state Senate Republican proposal to make it easier to move certain young people accused of crime to the adult courts where the punishment is usually more severe.
“Juvenile crime is increasing and the offenders often know that there is little, to no significant punishment,” he said. “Many times, the juveniles committing the crimes are repeat offenders, it is my hope that moving from juvenile to adult court may help to better control this increase in crime by demonstrating to the offenders that their crimes will be dealt with swiftly, with more severe penalties being applied. “
State Reps. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield and Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury told Patch.com recently that they think there is a large mental health component attached to the crime wave since fewer programs have been available during the pandemic.
Pizzuto concurred, adding, “The stress factor is incredible.”
The older of his two daughters, Stephanie Pizzuto, runs Footsteps, a counseling center where the current enrollment “is off the charts.”
Egan, who lives in the Town Plot section of Waterbury, announced upon garnering the Democratic nomination last month that his top priority would be upgrading the Waterbury rail line.
Pizzuto agreed that it would boost the city’s economy.
“It will allow business folks, students, and citizens to get to their destinations more expeditiously,” he commented. “It will help to open up an already fast-paced housing market even more and increase employment opportunities to folks that could utilize the track improvements to get to their new jobs”
University of California at Berkeley economics professor Enrico Moretti wrote in his 2012 book, “The New Geography Of Jobs,” that the Waterbury metro area ranked 294th in the United States in the number of college graduates in its work force – just 15 percent.
The average salary for a college graduate in Waterbury at that time was $54,651 a year. Less than 90 minutes away, in Stamford, which ranked first in the nation in college graduates in its work force, the average annual salary was $133,479.
Can the Connecticut’s fifth largest city become more economically vibrant?
Pizzuto, a former chairman of the Waterbury Chamber of Commerce, said, “I think you look at your largest employers – the hospital, the banks and the city itself.”
With the national inflation rate at its highest peak since 1982, he endorsed the state Senate Republican plan to lower the sales tax from 6.35 percent to 5.99 percent from February 15 through the end of the calendar year.
“People need a break,” Pizzuto declared. “It gives people some breathing room.”
He also supports lowering the 25-cent-gallon gasoline tax. It was dropped from 39 cents to the current 25 cents a gallon in two steps a generation ago.
CT Hearst recently reported that Connecticut has a $1.5 billion surplus for the current fiscal year and is primed to make a $1 billion payment on its massive state employee pension obligations that until 11 years ago had been structurally underfunded for decades.
However, Pizzuto said state officials must be cautious.
Last fall the state Office of Fiscal Analysis, the General Assembly’s budget arm, projected deficits as early as 2024. The $2.6 billion in federal stimulus that the state is receiving will expire in about two years.
“One-shot money is there for a short time,” Pizzuto0 exclaimed. “It looks great. I’ve seen where there are programs that sound like a great idea, but it’s going to cost millions of dollars and you can’t afford it.”
Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) appears primed to pare the state work force, since a host of state employees may retire at the end of June.
Lamont has commissioned a Boston Consulting Group study to try to make state agencies more efficient.
Pizzuto said that up to a point he could support trimming some bureaucracy.
“There may be some redundancy,” he remarked regarding the current state work force. “But you can’t get to the point where the person calls the agency and you can’t get a person at the agency on the line.”
If elected, Pizzuto said he wants to serve on the Education Committee and try to address soaring college costs.
New York University Marketing Professor Scott Galloway wrote in “Post Corona,” his 2020 book, nationally over the last 40 years college tuition has increased 1,400 percent.
“The costs have become uneconomical,” said Pizzuto, who recalled paying a tuition of $180 a semester at Waterbury State Technical College in the mid-1970s.
Years later while he was working in the Academic Affairs Office of the state Department of Higher Education, he earned a doctorate degree at the University of Connecticut at Storrs in Adult & Technical Education. He was an associate vice provost for the UConn Tri-campus program – Torrington, Waterbury and West Hartford – before becoming the Waterbury campus director in 2006.
CT Hearst reported recently that partly as a result of the pandemic, there are 10,000 fewer college students in Connecticut than a year ago.
“Nothing is less expensive than the public universities,” said Pizzuto, underscoring their lower costs when compared with private colleges.
Is offering more online courses part of the solution? Gregory Gray, the former president of the state Board of Regents, called for that when he arrived nearly nine years ago. Southern New Hampshire University has an online program that has grown in leaps and bounds over the last 13 years and is marketed in national cable television commercials.
“I think you need a hybrid,” remarked Pizzuto. “I think you need online for the accessibility. I’m very much in favor that you have face-to-face and interact with the students.”
Resources:
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2021/12/07/waterbury-state-rep-to-resign-to-focus-on-restaurant-business/
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/harding-optimistic-state-officials-will-address-crime-wave
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/godfrey-isn-t-job-it-s-vocation
John Egan, news release, January 15, 2022
Enrico Moretti, “The New Geography Of Jobs,” 2012.
https://yankeeinstitute.org/20...
https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2021/...
Scott Galloway, “Post Corona,” 2020.
https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Connecticut-college-enrollment-dropped-by-10-000-16833031.php
https://patch.com/connecticut/danbury/regents-president-discusses-transform-2020
