Courage, common sense and integrity have guided me through 17 years of
military service and two terms as a state representative. These principles will
continue to guide me as a candidate to be your next state senator. My pledge to
the citizens of the 19th District (Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lisbon, Lebanon, Ledyard, Marlborough, Montville, Norwich and Sprague) includes the following:
- In the wake of evidence that special interests have again infiltrated Hartford and, in particular, the congressional campaign of the state Speaker of the House, I pledge to fight vigorously to restore public confidence and rebuild
trust in state government. I support establishing both and independent
ethics committee and an Office of Inspector General to root out waste, fraud
and abuse at all levels of government. - I will not support state government spending more than it collects in tax revenue. Hartford has an addiction to spending and in 2011 the budget increased by 5.5%. This is unsustainable.
- I will not support borrowing more than the state can pay back. Each year we spend billions on debt service and principal, while not funding our pensions.
This is unsustainable. - I will fight to eliminate government programs that are broken, redundant, or do not provide a return on taxpayer investment. We must prioritize core services like transportation, education and public safety.
- I will work to return state government to its founding principles: a government by the people and for the people, with no over reach or uncontrolled growth.
- I pledge to set the conditions to help Connecticut businesses grow and flourish. We need to remind our elected officials that government doesn’t create jobs; business men and women do. I will fight to redirect funding for projects like the “Busway to nowhere” to small businesses who create 93% of all new jobs.
By committing to this pledge, I will challenge the status quo in Hartford, protect our quality of life, and create a pro-business environment to protect and grow private-sector jobs throughout our region.
I hope you’ll join me! For more information, please visit www.christophercoutu.com.
Spending 1 million per job to create a mouse breeding plant in CT should be up to banks, not the taxpayers. The government should not be in the business of loaning taxpayer money to private companies for business. There's too much opportunity for collusion there. Look what happened to Pfizer in New London, and Solyndra in the Obama administration. I have some questions for the state Democratic controlled government. If we need jobs so bad, why are we spending millions of dollars buying railroad cars from a foreign company? If we need jobs, why is the state buying Toyota Prius cars from a foreign company? If we need jobs, why are we not promoting "buy American" in all government expenditures, and just asking people to give American products a chance. The answer to a good economy is in manufacturing..