The Flyer - Main Points of My Campaign

Vote Nicholas Payne for State Representative
(67th District)

Vote Green, November 2nd, for more Green in your pocket!

The Connecticut $3 billion Budget Hole and JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
Debate On CTV 21 Mon 10/25 12.30pm, and Fri 10/29 5pm
Wrap up Many items were discussed in the debate and my impression is that my opponent Clark Chapin is as smart and diligent as any legislator in Hartford, if not more so. However, when asked how he would fill the Budget Hole, he came up with a few cuts that would at most amount to a few million dollars. This says to me, that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats up in Hartford have a clue what to do. I, however have a plan.

Taxes kill jobs. Welcome to your new property tax bill. (New York style) There is a $3 billion hole in the Connecticut state budget for each year moving forward and you are going to fill it. The State cannot borrow more money, so the only thing left to do is to slash aid to towns, so the $16.1 million that the State would pay to New Milford starts to go bye bye, hiking property tax by up to 25%. I say, before soaking the towns the State should fix the cities and nothing should be off the table. Two key issues are drug policy reform and prison reform, two issues nobody wants to talk about..
The Plan I propose measures to bring peace and tranquility to our cities. The current epidemic of crime and violence is in truth a very heavy burden on our depleted pockets. Apart from the obvious costs of prosecuting and locking up offenders, there are the much greater costs engendered by widespread poverty and hopelessness. Connecticut while one of the wealthiest states in the union has some of the poorest cities. Bringing peace and tranquility will also cause a surge in economic activity and a renewed flow of taxes to fill the Budget Hole.
To do this I propose to wind down the so called War on Drugs and replace it with more effective policies. As you know illegal drug dealing is responsible for so much of the violence and crime in our cities. This I propose should be done in stages. First legalize marijuana and treat it like alcohol for adults. We want the police to be able to expend 100% of their effort in getting drug dealers out of places like Schaghticoke School
Switch to Portuguese style Dissuasion Commissions for hard drug users. This is a judge, social worker and psychologist who work with the user to try and get them into treatment and then providing heroin under medical supervision to addicts during relapses. This is a better than buying it on the street and will take a huge chunk out of the violent drug trade.
No one wants to talk about drugs, prisons and guns, but that is where the money is to be saved.

Prisons 30 years ago there were 3,500 people in Connecticut’s prisons, now there are 18,500, at a cost similar to going to Yale. In some neighborhoods 1 man in 10 is in prison which, to put it bluntly means there are 9 men to 10 women. We know enough about human nature, to know that this is a perfect recipe for broken families and lots of new criminals to lock up in the future, keeping the system going.
Backing out of this mess is going to be difficult, because we must lock up violent criminals. However, it has to be done because the taxes to support all this are killing jobs. Drug policy reform will be key to this.

Jamie Oliver !
I will vigorously support at the State Level efforts to bring healthier school lunches to all our school children

Education Equality
Provide more state funding for education, which will save on property taxes which mainly pays for it now. The will reduce the difference between rich and poor schools and reduce pockets of poverty which we pay for in other ways now.
Environment
I endorse the agenda of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.
Bicycles
Make Connecticut more bicycle friendly (within reason). Think how a dedicated bicycle lane on the fast section of Rte 7 from Lanesville Road to the Brookfield border would have helped. Also add sidewalks on Grove St.
Read my blog for updates and discussions of other issues.
Green67.blogspot.com or watch the debate on CTV21
Email nwpayne@earthlink.net, cell 203 417 3978, web green67.org