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Mitchell Goldblatt

Running for Board of Selectmen

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Party: Democrat

CEP Status:

Website: www.orangectdems.org

Age: 60

Marital Status: Married

Current Residence: Orange

Current Job: Director of Human Resources-Town of Guilford

Previous Job: First Selectman-Town of Orange

Previous Job:

Education: MBA, University of New Haven, BA, Muhlenberg College (PA)

Should your school district get the same amount of education funding from the state if your district's enrollment is dropping?
The state is in a fiscal crisis and we are not in a position to expect more funding. If our enrollment drops, the formula will allow for a drop in funding, but completely removing our state revenues and also proposing that the town pay for the state-controlled teacher retirement fund is simply unfair and perhaps illegal.
What's one thing most people don't know about you?
I have a collection of well over 100 volumes of Connecticut State Registers and Manuals (Blue Books), many of which stretch back into the mid to late-1800s.
Why are you running for this office?
I love serving the citizens of the Town of Orange and would like to continue to do so with another term on the Board of Selectmen
What is the most pressing local issue facing your community and how would you solve it (within the capacity of the office for which you are running)?
Our property taxes. We need to be more aggressive in attracting stores and businesses to fill vacant sites and parcels to alleviate the residential property taxes.
With the state's ongoing budget crisis looming over the election, what are your plans for your community's budget? Is there anything you can do make your town less dependent on revenue from the state?
We already get very little from the state, but still depend on it to balance a budget. Economic Development is the key to reducing our dependency on state revenues.
The legislature has been debating various ideas to allow towns to raise revenue locally through something other than property taxes. If you could ease your residents' property tax burden by adding another method of taxation, is there anything you might consider for your town?
The hotel tax should have a component that goes to the municipality and the state needs to allow the towns to collect a portion of the existing sales tax as had been previously promised.
Are you in favor of regionalizing more services in conjunction with other nearby communities? If so, which ones?
We already have our high school, probate court, and animal control services regionalized. Certainly looking at other areas such as sharing more public works services would be beneficial.
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