Tuesday evening, candidates for Connecticut’s 17th State Senatorial District met for a final time before election day at a debate organized by the League of Women Voters in the Woodbridge Senior Center Cafeteria.

Around forty people attended the well run debate. The candidates were respectful of one another and spoke honestly and frankly about their positions and what made them different. In many ways it boiled down to traditional points from any debate. Democratic Senator Joe Crisco spoke about his years of public service and the good that he has done for the 17th District and the state as a whole. Challenger Tamath Rossi spoke how large the budget is, how high taxes are and how Senator Crisco and the Democratic Supermajority have failed to curtail spending. People who believe there is too much government and that our current financial problems have been caused by too much governmental interference in business will want to vote for Rossi. Those who believe that the government plays an important role in protecting citizens, that the financial crisis was caused by a decrease in regulation of Wall Street and other corporations and who believe that the government can play a role in creating a business friendly environment through means other than simply cutting taxes and getting out of the way will want to vote for Crisco.

Most of the attendees appeared to already clearly be supporters of one candidate the other and few minds were changed. However, the information from this debate and previous times that State Senator Crisco and Naugatuck Deputy Mayor Rossi have met is important for people still trying to make up their minds about whom to vote for on Tuesday.

Many of the questions focused on financial issues with the candidates carefully dancing around which budget items they would cut or increase and which taxes they would cut or increase. Rossi said that she would focus primarily on cutting spending and Crisco questioned whether how she could cut the project $3.5 billion deficit without doing significant damage to important programs.

Senator Crisco said a top priority should be focusing on analyzing tax credits that are given to businesses to promote job growth. Those credits that are not creating real job growth should be cut.

Rossi spoke about the need to review expenditures and Crisco spoke about how this is already a crucial part of the budgeting process. Unfortunately, there was no discussion of results based accountability which the Connecticut legislature has been a national leader in as part of the review process.

There was a question about redistricting and the need to depoliticize the process. Senator Crisco spoke about his experiences during the previous redistricting and said that the process works well as it is. Rossi said she didn’t have enough information on redistricting to comment. Redistricting is an important issue that has perhaps gotten too little attention in this election cycle.

When asked about the death penalty, both Rossi and Crisco said they supported it. Likewise, both candidates are personally opposed to abortion but do not see the Connecticut’s abortion laws as something likely to be challenged or changed.

When it came to the Citizen’s Election Program which both candidates are participating in, Rossi acknowledge how difficult it is to raise $15,000 from small donors to qualify for the program but that without the program it would be even more difficult for candidates to challenge well established incumbents like Senator Crisco. Senator Crisco said that he would rather see the money other ways, but that it failing to participate could result in be tied too closely to special interest money.

On unfunded mandates, Rossi claimed that the law that went into affect in July limiting out of school suspensions was killing local municipalities and she called for a moratorium on binding arbitration. Crisco noted that there are unfunded and underfunded mandates that are important that we should find ways of making sure they are as efficient and as funded as possible. He noted Federal laws about special education costs. These laws are significantly underfunded at the Federal level and the state seeks to find ways of mitigating this. Municipalities have found creative ways to work together to further mitigate this. He noted that without binding arbitration we run the risk of strikes by public employees which could be even more costly.

Rossi suggested a 3% property tax cap which Sen. Crisco noted goes against Connecticut’s long held traditions in local rule.

Senator Crisco made an important point when he emphatically spoke out against a cap on malpractice awards. He spoke about his experience on a task force some years ago which found that such a cap was a less effective way of controlling malpractice insurance premiums. More importantly, he expressed concern about fairness in liability suits. Any cap on liability would need to be done for all types of liability and not just medical liability.

At the end, Rossi spoke about $15 billion growth in government spending. A quick check of the state budget shows that over the past 25 years, it has grown by nearly $15 billion. Of that approximately $4 billion is accounted for by inflation and another $1 billion by population growth. That still leaves a $10 billion dollar increase which needs to be looked at. The inflation numbers are based on the consumer price index. If the cost of medical insurance, which is an important part of the state budget is taken into consideration the inflation numbers become much greater.

Whomever wins the election next Tuesday will be facing very difficult issues concerning the Connecticut State budget. What is most important is that everyone learn as much as they can about the candidates and get out and vote on Tuesday.