{news} David Bedell in Greenwich Post

[David Bedell]

http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/article_10290.shtml

Greenwich Post
Nickerson, Farricker face off
Nov 2, 2006

In the final debate of the election season, state Sen. William Nickerson 
stressed his record and experience as the main reasons he should keep his 
job.

“I’ve delivered practical results on issues that matter,” Mr. Nickerson 
said. “I’ve served my constituents with experience, not only in the state 
Senate, but in the state House before that and before that in the Greenwich 
Representative Town Meeting. My opponent has no legislative experience and 
has campaigned on false, negative attacks. I want to build a positive future 
for Connecticut and this district.”

But Mr. Nickerson’s opponent, Democrat Frank Farricker, said the eight-term 
incumbent’s legislative record was lacking and that he represented a chance 
for a new voice in Hartford for the 36th District.

“It’s time for a change,” Mr. Farricker said. “Greenwich is a great place to 
live. I was born here and I’m raising my family here. If we’re not careful, 
things are going to change for the worse here and I don’t want that to 
happen. We have to anticipate the change in our community and we have to 
have proactive, energetic solutions to make sure this stays a great town 
where we’re proud to raise our families. I will be there to look ahead and 
make sure that the legislation which comes from Hartford will insure 
Greenwich will be the great town we want it to be.”

The two men were joined on a panel Oct. 25 with Green Party candidate David 
Bedel as part of the League of Women Voters debate.

Not surprisingly, transportation was the first topic presented to the 
candidates. Mr. Farricker has said throughout his campaign that Mr. 
Nickerson has not done enough to ease problems on Interstate 95 and the 
Merritt Parkway; the incumbent defended his record, saying it was one of the 
areas he’d spent the most time on as a member of the legislature.

Mr. Nickerson, a member of the Senate’s transportation committee, said he 
had been endorsed by the Fairfield Council for Business for his work in 
passing Public Act 05-4, which he called “the most important bill in the 
last generation.” The act provides for the renewal of all 342 Metro-North 
rail cars.

“This has the potential of turning a substandard service into a first-class 
service,” Mr. Nickerson said. “We need to reorient Greenwich’s 
transportation planning to emphasize public transportation, particularly 
Metro-North, which is the heart of public transportation in this area.”

Mr. Nickerson, who was quick to credit Gov. M. Jodi Rell for the progress 
made, said he had already met with the state’s new transportation 
commissioner, Ralph Carpenter, and agreed with his “broad, new vision,” 
including bridge and road repair and expansion of transit options.

Mr. Farricker contended that for all the progress Mr. Nickerson said was 
being made, he wasn’t seeing it and said discussions about improving 
transportation hadn’t gotten beyond discarded ideas of double-decking I-95.

“Very little has been done to address Interstate 95 over the past 20 years,” 
Mr. Farricker said. “We have trains that have been decaying for 30 years. In 
New York, people thought ahead and you can see the brand-new rail cars when 
you go to Grand Central station. In that state, a Republican governor and a 
Democratic legislature worked together to get results, and I want to go to 
Hartford and get results and look ahead. I don’t want to just decide five 
years ago that after 30 years something needs to be done about the rail 
cars. Something needs to be changed. This was obvious 20 years ago and not 
just obvious five years ago.”

Mr. Farricker said new rail cars were only part of the solution and said he 
would work to ease “choke points” on Interstate 95 that cause traffic 
backups.

On taxes, Mr. Nickerson said that the state has a progressive income tax 
system already in place that he wouldn’t change. He said under the current 
system people at the average state income level of $45,000 “effectively pay 
no income tax.” Mr. Nickerson said the top 10% of incomes in the state 
already pay above 90% of the income tax.

“To suggest there are further increases in the offing is just not 
realistic,” Mr. Nickerson said. “I’m not for adding additional income payers 
in the lower bracket.”

Mr. Farricker stressed the need for “tax fairness” in the state.

“Sen. Nickerson is saying that the tax status quo in the state is perfectly 
fine,” Mr. Farricker said. “I wonder if a person in Greenwich who pays a 
certain level of property tax to educate their kids, when people in Stamford 
pay three or four times that to educate their kids, consider it a 
progressively fair system. Our state tax system is not just income tax. It’s 
property taxes. It’s the other taxes. It’s the business taxes. To say the 
status quo is fine is just not logical.”

Mr. Bedel said using property taxes to pay for schools creates “an enormous 
burden” on towns to come up with budgets as well as creating inequalities 
from school district to school district.

“This is a very unfair system,” Mr. Bedel said. “Every child should be given 
an equal opportunity in life and an equal opportunity for a good education. 
We need to look at a school funding system that relies not so much on local 
property taxes but on state revenues. I would be in favor of reducing 
property taxes and putting more of a burden on a graduated, progressive 
income tax.”

Mr. Bedel added he supported Green Party gubernatorial candidate Clifford 
Thornton’s call for a “millionaire’s tax” and a corporate income tax to be 
restored to cover shortfalls. This was likely not music to the ears of the 
Greenwich residents in the audience, and Mr. Bedel supported other 
controversial ideas in the debate, including a full reform of drug laws that 
punish people for simple possession.

“We should not be locking up our young people in prisons,” Mr. Bedel said. 
“We should be providing better schools and better opportunities for them. 
[Mr. Thornton] has a plan to legalize, medicalize and decriminalize drugs, 
starting with marijuana. This would save an enormous amount of money from 
our state budget that is currently wasted on this ‘drug war,’ which has 
failed. It has not stopped the drug trade.”

When the debate turned to energy, all three candidates said more has to be 
done to stop rising utility costs and cut down on demand, which is outpacing 
supply. Mr. Bedel stressed the need to explore alternative sources of 
energy, which Mr. Nickerson said he supports. Mr. Nickerson said he voted 
against energy deregulation in the state and that his predictions about how 
harmful it would be had come true.

He said what was needed was the establishment of a strategic energy plan for 
the state. Mr. Nickerson said he and Ms. Rell both supported such a plan, 
but Democrats in the legislature voted it down.

Mr. Farricker replied, saying, “Sen. Nickerson has the very un-Republican 
solution of creating a giant bureaucracy called the Department of Energy. He 
wants to make sure more studies are done, which will kick this further down 
the road. We need real vision and not just another bureaucracy and not 
another study. We need to get down to work.”


kborsuk@ acorn-online.com


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