ELECTION 2011, IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Jason Zandri, Democrat for Wallingford Town Council

As published in the Post-Chronicle on Tuesday September 20, 2011

By Jason Zandri

Wallingford has an envious track record over the past 25 years of both fiscal conservancy and better than average growth.

Both, together, have been a recipe for success. Each alone would have provided Wallingford for the ability to have some success but together they have allowed for us to be in the best possible scenario.

The problem is – those days are gone and doing “business” is no longer the same. It is coming under a whole new set of rules we are not prepared for.

“We can keep cutting services” and “people and businesses will always flock to Wallingford for the low electricity rates and the low taxes” doesn’t work anymore.

We are paying less than CL&P and UI customers but we are catching up to them. Since 2005 our electricity rates have doubled and they are going up even more; CL&P and UI have gone up as well but not by 100% as ours have.

At one point in time, electricity was a new technology coming onto the map; if the current administration was in place at the time the investment in the “fad” probably would have never taken place. We wouldn’t have our own electric division and the subsidized rates that we pay today.

That’s called spending to seek a positive return on investment - something we do not do today for the most part.

Our grand list fell last year. Yes there was a recession ending but every other surrounding town grew theirs even if just marginally.

We have no plan set as to how to address this other than more service cuts, belt tightening, shrinking subsidies and higher taxes – reactive efforts all.

We need to be more proactive.

I am running for Wallingford Town Council in November.

I plan to leverage what has worked well in the past – conservative, responsible and calculated spending of our tax dollars, and combine it in what must be done to succeed in the future; having a plan for operational maintenance and future growth and stability.

We must have new sources of revenue for the town beyond simply raising taxes. We have to go out to businesses and find out what is important to their success and figure out how we can help them meet their goals here in Wallingford.

We need to have a plan for proactive / strategic actions for the next 5, 10 and 20 years regarding operations and growth; not just what we are going to do for the next couple of years. We also need to actually execute on those plans.

I am available at Jason@Zandri.net for your questions and ideas and I want to hear from you. I have skill and experience on some things, everything else is going to come by leveraging what other people know better than me. That is important partnering with our skilled populace and another strength I feel I bring to the table.

Thank you for the consideration.

Please vote in November; it’s your town – get informed and get involved.