Next week’s primary is important in two ways. It will determine the final slate the city’s Democratic Party will present to the voters come November, but it also begins the march toward that general election. How the primary shakes out remains to be seen, and the impact of it on the slate of the city’s majority party still to be felt. But it will finalize who will run and under what banner.
Once next Tuesday’s balloting is completed, the taxpayers and voters of the city will have the opportunity to sift through the issues that face us, and determine, come two months from now, who will sit in the third-floor office of the mayor for the next two years.
The run up to the primary has already brought one issues to light that voters are going to have to discern. That is the city’s financial status – and ongoing problem – and the use of bonding to pay off the longstanding operational deficit as well as funding the reconstruction of West Haven High School.
Other issues have really paled in comparison mostly because of the ongoing budget battle in Hartford. Two months into Fiscal Year 2018, the General Assembly has failed to agree on funding the budget. We are working under Gov. Dannel Malloy’s executive orders. This is the variable that can, in the long run, determine what happens in November. The final budget and its apportionment of state funds to municipalities can heavily impact the city and its ability to pay its bills.
While the O’Brien administration is confident it will receive all the funding it was promised to the detriment of some other more affluent towns, until the budget standoff is resolved nothing is certain.
This is the most pressing issue, but taxpayers have to pay attention to other issues that are related. Neighborhood blight has been a problem in this city for many years, primarily because of the number of absentee landlords that own residences. Related to that is the state’s plan to shoehorn so-called “affordable housing” into areas surrounding transportation hubs like the train station. In cities like West Haven, we have a glut of housing stock, and the state’s plan will make that glut worse not better.
The rebuilding of West Haven High School puts education into the forefront of many people’s minds. Nothing a city does is more important than the education of our young people. West Haven’s schools have been behind in many measurable areas, and not all of them are related to money. The “soft bigotry of low expectations” is found among some who have directorial authority. Ideas like getting rid of Shakespeare and transitioning to graphic novels is an indictment of our students’ ability to read and comprehend. It’s an indictment of leadership, not teaching.
In the coming weeks, the voters will be offered two or three candidates. The winner of the Democratic runoff, the Republican candidate, David Riccio, current councilman-at-large, and possibly a candidate under the “A Better Choice” Party that was registered with the Secretary of State’s office.
Now is the time for voters to take notice. Over the next several weeks the candidates will offer statements and faceoff in debates. The Voice will do a comprehensive review and publishing of issues and issue statements, thus offering voters the information they need to make an informed decision.
We have approximately eight weeks until the general election. The task of every voter, no matter what the stripe, is to look at the issues and the candidates’ responses to those issues then make a decision. Too often, people complain about the way things are run or the decisions made, yet they refuse to use their franchise on Election Day.
We urge our readership to weigh the issues and the candidates, and then make a sober and informed decision come November.