LETTER: Kasser fiscally irresponsible again

Letter to the editor submitted by Jon Redmond, District 11

Alex Kasser’s surrogate gave a predictably misleading defense of her in a July 16th letter to the editor of the Stamford Advocate. It also baselessly attacks Kasser’s opponent for state Senate, Ryan Fazio. Let’s list the factual mistakes.

First, it says that Kasser “clearly” opposed the 5.5 percent pay raise for state employees on July 1st. A Hearst news, GFP, Google, Facebook, and Twitter search of the new state Senator’s statements since March, while those raises were a major topic of debate in CT, all show she has not made a single
comment to that effect on the issue. Why didn’t the letter show the proof? There is no links or sources in her letter. Where is the “clarity”?

While she (unsuccessfully) opposed a few state employee raises totaling around $40 million, she was totally silent on this raise, equaling a whopping $353 million, when hundreds of thousands of people in CT are out of work. With friends like those, taxpayers do not need enemies.

Second, the letter falsely claimed Alex Kasser (formerly Bergstein) did not vote for any tax increases in the Senate. In fact, she voted in favor of a new 0.5 percent payroll tax on workers totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Ironically, that tax increase exempted state government employees. State bureaucrats sure are lucky to have a defender in Alex Kasser.

Third, Ryan Fazio’s op-ed from July 8th opposing state employee raises this year is filled with eight links to sources for the facts supporting his arguments. It’s worth a read. We would be lucky to that sort of thoughtful state Senator for Greenwich, Stamford, and New Canaan in Fazio.