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Candidate Name
Philip Tummescheit
You Tube Video
Campaign Website
philipforwesthartford.com
Campaign Email
philip@philipforwesthartford.com
Campaign Phone
860-386-8549
Instagram
@philipforwh
Facebook
Philip for West Hartford
I've lived in West Hartford for over 13 years. I love this town, and I would like to stay here. I am committed to making Connecticut a better place, and I want to listen to you. I went to the Capitol last spring and testified about an education issue that's important to me. I stood outside the Senate and talked with many legislators including Senators Cabrera, Gadkar-Wilcox, Duff, Lesser, Marx, Osten, Sampson, and Fazio. We need more legislators who listen to their constituents above their party. One of my experiences over the past years has been working intensively with an immigrant family to try to help them get a foothold here. That firsthand experience has shown me the difficulties for families in West Hartford, as well as Hartford.
I support the idea of allowing small businesses to group together and buy insurance collectively to lower the cost. I also support targeted relief to cover cuts to health-insurance for low income residents.
The state needs to start taking responsibility and provide funding every time they decide to make another mandate on towns. The property tax growth rate in West Hartford is simply not sustainable. By the time I am the age of my opponent, the property taxes will be twice as much as they are now if we keep raising them at the current rate (and that's even accounting for inflation!). We need to allocate a larger portion of the general budget to provide education funding for towns to help alleviate the property tax burden.
I am in support of the regulations recently passed. I am not confident, however, that they will effectively address all of the concerns that have come up over Flock cameras.
Towns should be required to hold a public hearing and town council vote or a ballot measure before installing or continuing to use Flock cameras. These cameras automatically track every car that goes past them, whether or not the occupants have committed any crime, and are therefore likely infringing on citizens' 4th Amendment rights. To omit even voting on whether they should be implemented is a serious mistake.
Make Connecticut affordable, not by pursuing the policies that have currently made our state one of the least affordable states in the country, but by advocating for lower electric rates, lower property taxes (by fully funding our education and getting rid of unfunded state mandates), and lower taxes on the middle class (not the wealthy). Another important priority is making sure that towns do not implement Flock cameras or other ALPRs quietly without input from the people who are being tracked.
