Opinion

Forum: Make Connecticut work for working families

As a nearly lifelong Connecticut resident, it has become clear to me that something is terribly wrong with our economy and politics. I am a small businessman and I worry about my family’s future in Connecticut. Will my daughter get a good education? Will she drown in college debt? Will we have health care when we need it? The voters I talk to at the doors in Wallingford and Cheshire share my concern that middle-class life is becoming more precarious every year.

Two years ago, Bernie Sanders, courageously called out the concentrated wealth and corporate power that has a stranglehold over society. Bernie’s campaign inspired me to get active and ultimately to run to represent the 90th District in the state legislature. As a democratic socialist, Bernie fought to make billionaires pay their fair share of taxes to raise revenue for services that we need: healthcare-for-all, tuition-free public universities, and paid family medical leave. He supported a $15/hour minimum wage and workers' rights to have a voice at their job. Like Bernie, I am a democratic socialist, and I have taken these issues directly to the doors of my neighbors in Wallingford and Cheshire. Unsurprisingly, an honest pro-middle class agenda is extremely popular in the 90th District.

These ideas are woven into the fabric of our country’s history. They represent a return to the values that brought about the New Deal in the 1930s, making the middle-class possible. Where would working people be without “socialist” programs like Social Security, Medicare, minimum wage and public education? Where will we be if we fail to protect and expand these programs for the future?

Compare this with the extreme agenda of our current Representative Craig Fishbein. He has advocated abolishing the minimum wage, arguing it promotes “mediocrity.” He has called for eliminating state financial aid for college and "greatly decreasing” funding for K-12 public schools and higher education. He repeatedly voted to block the Medicare savings funding that our seniors rely on. He has sponsored legislation to deny state workers a right to have a voice in determining their health and retirement benefits. He was one of four voting against pay equity for women and claims that requiring the very wealthy to pay the same tax rates as us amounts to unfairly targeting them.

Connecticut has tremendous wealth, but the wealthy are taxed at about half the rate that working families pay. We are ranked the third most unequal state in the country, with the income and tax disparity growing. Rep. Fishbein’s claims that Connecticut is “bankrupt” are false. We have the resources to fix our problems, but require political courage to require the 1 percent pay their fair share. Despite the fear mongering, such proposals do not drive businesses and the wealthy out of the state. What drives jobs out of the state is a perpetual budget crisis, crumbling infrastructure, reduced access to education and job training, and the low-wages and austerity budgeting that reduces demand for local products and services.

We have a clear choice to make, we can either recommit ourselves to the values of community and solidarity or embrace the cynicism and greed that has gripped our politics. Today as in the past, change will only come when working people organize and demand it.

Dan Fontaine is a Wallingford resident and 90th District Democratic candidate for the Working Families Party.