Letter: Sampson is the better choice

To the editor,

Rob Sampson, Republican candidate for the 16th District Senate seat, has my vote on Nov. 6. Rob is clearly the better choice over Democratic challenger Vickie Nardello. In the 18 years she represented the 89th House District, before losing in 2012, and again in 2014, Vickie Nardello had taken Connecticut in the wrong direction with fiscal, business and energy policies that hurt our state’s economy and business climate.

In 2011, then-Rep. Nardello, along with the Democratic majority, enacted the largest tax increase in state history, increasing 77 taxes and fees by $1.9 billion annually. Instead of controlling spending, reducing the tax burden and eliminating regulatory red tape, Ms. Nardello added to small-business labor costs by voting for mandated paid sick leave, increases in the minimum wage and the forced unionization of home-based childcare providers.

As co-chair of the legislature’s Energy and Technology committee, then Rep. Nardello sponsored a bill that would have increased taxes on Dominion Resources’ Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford by $335 million. Dominion Resources, which has the capacity to meet 50 percent of the state’s energy needs, claimed that the proposed tax could render the plants too expensive to operate. By proposing this tax, Ms. Nardello was penalizing this company for doing business in Connecticut, a company that produces the cheapest energy and is responsible for roughly $1.2 billion annually in economic benefits to our state.

During one of her last legislative sessions that she participated in, key components of an energy bill never made it to the floor for a vote.  According to a CT Mirror news article, the situation was caused by dysfunction in the Energy and Technology Committee and the tension between then co-chairs Rep. Nardello and Sen. John Fonfara (D-Hartford.).   A situation that prompted then House Majority Leader J. Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) to say, “I think we need to change the dynamic of the committee, so that there is not that dysfunction.” (CT Mirror, “Leader to address ‘dysfunction’ on energy committee,” May 30, 2012)

Connecticut ranks among the worst in the United States for business climate, tax burden and cost of living. Residential electricity rates and gas prices consistently rank at or near the highest in the nation. Ms. Nardello, and fellow Democrats, aggravated these problems in 2011 by enacting the largest tax hike in state history, increasing taxes and fees by $1.9 billion annually.

It would be a mistake to send Ms. Nardello back to Hartford and expect different results.

Voters within the 16th Senatorial District should give Rob Sampson a chance to help us prosper again.

Michael Dreher

Prospect