Palmares Running For House In City With Two Hats

DANBURY, CT — By Scott Benjamin: State House candidate Emanuela Palmares says that the Hat City now wears two fedoras, both of which have expandable head bands. Danbury is number one in the state in sales tax revenue – largely due to the Danbury Fair Mall, which opened in 1986 -and leads Connecticut, per capita, in restaurants. Mayor Mark Boughton, who taught her in Social Studies at Danbury High School, has described the city’s west side, near the mall, as “restaurant row.”

The city’s school enrollment is one of the few in the state that is growing and its downtown has been transformed over the generation since the mall opened. Main Street, which once boasted signature clothing and food stores, is now dominated by small, multi-ethnic businesses. A majority of the residents are Latino, many of whom worship at the 16 nearby Spanish-speaking churches. With so many young families moving to the downtown, Palmares, who has a four-year-old son, said the area could “become our own Greenwich Village.”

Palmares, a native of Brazil, is editor of Danbury’s Tribuna Newspaper - which appears in Portuguese, Spanish and English. She has worked there since her family established the publication in 1999. She has been endorsed by the Republican and Independent parties for the seat in the 110th state House district. On November 8, she will face Democrat Bob Godfrey, one of the deputy speakers - who was initially elected in 1988, making him one of the longest-serving members in the lower body. The 110th District has been in the Democratic fold for generations. The late Jim Dyer, a Democrat, held the seat for three years, for example, before being elected mayor in 1979.

Palmares, her family and a corps of volunteers have been knocking on doors since June in the district, which
largely encompasses the downtown. Young people often move to vibrant cities. Danbury fits that bill in a state where population is declining and the economic recovery has resulted in a disproportionate number of lower-wage jobs. It has the lowest unemployment rate in Connecticut and ample housing for middle and lower-income residents.

But some of Danbury’s largest employers face obstacles. The top employer since the late 1980s has been Danbury Hospital, which like other hospitals in the state has been received less state funding under current Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford).

Palmares said she believes the hospitals have been hurt by the taxes placed on them since Malloy took office
nearly six years ago and the reduction in state funding. She said it has made it more difficult for the hospitals to fulfill their mission of caring for the sick and “saving lives.”

State Reps. Dan Carter (R-2) of Bethel and Steve Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, whose districts take in part of

Danbury, have expressed concern that the state’s research and development tax credit was shelved two years ago, which could have impact on Boehringer-Ingelheim, Danbury’s second largest employer. Western Connecticut State University (WCSU), the city’s eighth largest employer, has had a 15 percent decline in enrollment over the last five years. The school is seeking to offer in-state tuition to potential students from seven New York state counties in an attempt to boost enrollment.

Palmares said she would opposes attempts to vastly increase online offerings to attract more students, which had been part of the CSCU 2020 plan proposed by Gregory Gray, the former president of the Board of Regents, which oversees WCSU and 16 other campuses. She said it is important for students “to be in front of a teacher in a classroom.”

However, the 2012 Sloan C study reported that 77 percent of the higher education administrators surveyed
thought that online learning was at least as effective as on-ground classes. Regarding the state budget, which has been in tatters over the recent years as revenues have plunged and employment has slowly recovered from the recession, Palmares said she believes there “is going to be an opportunity for some of the contracts to be renegotiated” with the state employee collective bargaining units during the 2017 session.

Harding, who is running unopposed for a second term this fall, says voters have told him over the recent months that they are concerned that the state employee collective bargaining units have been resistive to making concessions since Malloy’s “shared sacrifice” plan of 2011, which helped close an estimated $3.5 billion budget gap.

CTMirror has reported that the state already faces a projected $133 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends in June and has an estimated $1.3 billion shortfall for the next fiscal year. To resolve a budget deficit for the current fiscal year, state officials announced 3,000 layoff this spring, although at least one recent news report indicated that only 1,100 of them had been carried out to date. Palmares said that if the state collective bargaining units had agreed to a Republican proposal this last session to reduce the co-payments on their prescription drug coverage, “a number of jobs could have been saved.”

She said she supports mandating that the General Assembly vote on all public employee contracts and that Republican legislators should be among those at the negotiating table with the collective bargaining units as contracts are negotiated.

She said she supports some additional privatization of state services, but that she doesn’t “think it’s the answer to everything.” Palmares said she is concerned about Malloy’s First Five/Next Five program because, for example, it has provided money to companies such as Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in
the world, to stay in the state. She said the incentives from the program should be available to all businesses.
She said the governor’s Small Business Express program is “excellent” but she hopes it will become easier to
access for Latino companies. Under the plan, financial incentives are provided to companies who will hire more employees over the coming years.

Palmares called the recent landmark Superior Court decision on education funding and reform “broad,” since it also addressed teaching performance.

She said that she does agree with the judge that education funding in Connecticut should be based on need. However, Palmares said she disagrees with CTNewsJunkie columnist Susan Bigelow, who has called on the state to take over local control of the schools, noting that, among other things, that few residents could name a local school board member or have ever attended a Board of Education meeting. Palmares said she had many constructive dialogues with parents during her campaign last year for the school board seat in Danbury.

In response to a recent report from the state Board of Education, Palmares said she opposes closing any of the 17 state technical high schools. The state board indicated that two of them might have to close and extra-curricular activities at the other 15 schools would be eliminated to adhere to a projected budget reductions.

Palmares said she supports increased public funding charter schools, which would benefit Danbury’s diverse enrollment. However, she said that doesn’t mean that adding more charter schools would be
effective in all other regions of Connecticut.

Malloy has increased funding for charter schools – a step that has been criticized by some Democratic

legislators and the Connecticut Education Association.
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