State Representative Steve Meskers (D-150) addressed the Retired Men’s Association on Wednesday.
He started by saying his 92-year-old mother resides at The Mews on Arch Street where the RMA’s Melody Men recently sang.
“My mother said this great group of men came over to the Mews and sang for us and it was glorious,” he said. “Those drops of sunshine add hope and happiness.”
In Hartford, Meskers is in his third term and will be up for re-election in November 2024. He chairs the Commerce Committee and sits on Insurance and Real Estate and Energy and Technology Committees. He is also a general member of Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee.
His proudest accomplishment this year was a bill that passed to increase funding for brownfield remediation in Connecticut by $20 million (rising from $50 million to $70 million).
“This is a post-industrial state. We have a legacy of brown fields and a legacy in many of our cities of properties in need of toxic remediation,” he said, adding that the industrial sites needed to be restored for productive use for jobs or housing and returned to the tax rolls.
Noting that the private sector would not undertake that scale remediation he said, “It needs to be remediated by someone who is going to absorb the liability, so someone can get that property put into productive use.”
Meskers praised Governor Lamont and said that with strong financial governance, the state was in a good position to weather an economic downturn. In the past four years all four credit ratings agencies have upgraded Connecticut’s ratings, and this year the state ended up with a surplus of $1.3 billion, which is 6% of the general fund. It was the fourth consecutive year the state ended up with a surplus.
“I think he has wrestled a legislature that has some progressive elements and conservative elements. He’s taken us to the center and done a great job. The numbers and performance so far speak for themselves,” Meskers said. “This year, for the first time we cut taxes, we put through tax relief of $600 million. It’s the largest tax cut in state history. Our Rainy Day fund has maxed out and is at the statutory cap of 15% of the operating budget.”
Meskers said that money functioned as a reserve fund that would cover any extraordinary economic calamity or downturn. Further, he said given the Rainy Day fund is maxed out, the state was able to give an accelerated paydown of unfunded pension liabilities that Meskers described as an albatross.
“Whether it was a Democrat or Republican up in the statehouse, our government made promises in pensions that they never funded,” he said. “In the past four years have paid down, on an accelerated basis, over $5.8 billion of our unfunded pension liabilities.”
“We included a child tax rebate of $250 per child for lower or middle income earners,” he continued.
Meskers said another effort was to reduce the state’s regressive car tax which is based on a town or city’s mill rate. In Greenwich the mill rate is around 11.5 or 11.6, but more like 30, 40 or 50 cities like Bridgeport or Hartford.
“Those types of mill rates on a family who are renting is a super regressive tax. Chances are those families own a car. That car is taxed same as the mill rate for housing. It’s onerous.”
“And a car is not a luxury,” he said. “It’s how you get to work.”
Meskers said property tax credits for residents in those disadvantaged areas were increased, and pension and income tax exemptions were increased for all residents.
Another emphasis was workforce development, part time-study and job training, to which he said $145 million had been dedicated.
“Sophisticated machining, sophisticated work for our defense industry. We need metal workers, not just metal benders – people who can do tool and dye and sophisticated work with high end computers.”
Meskers said there was an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 unfilled jobs in Connecticut.
“Talk to Electric Boat, General Dynamics, Sikorsky or United Technologies and you see they need more trained machinists and more people working in the defense industry,” he said. “We want to see that industry grow and thrive and stay in Connecticut.”
While Connecticut had not yet fully recovered its job growth from the 2008 recession, Meskers said there was tremendous growth in business formation – up 40% since pre-pandemic and the highest since 2006.
Meskers said Connecticut was on par with the region, but not exceeding it.
“There are concerns related to housing and access to employment growth. All the employers are complaining at the state level. This may require us to look at some growth in housing stock.”
“We may need to look at housing around some of our major defense industries – whether it be in Middletown or around Electric Boat in New London. We need to make sure there is transitional workforce housing for people. We want to create housing where the jobs are, and we want to anchor the jobs in our state.”
Meskers said in addition to workforce development, investments were being made in early childhood education.
He said early good, safe early childcare and education is key to eliminate disparities and achieve maximum participation in the workforce.
“Our workforce, particularly our service people in Greenwich and Stamford, need affordable childhood education. It’s the way you close the achievement gap. It’s the combination of daycare, meals, and education of children who are from our most marginal or our least invested citizens.”
Questions from the audience concerned “road anarchy,” drag racing in the overnight hours and crashes on I95 and on local streets, including speeding and running red lights.
Meskers cited a declining sense of community and civic responsibility and increased sense of entitlement.
He said he did not support hiring thousands of additional state police to do enforcement of speeding on I95, but there was a lack of consensus on traffic cameras.
He said while many opposed traffic cameras from both the left and right, not everyone realized the traffic cameras only capture license plates. In places where they have been approved, fines bring revenue to the state, but funds are channeled back for road improvements in those locations.
“I think a camera can be a best use of a resource,” he said.
Meskers said he became keenly aware of the levels of poverty and hunger in the state when the pandemic forced the state to shut down schools. He said two days prior to the closing schools, discussion quickly turned to feeding school children.
“This thing is coming heavy and hard and they said, ‘We have to figure out a plan for the school lunch program,’ and I thought, we’re in the Third World. It was a shock – the amount of poverty and hunger in the state made us prioritize, a couple days away, in a health emergency because we weren’t sure those children would get fed. That’s the frightening aspect of where we are.”
For the same reason, he said early childhood education was critical to close the achievement gap.
“We’re only as good as our weakest members of society,” he said. “You’re not trying to guarantee equality of outcome. You’re trying to do your best to create equality of opportunity and that people aren’t so hobbled by the fact they’re in Bridgeport or Hartford…”
And here in Greenwich, Meskers said it was important that opportunities are the same for all public school children and that schools are adequately funded and protected.
“This year I leaned in heavily with my state delegation with Hector (Arzeno) and Rachel (Khanna), we’ll find out on Friday, but the Bonding agenda calls for $6.5 million to go to the Greenwich Boys & Girls Club for their capital project they’re working on.”