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Bruce Conroy

Running for Town Council

9 CTNewsJunkie Reader Endorsements

Party: Democrat

CEP Status:

Website: conroyforwallingford.com

Age: 47

Marital Status: Married

Current Residence: Wallingford

Current Job: Carpenter

Previous Job:

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Education:

Are you in favor of regionalizing more services in conjunction with other nearby communities? If so, which ones?
Regionalizing purchasing is a good place to save money, also, if there are departments which are staffed part-time, then regionalizing those departments with other towns as full time positions would save personnel costs.
Should your school district get the same amount of education funding from the state if your district's enrollment is dropping?
I would not like to see our share of education funding drop, but if enrollment drops, then it only makes sense that the state would cut back our share. If Wallingford attracts young families with a high quality of life, then that won't be an issue.
What's one thing most people don't know about you?
I'm a Democrat, but I'm also a shooting sports enthusiast and a hunter. I guess that's considered an unusual combination.
Why are you running for this office?
I've been going to town council meetings for a couple years, and I've tried to make a difference as a citizen of this town, to no avail. So now I am running so that I can make a real difference.
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)?
We are over taxed. It's not that our taxes are high, it's that, for several years, our town has run a sizable surplus, which gets piled up in "contingency" accounts and not used. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is falling apart. Also, our surplus account has made us a target for cuts in state education funding.
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?
While we do need to keep some money in the contingency account, we don't need $29Million in it. Using some of that money to wisely invest in the quality of life in Wallingford, will bring younger people to live and work here, start businesses here, and grow our tax base - thereby keeping our mill rate low.
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 state has a number of options open to them for raising revenue outside of increased tax rates, but have so far have had little enthusiasm for following those routes - such as legalization of marijuana and eliminating tax loopholes only used by the very wealthy.
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