Time for State Senator Prague to Retire

Senator Prague and her opponent, Matthew Daly of Hebron, met Wednesday night for a debate.

In the course of the debate, Senator again called for tollbooths on state highways to generate more revenue for the state's coffers. She claims the funds would go to education and ease the tax burden on local property owners.

State funding for education is inadequate at best and there is no reason to believe the situation would change regardless of the amount of taxes the state collects. If the state won’t increase education funding when is has a $1,000,000,000 (billion) surplus when might it happen.

While tolls might help some property owners, the fact is that tolls would simply be another tax as the towns would not lower property tax rates. The towns would merely continue to spend the money.

Senator Prague said, "If we had more revenues coming in, we could finds better ways of distributing it". What she meant by that comment was that there would be more money to funnel into projects that assure more votes for her and the rest of the “spendacrats”.

Mr. Daly was correct when he said that adding tollbooths is just another way of taxing people. Mr. Daly’s thinking with regard to tax structure and spending are much more in line with fiscal responsibility

Senator Prague, a six-term incumbent, was correct when she said the state is facing critical problems in the future in providing for health care, job growth and transportation. She also said that the state needs more revenue to do that. In that, she is incorrect. What the state needs is responsible and conservative fiscal planning and expenditure.

That is the opposite of what Senator Prague proposes. She has done a good job of representing the people of Montville in the past. She has earned the right to an honorable retirement. She should begin to enjoy that retirement before she spoils her record by embracing the leftist philosophy of the new mainstream Democrats.

Reference: Norwich Bulletin article of 10/05/06