Submitted by Adele Rota
Ryan Fazio is an advocate for public safety as well as responsible gun ownership; he is pro-choice and his record is clear.
Fazio has fought tirelessly and is often the lone voice from the Greenwich delegation working to keep local control of zoning and stop high rises throughout town. Ryan has been Connecticut’s leading advocate in defending local control of decision making for towns and cities across our state particularly over planning and zoning.
During the last session he co-authored and passed two of the only victories for local control of zoning in many years – including allowing towns and cities the ability to making planning and zoning changes to their municipal charters and making it easier for towns to get moratoriums under the 8-30g affordable housing statute. Fazio also helped stop two major efforts “Fair Share” and “Work Live Ride” to take away more local control over zoning decisions that would enable developers to build whatever the want without local regulation. Under the current state statute 8-30g, Greenwich has experienced many unfair developments.
Under new proposals supported by the Democrats, towns could lose even more zoning rights and also be financially liable to build more affordable housing themselves.
When Ryan was appointed the Ranking Senator of the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee he co-authored multiple bills to help reduce energy costs for the average consumer. For example, he co-authored and passed bipartisan reforms to strengthen utility oversight and including getting the public benefit portion of our electric bills to be included as a specific line item so we all know how much we are paying for these state mandates. He is pushing for having this mandates go through the normal budget process rather than just being added to our electric bill with no oversight or vetting. One of the upcoming charges we will all see if the democrats have their way is a three dollar monthly charge to pay for
electric vehicle charging stations – a de facto subsidy paid by all of us for those who chose to drive electric vehicles.
Much more needs to be done in these areas and Ryan Fazio has the record and skills to work across the aisle to make this happen. I encourage you to vote for Ryan Fazio to allow him to continue this important work and avoid a democratic super majority in the state which will assure additional loss of local zoning.
Think about the reasons you love to live in Greenwich and the choice will be easy.
Editor’s Note: Deadline to submit LTEs about candidates in the Nov 5, 2024 election for consideration is Oct 29, 2024 at 12:00 noon sharp.