3-10-2011PlainvilleCitizen by Dan Champagne

The Plainville Citizen — Thursday, March 10, 2011

Welch Continued from page 2 ing into agencies, finding out where the waste and excess is, and trimming, it isn’t done.” Welch, who lives in Bristol, showed attendees at the library program a series of slides depicting graphs and pie charts of how the state’s money is split up and where citizens’ taxes go, as well as bullet points of how much money requested for the new budget. The governor’s budget proposal will take $878 million from personal income tax and $461 million from sales and use tax, according to one of the slides. It will also raise taxes on rental cars, property taxes on boats and planes, cigarettes and alcohol. “We have one of the highest per gallon prices in gas in the country,” Welch said. “Sixty percent of that price

Citizen photo by Julie Sopchak

State Sen. Jason Welch, left, of the 31st District, addresses the crowd last Thursday night at a public forum held at the Plainville Public Library. Sen. Rob Kane, of the 32nd District, came as well to answer questions on the minds of Plainville residents. is tax, and by the way, the governor’s budget proposes to increase the tax on gasoline.” Plainville Town Council Chairman Dan Hurley was at the meeting, and said the town lost $600,000 because of the manufacture pilot. He added the town lost an additional $2 million last year and $1.2 million this year. He

said the town is going to have to tax double on citizens. “We’re going to drive our people out of this town to the next town,” Hurley said. “That’s not right.” “It’s not even option, they’re telling you you have to tax your way out of this,” Kane said in response. Welch asked the crowd at one point which part of the

budget residents found the most “offensive.” The general consensus was the crowd didn’t like any of it, but the $500 property tax credit being taken away was one that stuck out. “The only thing fair is the credit that you get,” Welch said. “I agree, that needs to stay. That hits more people the hardest, the fastest.” Welch also said unfunded mandates were a large problem with the state, and potentially they push some spending problems back on the town. “One of the ways to alleviate that is to give towns the freedom to balance their own budgets,” he said. “Because they can make revenue decisions, they can make expenditure decisions here in Plainville, not in Hartford.” Welch held the public session as a senator in his first term ever in politics. He said coming into the position was exciting, not for being on a

public platform, but for the opportunity to help the citizens. “It’s not about position,” he said. “It’s about the change that needs to be made, and that’s what I’m excited about.” As far as getting used to the legislative end of the job, he said a lot of “balance” is required. “I have a full-time job, I can’t give that up, and being with family,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn as far as process, procedure, and you have to balance all that, so it’s a lot.” Welch, who is an attorney full-time for Beazley, a company located in Farmington, has so far introduced 48 bills to the general assembly, said he will try to establish office hours to communicate better with the public and also send out as many e-mails as possible to inform citizens where he stand on specific issues. 1192788

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