Kolenberg, Leone Face Off Ahead of Special Election

The budget, the economy, and other hot-button state issues took center stage Tuesday night at , as State Rep. Carlo Leone (D-148th) and Stamford Board of Finance member Bob Kolenberg (R) squared off ahead of the Feb. 22 special election for State Senate.

Keeping a largely civil tone, Leone and Kolenberg used the occasion of the Candidates' Night to argue their stances and qualifications for the 27th district seat. The office was recently left vacant when former Sen. Andrew McDonald (D) .

The 27th district covers voting districts II (residents whose polling station is Town Hall) and IV (residents whose polling station is ) in Darien, as well as much of Stamford.

Below are excerpts from the hourlong debate, which featured nine prompts submitted by LWV representatives and audience members. The quotations are representative and do not necessarily reflect the candidates' full responses to moderator Jara Burnett's questions.

Burnett: What is the role of the state legislature in facilitating job creating and avoiding the loss of jobs and business in our state?

• Leone: "I believe the role of the legislature is to set the ground rules and present legislation that can make a fair and equitable distribution of the playing rules for all businesses, our citizens, and our taxpayers. Our role is to foster job creation by making it as efficient as possible and making sure that we don't create any excessive burdens."
• Kolenberg: "I think whatever the legislature has done the past 20 years hasn't really worked too well, because Connecticut right now is ranked 49th most unfriendly state for businesses in the United States. ... Legislature and the state government should provide an environment for businesses to thrive so that businesses are attracted to the state of Connecticut so that we can increase jobs and increase our tax base."
• Leone [rebuttal]: "I would stand by my record in terms of the job creation that we've done for the state and for the City of Stamford. I was responsible for creating the special taxing district that has allowed the Harbor Point development to take place in the south end of Stamford, which is a nationally recognized model. ... My record has shown that I what I have proposed has been successful. We've created jobs."
• Kolenberg [rebuttal]: "It's a little misleading to say that they brought jobs in. When you look at the numbers out there, there were a lot of jobs that were lost. I think right now there's a 171,000 people in Connecticut who are unemployed, so I think if you ask any one of them, I'm not sure they would agree with the policies that are going on right now in the state legislature."

Burnett: Do you believe that the state can balance the budget through cost reductions rather than through tax hikes? If so, which costs would you eliminate or reduce?

• Kolenberg: "I would not support any tax increases. Right now, people in Connecticut are the highest taxed people in the United States ... 20 years ago, the state of Connecticut had 30,000 employees working for the state. Today we have 55,000 employees working for the state. ... So there is room to cut jobs, there is room to reduce the workforce, there's ways of privatizing services so that we don't have to cut back on the services that we expect from government. ... I think you can look at the DMV as an example, that we could privatize and save the taxpayers money."
• Leone: "Really all the easy decisions have been made previously, and now we're faced with nothing but heartache across the board. .... You're going to see quite a bit of reduction in services and cutting back on spending. What I would not support is cutting so deep that you eliminate our safety net for that people that are most vulnerable. At the end of the day, the role of government is to support our citizens, especially those in need. ... You will see borrowing going on, but within a small measure. You'll see borrowing for investment in our infrastructure—infrastructure that will turn into job growth."

Burnett: What are your opinions about section 8-30g of the state statutes as it pertains to small towns such as Darien that are 98 percent developed?

• Kolenberg: "I think the law was written with good intentions and it was a centrally planned idea to implement affordable housing to help people in different areas. But I think what's happened is it's become another unfunded mandate laid down by the State of Connecticut on local communities. ... I think people locally know how best to run their communities, and I don't think that central planning has ever worked anywhere in the world. It never worked in the Soviet Union, it hasn't worked out of Washington, it certainly doesn't work in Connecticut."
• Leone: "I wouldn't equate affordable housing with the Soviet Union. I think that does a little disservice. ... The more we provide affordable housing, the better off we all are. The 10 percent [affordability threshold] for 8-30g—I think the goal was laudable and for the urban centers it has worked quite well ... [but] I believe the statute has more than enough room for improvement. I do think it's something that we need to revise so it's more friendly for towns like Darien."

Burnett: Please talk about what you have done or what you would do as an elected official to support public education.

• Kolenberg: "I've always worked hard to make sure that the students of Stamford get the proper education they need. I chair the education committee on the Board of Finance. ... We've got a couple issues really facing Stamford and Darien, and one of which is these unfunded mandates that I spoke about previously. The state of Connecticut has burdened local communities like Darien with many unfunded mandates when it comes to public education. And it's really driven the cost up, and a lot of those mandates aren't necessarily translating into better education for our children. So that's an area that really has to be worked on."
• Leone: "Education is hugely important for our communities, and rightly so. Just recently I was able to attend both the Stamford Board of Education meeting and even the Darien Board of Education meeting. It was interesting to learn some of the issues they're all facing in terms of the school budgets ... and trying propose a manageable budget versus the services they're trying to provide. ... In terms of educational dollars from the legislature, we brought back ECS [Education Cost Sharing] dollars, and even though we don't get our fair share, we still brought back over $57 million to Stamford and Darien. ... While we were bringing back dollars, Mr. Kolenberg, who sits on the Board of Finance, was cutting those same dollars for the local Board of Education."

Burnett: Would you support a repeal of the death penalty if introduced in the legislature?

• Kolenberg: "I've got mixed feelings with the death penalty. On the one hand, I believe in an eye for an eye. For instance, the criminals that committed the crime in Cheshire, Conn.—I've got very little sympathy for them and I would be supporting the death penalty in their case. But that being said, I think there has to be proper safeguards in place, because it's a court system. It's run by people and individuals. I want to make sure there's enough safeguards in place for the less fortunate in our society, the minorities that don't have the resources to provide a proper defense for themselves if they're accused of a crime. ... Any death penalty legislation has to be very, very carefully considered."
• Leone: "I've been on record supporting the death penalty. I have voted against the repeal of that, and the reason for that is that—in extreme cases, in clear cut cases, where you beyond a shadow of a doubt you know that the person committed the atrocity, whether it's been a brutal murder or incestuous rape or something to that degree—I do believe the state, as an entity, has a right to take those people's lives and not have them be part of the burden of society. Where there is doubt, where there are mitigating circumstances, we shouldn't do that, and there's where the abuse has been in the death penalty."

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