To the Editor,
Recently, the Monroe Democratic Town Committee submitted a letter to the Monroe Sun accusing the Monroe Republican Town Committee of being “disingenuous” about this election. As a response, we write this letter to give the people of Monroe and Newtown the truth about Mr. Kapoor’s record.
Throughout this expedited process to select our new State Representative, Mr. Kapoor has attempted to capitalize on the people of Monroe and Newtown’s lack of time to properly vet his policy goals, objectives, and record. Mr. Kapoor has endeavored to hide his true intentions and distort his record of advocating for crushing tax increases. Do not allow Mr. Kapoor to fool you into thinking that he is a moderate, he is another tax-and-spend Democrat in sheep’s clothing. If elected, Mr. Kapoor will raise your taxes and regulate your businesses into financial failure.
During Town Council’s consideration of the most recent teacher’s union contract in 2020, Mr. Kapoor exposed himself as a politician that promotes special interests and tax increases above the interests of local taxpayers. On January 7, 2020, Mr. Kapoor stated his support for the teacher’s contract that resulted in an almost nine (9) percent increase in compensation over three years and, in some cases, resulted in double digit percentage increases to overall compensation depending on the employee’s time in the district and education level. Mr. Kapoor’s proven record is increasing union benefits at the expense of local residents. This is why he has been given an A+ (100%) rating by the Connecticut Education Association, the statewide lobbying arm of the teacher’s union.
On February 10, 2020, the First Selectman, Ken Kellogg, presented his budget to the Town Council and the Council heard from members of the public regarding the proposed budget. One of those participating members of the public was Mr. Kapoor. Mr. Kapoor ardently advocated for policies that would increase Monroe’s property taxes. Can the people of Monroe and Newtown trust a politician to advocate for tax decreases when he has posed the following rhetorical questions: “Why was that $500,000 cut not a $500,000 increase?” and “Who are the Town Council and the Board of Finance and the First Selectman and the Board of Ed[ucation] to be making drastic cuts right off the bat?”
If elected, will Mr. Kapoor question whether it is within the power of the State Legislature to make reductions to the Governor’s budget? Keep this fact in mind, a little over a month after Mr. Kapoor made his statements to the Town Council, our state was in lockdown because of the pandemic. During that tumultuous time, thousands and thousands of people lost their jobs and their businesses and any increase to the mill rate would have been a catastrophe.
If Monroe had increased its mill rate, which Mr. Kapoor advocated for, Monroe would have poured gasoline on the flames of the pandemic-induced financial collapse. Monroe and Newtown need a State Representative that will not advocate for increased taxes and spending, Monroe and Newtown need a State Representative that will fight against the excesses of Hartford’s exorbitant budgets.
Mr. Kapoor doesn’t just want your property taxes to increase, Mr. Kapoor wants to increase the taxes taken out of your paycheck and punish the hardworking men and women of Monroe and Newtown. On March 19, 2021, through a Facebook post on his campaign’s account, Mr. Kapoor advocated for the use of your hard-earned wages to address income and wealth inequality. He tried to quell any fears by saying that he isn’t for the redistribution of wealth, but that is the exact policy he is advocating for.
Mr. Kapoor wants to subsidize cities like Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford with Monroe and Newtown taxpayer dollars when he speaks about the different mill rates between cities and towns. He wants the people of Monroe and Newtown to bail out the cities so that they may lower their tax burden on their residents. Monroe and Newtown should not be held financially responsible for the failures of Democrat politicians in Connecticut’s cities.
Most recently, Mr. Kapoor expressed his support for the State Legislature Environment Committee’s passage of a bill that would authorize Connecticut to participate in the Transportation and Climate Initiative. The Transportation and Climate Initiative is a multi-state agreement that would require gasoline producers to purchase carbon credits at auction. During the debate on the merits of the legislation, the Chair of the Committee confirmed that the price increase on gasoline could reach 26 cents a gallon by 2032 as the emissions cap is lowered.
What does this mean for the consumer? It means that your weekly expenses at the pump will increase. Mr. Kapoor would support this legislation “if we could move the implementation date of joining” and “cap or more preferably eliminate any additional cents being passed down to the consumer.”
Mr. Kapoor’s policy preferences are a fantasy. The only way to cap or eliminate the additional costs to the consumer is to not join the initiative in the first place.
The Democratic Town Committee alleges that Mr. Kapoor will vote against all unfunded mandates and that he supported the recent revisions to the Police Accountability Bill. Do any of those revisions eliminate all of the unfunded mandates of the bill?
According to the DTC’s letter, the revisions push the start date of some of the provisions of the bill back and update the language on the use of force. The letter is silent as to whether the revisions totally eliminate the unfunded mandates created by the bill.
Further, the DTC blamed its post supporting the Police Accountability Bill on the statewide Connecticut Democratic Party by saying “[t]he social media the DTC shared over the summer on the police accountability bill was distributed to us from our state body.” The DTC seems to believe that they had no choice in the matter and were required to post support for the Police Accountability Bill because the State Party said so.
If the Monroe DTC couldn’t standup to the Democrats in Hartford, are the people of Monroe and Newtown supposed to believe its chosen candidate, Mr. Kapoor, will stand up against the Connecticut Democratic Party’s leadership?
Remember, there is a critical election that will occur on April 13, 2021, don’t let your voice go unheard. Vote for Tony Scott and send a message to Hartford that the taxman isn’t welcome in Monroe and Newtown.
Sincerely,
The Monroe Republican Town Committee
But the checks that come from Hartford are welcome? Someone might raise taxes in Hartford because they fought for a higher level of services here in Monroe? That is one of the weakest and silliest false equivalency arguments I have ever heard and one clearly driven by desperation. No wonder no one actually wanted to have their name associated with the letter.
Monroe and Newtown voters are not as dumb as the RTC apparently believes.
We could really all use those sewers now! So many nonsense paragraphs are floating down the stream now to add lipstick to the same divisive and de-evolved rhetoric, yet still no words to describe their candidate’s actual proposals for the “Fear Your Neighbor” platform. So frustrating. Why don’t they redirect some of this bad energy and put it to work doing something positive for the community instead, like a Spring litter and trail clean-up? No tax dollars need be spent!