Property Tax Relief
We have a property tax crisis. Canton and Avon run responsible towns. We did not create this tax problem. Hartford’s rules and Hartford’s formula did.
There are more than 1,400 state mandates on cities and towns. Too many arrive with no money attached. And every year Hartford piles on more, bloating local budgets and leaving boards to raise the mill rate or cut something people actually use. If the state requires it, the state should pay for it.
Education funding is the same story. School costs rise. The Education Cost Sharing formula has not kept up for towns like ours. The foundation amount has been frozen since 2013. We send some of the highest taxes in the country to Hartford and get far too little back. Seniors on fixed incomes and working families cover the difference on their property-tax bill.
That is not a local failure. Town boards cannot repeal mandates or rewrite ECS. Only the General Assembly can. The answer is straightforward: cut the unfunded mandate load, reform ECS so Canton and Avon receive our fair share, and put that aid against the mill rate — not into a new Hartford program.
We pay in far more than we get back. I will fight to change that. Canton and Avon first.
Energy Policy Reform
Connecticut families still pay some of the highest electric rates in the country. Temporary credits on one line of the bill do not fix that. Lower utility bills strengthen our economy and reduce costs across the board for goods and services in our state.
Ratepayers first. Policy programs do not belong as a swinging charge on your electric bill. If a cost is necessary, put it in the state budget and cut something else. Hartford didn’t cut the programs. They bonded them — $300 million and counting — so the charge looks like a credit until 2027. That’s not reform. That’s a balloon payment.
No extra regional carbon tax. Connecticut should not stay in RGGI when neighboring states already price carbon into the New England grid. We should not pay twice for the same regional policy.
Keep nuclear. Add more. Millstone is clean, reliable, and local. I support keeping it online and clearing a path for new nuclear — with local consent.
Protect rooftop solar. Homeowners who make their own power help the grid when demand peaks. I will protect fair pay for that power and reject any tax on residential solar.
Keep the gas on. We need more natural gas for electricity and heat. You cannot shut it off overnight.
Towns decide siting. Solar farms and battery projects should not be forced on Canton or Avon.
I have worked in residential solar. I know the grid. Affordability and reliability come first.
Protecting Our Environment
Canton and Avon are defined by woods, water, and open land. Growth that wrecks that is not progress.
Clean water first. I support municipal treatment that removes PFAS, microplastics, and other contaminants — paid for with grants and responsible parties, not another hidden bill.
Open space and town character. Overdevelopment should not consume wildlife habitat, farmland, or the look of our communities.
Local control over big projects. Data centers, solar fields, and battery storage should not be dropped on a town for someone else’s profit. Siting must protect public safety, watersheds, and neighborhoods, with the town at the table, not after the fact.
Practical conservation. Cut pollution where we can. Keep nuclear and rooftop solar as the workable clean-power path. Do not pretend we can shut the rest off overnight.
Stewardship is not a party issue. It is whether we leave this valley better than we found it.
Local Control
Towns should be run by the people who live in them. Hartford should not rezone Canton and Avon from the Capitol.
Zoning stays local. Sewer capacity, traffic, fire and ambulance, wetlands, and historic districts are town questions. State mandates ignore those limits and force growth where it does not fit.
Protect what makes this district worth living in. Open space, water, and town character are not NIMBY talking points. They are why families stay.
Towns decide siting. Data centers, battery storage facilities, and solar fields should not be forced onto Canton or Avon. These projects raise real questions about land use, water, safety, and the grid. Local officials — not the Siting Council or a Hartford mandate — should have the final say.
Fix the laws that sue towns into bad projects. The affordable-housing appeals statute, 8-30g, and last year’s housing bill, HB 8002, use targets and lawsuits instead of infrastructure and consent. My opponent, as House Chair of Planning and Development, helped lead HB 8002, cosponsored it, and voted to pass it. I will work to amend both laws — and repeal the parts that strip local zoning — so housing is built with towns, not on them.
Local officials answer to their neighbors. That is how you get smarter growth and stronger communities.
Flock Cameras & Mass Surveillance
Public Safety & Privacy
I stand with our police officers. I do not stand with Flock cameras. A lot of good people mix this up with speed cameras. That is understandable. A speed camera watches one stretch of road and tickets a specific violation — you were speeding. Flock is not that.
Flock photographs every car that passes, logs where you were and when, and dumps it into a searchable network. Work. Church. School drop-off. The doctor. No warrant. No suspicion you did anything wrong. That is not traffic enforcement. That is tracking the public.
This is not left versus right. This is free people versus state overreach. Our government should not be partnering with a private corporation to build a file on law-abiding people “just in case.”
Your constitutional rights are not a suggestion. The Fourth Amendment was written for this.
Do not settle for political double-talk. “Guardrails.” “Pause.” “I support them and I have concerns.” “We need a study” — funded by taxpayers.
That is how politicians play both sides and leave the cameras up. It is not leadership. People in Canton and Avon already know they do not want to be catalogued every time they drive their own roads.
As your State Representative for the 17th House District, I will vote to ban Flock-style mass license-plate tracking statewide, and I will stay after the other tools that try to do the same thing under a new name.
Data Centers, AI, and Connecticut's Future
Connecticut should welcome innovation without sacrificing our environment, electric grid, water resources, local communities, or taxpayers.
I am proposing a one-year moratorium on new data-center development so we can fully study their potential impact on our state.
Before approving new projects, we need to understand their effects on our electric grid, water resources, environment, noise, land use, and taxpayers. Corporate profit should not come at the expense of Connecticut residents.
If Connecticut allows additional data centers, I will support strong environmental standards, including closed-loop cooling systems, water conservation, reasonable noise limits, and responsible energy use.
Protecting Connecticut Taxpayers
I will sponsor legislation to repeal the 20-year data-center tax abatements created under H.B. 6514 and oppose expanding these incentives without assessing their costs and benefits to taxpayers and municipalities.
Giving Municipalities a Voice
Communities hosting these facilities deserve a meaningful say.
I will support legislation requiring municipal approval for new data centers, giving local residents and elected officials a voice in decisions affecting land use, infrastructure, noise, water, and their communities.
Responsible AI and Data Privacy
AI can transform our economy, healthcare, education, and everyday lives, but innovation must come with safeguards.
I support legislation that regulates AI, protects personal data, and prevents the unauthorized collection, acquisition, and use of our data.
We should pursue the benefits of AI while addressing its risks to privacy, security, civil liberties, our environment, and our communities.
Connecticut can lead in technology while protecting its people, resources, and future. If necessary, we must even assert our state's rights to protect the people of Connecticut.
Parental Rights
Strong communities start with strong families. The job of government is to support parents, not to stand in their place.
Every child is different. Every family has its own needs, faith, and circumstances. Raising a child is not one-size-fits-all, and neither is that child’s health care. No distant rule can know a son or daughter the way a parent does. Decisions about education, upbringing, and care belong at home, with local schools and doctors as partners — not as substitutes.
Parents deserve trust, whether they choose public school, private school, or homeschooling. Religious freedom is a constitutional right. Families of every belief should be free to raise their children according to their values without undue government interference.
Parents must have a say in health-care decisions for their children. Except in a true emergency, major medical choices for a minor belong with parents and their doctors, guided by that child’s unique needs.
Connecticut already has laws to protect children. The work now is to make those laws work. We do not need a new layer of agencies. We need to reform the programs we have, especially DCF, so the state moves quickly when a child is in real danger and stays out of the way when a family is doing its job.
