Latest / The Lee Elci Show / The Lee Elci Show | 10.22.26

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The Lee Elci Show | 10.22.26 · The Lee Elci Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Lee Elsey radio show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I am Red Janky filling in for Lee as a
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: guest host today. For those who don't know me, which
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: is probably most of you, I'm president of the Townsend Group,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: which is a Connecticut-based public policy and business consulting firm.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I'm also the founder and and manager of the Red
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Line website. If you want to visit, it's d-red-line.com. I'm
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: happy to be here early in the morning filling in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: for Lee, and I'm also very happy to have as
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: my first guest Megan Portfolio. Megan is a superstar. She's
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: manager of research and analysis at the Yankee Institute for
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Public Policy. And Megan follows the state workforce and all
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: issues related thereto as closely as anyone in the state,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: probably including 99% of the state employees and the state
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: managers themselves. So with that, I'd like to introduce and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: have Megan say hello to the audience.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Hey, good morning, Rad. What an introduction. Thank you.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, well-deserved. You are relentless, all-knowing, and all kinds
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of stuff to talk about this morning. I think it
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: might be worthwhile if.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: If we put in context, defined some terms and put
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: them in context at the very beginning, the state employees,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: there are about 35-plus bargaining units, union bargaining units that
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: bargain with the state. They gang up on the state
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in what's called the CBAC Alliance, which is the State
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Employees Bargaining Alliance Coalition. So it's not one-by-one bargaining unit
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: with the actual boss for whom they work. It's all 35-plus,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: essentially bargaining with the governor and his staff in the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Office of Policy and Management.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, correct.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And the fun thing about that whole situation is this
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: bargaining is done behind closed doors. So the people picking
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: up the tab for the state employees, their pension, their
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: health care benefits, We're paying that tab. We're not welcome
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: into these closed-door meetings. I've tried to get information in
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the past when negotiations were going on and I get
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: shut out. In fact, I've been waiting probably about a month.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: CBAC came. CBAC, that's the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: They actually have a temporary agreement right now with the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: governor that they're not even going to touch their health
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: care and pension contract until 2028. I've been trying to
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: get that tentative agreement. I have a FOIA, and I
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: still haven't received it. I probably won't receive it until
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: after election year. But the CBAC coalition, what they do,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: they bargain for all the pension and all the health care.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: When it comes to the salaries, the individual units, they
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: will bargain those individually with the governor. And as you've
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: known and written about and I've written about before, and
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: the governor has actually said this in a conference with,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: that every year he's governor, the state employees have gotten
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: a raise, and every year that he will be governor,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: state employees will get a raise. I mean, I've been
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: in the private sector since before I was even allowed
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: to work legally, and I have never had that kind
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: of an arrangement with an employer where it's a mandatory
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: raise every year.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: We'll get to what that amounts to in a compounded
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: amount under the current governor. But I think let's do
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: one thing. to kind of set the table, in Connecticut,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the unions have extraordinary power in its best.
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: I would say they're the fourth branch of government.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Well, you could come close to... And I'm not trying
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to be cute with that, but.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I would say unofficially they're the fourth branch of government.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: And some days they're the strongest branch of government.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the media is the fifth in this state
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: rather than the fourth estate, which is how it's usually
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: referred to. Talk about supersedence.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Supercedence is very interesting, and it's one of the reasons
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: why we're in– one of the reasons, not the reason,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: but one of the reasons why the state has been
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: in a fiscal mess for so many decades. State employee
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: contracts actually have written in it a term called supersedence,
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  Speaker 2: and what that does, it allows their collective bargaining agreements,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: their contracts, to supersede state law.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: So, for example– Yeah, pause on that. It's worth repeating,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: if you don't mind, Megan– Get a load of this.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: State employee union contracts trump state law. So state law
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: requires the state to fully fund pensions. It's a promise
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  Speaker 2: that we made to employees that you work X amount
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: of years and you retire and you get this great pension.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: It must be fully funded. But with agreements with CBAC
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and the governors in the past, both Republican and Democrat,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: they were able to actually supersede that law and not
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: fund the pensions.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: At one point, we have owed— By union agreement, let's
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: put some emphasis here. The unions themselves agreed that this
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: year or this contract period, they agree that the state
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: will not fund their pension. But it doesn't mean the
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: pension goes away. It just means it builds and builds
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and builds, compounds, compounds, and compounds. We go further in
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  Speaker 1: the hole as a state financially with a growing unfunded
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: pension liability.
• 6:13
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: At one point, we actually were in the hole $ 60
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: billion between unfunded pension and unfunded retiree health care. To
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: put that in perspective, our budget for this year is
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: $ 28 billion. So we actually owed $ 60 billion to.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: We've gotten it down because the state thankfully invented the
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: fiscal guardrails. That basically dictates how much we can spend,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: how much we can spend on debt, how much we
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: can borrow, how much volatile revenue, and that's revenue from
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Wall Street that's not very predictable, how much of that
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: we can use, and then how much goes into our
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: rainy day fund. And once our rainy day fund is.
• 6:58
  Speaker 6: At its capacity.
• 7:00
  Speaker 9: That.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Extra money, the surplus of the surplus, goes down to
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: paying this debt. I think today we're at maybe $ 48,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: $ 49 billion in unfunded employee benefits.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: But the fiscal guardrails are critical, and they put.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: More money— The CBAC contract, the part where it's their
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: pension and health care, that's up in 2027. So that's
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: actually being negotiated right now with Governor Lamont. CBAC has
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: been talking about getting better pension and more robust benefits
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: since 2024. So the union's been working on this negotiation.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: And it's actually kind of funny. This agreement has been
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: 20-plus years, their last agreement.
• 7:55
  Speaker 10: Like, who.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: who actually negotiates a contract for 20 years, leaving future
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: legislators and governors to have to pick up the mess.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: But that's a huge thing.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Going on right now. Megan, if you don't mind, I
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: want to interject again just the 35,000-foot view of this.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: So we have originally back in the aughts, 2007, I
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: think it was, a 20-year agreement was struck with the unions.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: What does that mean in terms of democracy? What that
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: means is every official, every politician, every representative that anyone
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: in the audience has voted for during that 20 years
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: does not represent them on how we pay... the workforce
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: because it's locked in for 20 years and it's locked
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in under the, um, powers of what Megan described as supersedents.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: So they can't go to Hartford and vote to pass
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: laws to, um, manage the state workforce because the contract,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: which at that point was running 20 years, supersedes, would
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: have superseded any law that they passed. So what kind
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of democracy do we have in this state?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: It's not only the democracy, Brad. It's just a bad
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: bargaining on behalf of us, the taxpayers. The guys and
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: girls that have been negotiating these contracts have failed us.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: And they are not looking at both sides. When you're
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: in negotiation, if it's successful, both sides make out. But
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: that's not the case with CBAC. CBAC makes out. And
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: the rest of us, we're not in the room. We're
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: not allowed to know what's happening. We only find out after.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: And oftentimes, we'll find out days before these contracts even
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: come up for a vote in the legislature. So these
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: are hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents that we
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: can't even see. And I've actually gotten my hands on
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: them before. They're not even searchable PDFs sometimes. So I
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: can't even search for keywords. I have to comb through
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: every single page.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and, you know, gives new meaning for those in
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the audience who remember Nancy Pelosi, and we'll find out
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: what's in the bill after we pass it. So this
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: is the omnibus that beats all omnibus legislation. This contract
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: comes out, and when you say, Megan, you can't search
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: through it, Think of the state senators and representatives who get,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you know, something about two to three inches thick plopped
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: on their desk and told they're going to vote on
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it two days later.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, this is like the new Norman Hartford. And it
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: actually is going to get worse because it is an
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: election year. So everyone's seeing the commercials. Everyone's seeing social
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: media who's getting endorsed.
• 11:10
  Speaker 8: By the unions.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: The AFL-CIO, which is one of the largest federations, if
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: not the largest in the country, they've actually come out
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: and said not only do they want to bust open
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: the fiscal guardrails for a lot more spending, but they
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: actually want to– I'm glad I lost my train of
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: thought there.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: They actually want to keep passing the omnibus bills.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they actually want their own little special omnibus bill.
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  Speaker 2: So with that, what an omnibus bill is, it's hundreds
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: of pages long. It comes with various different topics. They
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: passed one last year, had everything from cannabis workers to
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: workplace safety, numerous, numerous items just lumped into one bill.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: And what that does to lawmakers, it binds their hands.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: So if I have to vote on 17, 20, 30
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: different items in one bill, Let's just say half of
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: them are egregious, and I do not agree with, but
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the other half I absolutely support. I want workers to
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: be safe. I have to choose. Do I vote yes
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: because of the stuff I like, or do I vote
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: no because of the stuff that's so bad? Well, the
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: unions do this on purpose so they can put in
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: things like benefits for striking workers. They actually want to
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: have their workers who choose to go out on strike
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: collect unemployment benefits, which is a slap in the face.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: to the whole unemployment system because it's intended to be
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: a safety net for people who lose their job at
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: no fault of their own, not for people that choose
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: not to go to work. And so what they want
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: to do is flip things like this that are very
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: unpopular into these huge documents with amazing benefits or amazing
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: safety things for the workers, and it binds the hands.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: And they want this so that they can pass all
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: these egregious things that hurt business and hurt the taxpayers.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: And this is about the only thing that, legislators actually
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: vote on. They don't vote. They don't participate in the negotiations.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And in fact, when Megan, but in addition to Megan, others,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: including legislators, want to find out what is the status
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of negotiation for the next contract, the governor has said,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I am not going to negotiate in public.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, say that again. You're not going to negotiate in public.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to.
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: But you're negotiating with public money.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm going to do it. And now we
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: need to describe the same thing in the negative, which is,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: or the opposite case, which is I'm going to negotiate
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: in a back room, but this year you're not allowed
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to smoke.
• 14:02
  Speaker 11: Okay.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: It all goes on in the back room.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: That works for some people, but it doesn't work for
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the taxpayers.
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: Not at all.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Not at all. We're going to take a break shortly here.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: We'll come back with Megan. We're talking about the state
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: workforce and its compensation and its work roles and the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: fact that it all is negotiated in private by the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: governor and No one in the legislature, no one in
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the public at large has anything to say until it
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: all comes down to about a five-pound document that lands
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: on legislators' desks to be voted on in two days.
• 14:48
  Speaker 9: We'll be back.
• 14:57
  Speaker 12: Only one way.
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: Left to go.
• 15:03
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  Speaker 14: Road construction, Route 2 eastbound, exit 20 to exit 26.
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  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm State Representative Greg Howard.
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  Speaker 21: In the last six years, I've been your voice in Hartford,
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  Speaker 21: leading with honesty, integrity, and common sense. That's right, common sense.
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  Speaker 33: And exciting entrees. And they have an extensive gluten-free menu, too.
• 21:16
  Speaker 33: Dance Place also has a full bar and live music
• 21:20
  Speaker 33: every weekend. Famous for their pizza, burgers, wings, seafood, and more.
• 21:24
  Speaker 33: Veteran-owned Dance Place on Victory Highway in West Greenwich, Rhode Island.
• 21:28
  Speaker 33: And now open down the street. Tavern on 3. Check
• 21:31
  Speaker 33: them both out on Facebook. and at dansbeatsaplace.com.
• 21:34
  Speaker 34: The cost of living in Connecticut is simply too high.
• 21:37
  Speaker 34: That's why we need real leaders like State Senator Heather
• 21:40
  Speaker 34: Summers fighting for hardworking families. Heather Summers stands up to
• 21:44
  Speaker 34: the broken politics of Hartford and does the hard work
• 21:47
  Speaker 34: that delivers results for Eastern Connecticut communities. Heather cut taxes
• 21:52
  Speaker 34: on Social Security, retirement.
• 21:54
  Speaker 9: Income, and diesel fuel.
• 21:55
  Speaker 34: She's led the fight to stop Hartford tax hikes that
• 21:58
  Speaker 34: increase our costs, including exposing a scheme to hike taxes
• 22:02
  Speaker 34: on farmland earlier this year. And with Connecticut families straining
• 22:06
  Speaker 34: under out-of-control energy prices, Heather Summers is fighting to eliminate
• 22:10
  Speaker 34: the public benefits charge on electric bills. Some candidates talk
• 22:14
  Speaker 34: a big game, but never do the work. Heather Summers
• 22:17
  Speaker 34: shows up every time, delivering results for Eastern Connecticut, challenging
• 22:22
  Speaker 34: the status quo in Hartford, and fighting for lower costs
• 22:25
  Speaker 34: for Connecticut families.
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: I'm Heather Summers, candidate for State Senate, and I approve
• 22:30
  Speaker 8: this message.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Paid for by Summers for State Senate. TIPAS treasurer.
• 22:35
  Speaker 25: Connecticut's next governor will be decided here. Incumbent Ned Lamont
• 22:39
  Speaker 25: versus Republican Ryan Fossey.
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: Under Ned Lamont and.
• 22:42
  Speaker 35: His radical legislature, electorates and taxes have soared to the
• 22:45
  Speaker 35: third highest in the country.
• 22:46
  Speaker 9: Taxes, schools, property bills, who runs the state?
• 22:50
  Speaker 25: 94.9 News Now is the leader in political and election coverage, debates, interviews.
• 22:56
  Speaker 9: 94.9 News Now.
• 22:58
  Speaker 36: All politics.
• 23:00
  Speaker 37: All.
• 23:01
  Speaker 38: I'm Ned Lamont and I approve this message.
• 23:04
  Speaker 29: Before you put another throw rug down to cover that
• 23:06
  Speaker 29: ugly floor, make a stop at Clough's Carpet One in Waterford.
• 23:09
  Speaker 29: Clough's has the latest in colorful tiles, luxury vinyl tile, laminate, classic.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: Hardwood, and of course, carpet.
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  Speaker 29: So you can transform your home from drab to fab
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  Speaker 29: in no time. Imagine walking on tile that looks like
• 23:19
  Speaker 29: a work of art or snuggling up on plush carpet
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  Speaker 29: that feels like walking on a cloud. And Clough's design
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  Speaker 29: team helps you every step of the way. Visit Clough's
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  Speaker 29: Carpet One Flooring and Home on Crossroad in Waterford and
• 23:29
  Speaker 29: make your floors the center of attention. CloughCarpetOneWaterford.com It's October
• 23:39
  Speaker 29: at Wailing City Mazda.
• 23:44
  Speaker 12: Gas prices are up, so we're taking a year of
• 23:46
  Speaker 12: gas off of your mind. For a limited time, when
• 23:48
  Speaker 12: you purchase a new Mazda at Wailing City Mazda, get
• 23:51
  Speaker 12: free gas for a year.
• 23:53
  Speaker 39: That's right, free gas.
• 23:54
  Speaker 29: For a year.
• 23:55
  Speaker 12: On top of that, every new Mazda comes with a
• 23:57
  Speaker 12: lifetime powertrain warranty to you. Now those are some perks
• 24:01
  Speaker 12: worth making some noise about. Pick your Mazda, get a
• 24:05
  Speaker 12: year of gas, and hit the road.
• 24:07
  Speaker 40: Come see what Wailing.
• 24:08
  Speaker 12: City Mazda has to offer. 567 Coleman Street, New London, Connecticut.
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: 860-443-CITY.
• 24:16
  Speaker 12: Or visit us 24-7 at WailingCityMazda.com. Connecticut's fastest-growing Mazda dealership.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: Have we met yet?
• 24:24
  Speaker 13: We are my Wailing City.
• 24:28
  Speaker 40: See dealer for complete details.
• 24:30
  Speaker 13: We are my Wailing City.
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: Good morning.
• 24:36
  Speaker 10: I'm Sean Murphy. Gradual clearing today with a high in
• 24:39
  Speaker 10: the 60s.
• 24:40
  Speaker 41: Julio Alessio of Massachusetts faces felony charges for allegedly sexually
• 24:45
  Speaker 41: assaulting a girl under 12 in Norwich. The arrest follows
• 24:49
  Speaker 41: a months-long investigation into allegations first reported in April 2025.
• 24:55
  Speaker 41: Alessio was released.
• 24:56
  Speaker 42: On a $ 200, 000 bond.
• 24:58
  Speaker 41: The League of Women Voters will host a debate at
• 25:00
  Speaker 41: 6 tonight between 41st District State Representative Andre Bumgardner and
• 25:05
  Speaker 41: Republican challenger Thaler Heffel. The debate will take place at
• 25:10
  Speaker 41: Thrive 55 Plus in Groton, with voters invited to submit
• 25:13
  Speaker 41: questions by email. UConn's Gampel Pavilion will be renamed M
• 25:18
  Speaker 41: & T Bank Center at Gampel Pavilion under a multi-year
• 25:21
  Speaker 41: naming rights agreement.
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: Officials say that the expanded.
• 25:25
  Speaker 41: Partnership will support university athletics, academics, and community programs. Fire
• 25:31
  Speaker 41: crews responded to a working structure fire at a commercial
• 25:34
  Speaker 41: property on Frontage Road in North Stonington last night. Smoke
• 25:38
  Speaker 41: was visible from I-95 near Pendleton Hill Road. Further information
• 25:42
  Speaker 41: was not immediately available. A 22-year-old New York man was
• 25:45
  Speaker 41: arrested after allegedly stabbing a 44-year-old man during a fight
• 25:50
  Speaker 41: on Block Island Thursday night. William O'Brien faces felony assault
• 25:54
  Speaker 41: charges after the victim suffered four stab wounds requiring 22 stitches.
• 25:59
  Speaker 41: O'Brien was released on $ 10, 000 surety bail.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome back. For those of you who
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: were listening in earlier, I'm Red Jenke. I'm filling in
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: for Lee Elsie on the Lee Elsie Show. I am
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: president of the Townsend Group, a business and public policy
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: consulting firm, also founder of theredline.com. That's the-red-line.com, where I
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: post my commentary. I'm a columnist as well, and other
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: interesting content. I have as my guest this early hour
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Megan Portfolio, who is Manager of Research and Analysis at
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the Yankee Institute for Public Policy. And we're having a
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: discussion about the state workforce. And I wanted to open
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: up and begin our second segment here discussing what was
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: a real anomaly, which was under The previous governor, Governor
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Daniel Malloy, who went into the sunset claiming to have
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: achieved $ 24 billion of savings in the negotiation in the
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: new contract that he struck with the state employees who
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: bargain as a single unit, even though they work in
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: 35 different bargaining units. For most of their wages and benefits,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: they bargained as a single unit. And he claimed $ 24
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: billion of savings. And I wanted to point out that
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the vast majority of those savings were the difference between
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: what Malloy put in his proposed budget that year for
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: state employee wage increases and what he actually wound up
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: paying them in a formal contract. So the state employees
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: did not give up anything. There were no savings in
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: terms of their giving back from a contract. This was
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Daniel Malloy, basically a figment of his imagination. It was
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the difference between what he thought he might give them
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: as raises And the somewhat more modest wage increases, he
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: actually got them, gave them. Nevertheless, he claimed that the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: difference was $ 24 billion over 20 years. Not only did
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: he make that claim, but he had the Democrats in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the legislature pass legislation requiring that that calculation be made
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: every year. So the state controller has to calculate the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: actual savings between Malloy's promise of more than 10 years
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: ago today and what's actually going on today. And, of course,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: most of those savings have evaporated as wages have been
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: increased consistently ever since. So with that little preamble, Megan,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I hope I've given you enough ammunition to go to town.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: This is actually one of my favorite topics. This deal
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: in 2017, CBAC loves to bring this up constantly, and
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: all these concessions they gave up, One of these concessions,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: and I'm doing air quotes right now, was they held
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: off from getting a raise in the beginning part of
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: the contract. Not getting a raise is not a savings
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: because getting a raise, there's nowhere in our statute that
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: says state employees must get a raise every single year.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: So that part of the deal was so laughable. The
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: other thing that I love about this is the comptroller
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: is supposed to put out these reports every year. Now,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: our former comptroller, it was like pulling.
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: Teeth with him.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: In the statute, it says you must do these reports
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: and show what the savings are, because there was all
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: of this fanfare over this deal. It was going to
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: save us all this money. Senator Duff, who was around
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: at the time, he was doing op-eds and interviews, saying, oh,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: this is so great for the taxpayers, this $ 24 billion. Well,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: the comptroller had issues actually issuing reports to begin with,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: and they would fight with us and say, oh, no,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: we have to do it every other year. Now, you
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: have to do it every year. Fortunately, this comptroller we
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: have now, not only does he do it every year,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: but he does it timely, which is very hard to
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: get reports from the government in a timely fashion just
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: because the legislature is constantly dumping reports on them. But
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: one of the things about these savings is we're already behind.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: We're behind over $ 500 million in savings, so it hasn't
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: even really materialized at all, even when you figure in, like,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: these made-up, you know, not getting a raised portion of
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: the savings. It hasn't even materialized. There was one year
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: where it actually, it made its, you know, it met
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: its commitment and actually did do the savings. But ever
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: since that one year, nope, we've fallen short. And one
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: of the other parts of this agreement and concession package
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: that CBAC calls it was they were creating a new
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: pension tier. Pensions before were so lucrative. People were walking
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: away with making more in their pensions than they made
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: when they were actually working. They call it a defined benefit,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: meaning you get this mandatory amount of money when you
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: retire every year. We don't see this in the private sector.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: We have what's called a defined contribution, meaning like our 401K,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: we have a defined amount of money we put in.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: It gets invested, and hopefully the stock market is up
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: when we retire, and then that's what we have to
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: live off. We don't get a guaranteed benefit until we die.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: In most cases, that's at the employee's initiative. He says
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: that the employer will offer the opportunity to co-fund a 401K,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: but a 401K requires contributions from both parties, and a
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: lot of employees don't establish a 401K. So, in effect,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: in the private sector, there is no such thing as
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: a pension fund. It's your own savings.
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: When I was in.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: The private sector, I had worked for General Electric in
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: the 90s and early 2000s, and they did offer us
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: a pension back then, but they got rid of that.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: They phased it out, and they offered buyouts because it
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: just wasn't sustainable. And General Electric, along with probably most
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: other companies, have switched over to this 401k plan. Well,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: CBAC doesn't like– they don't want that. They want the
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: defined benefit. But with this deal back in 2017, they
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: actually created another tier, which was a hybrid. So it
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: was a little mixture of both. And that was supposed
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: to save us money because the older employees, as they're
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: phasing out and passing away, the more lucrative gold-plated pension
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: plans are going to be going away hopefully soon. and
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: we have this Tier 4, I'd like to see a
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Tier 5 where it's all defined contribution, but that's on
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: my wish list. They actually want to roll back. So
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: they made this agreement with us to create this pension
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: plan to save taxpayers money. Remember that number, $ 24 billion
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: in 20 years? It's only been 10 years, and they're
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: already going back on the deal. They're already coming out saying,
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: we want to roll this back. We don't like it.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: It's not good enough for us. And it's interesting the
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: way they're using the wording on it. They're calling it rollback,
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: which is very, very similar to language in New York.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: New York had just successfully, after years, rolled back their
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: lower-tier pension, and it is going to cost the taxpayers
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: down there a boatload of money.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's called fix the tier, I think. That's going
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: to be their rallying cry, right?
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's fix tier six.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, tier six. And I see their internal documents. I mean,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I'm not doing anything sketchy. They post this stuff online
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: and on social media, and they're suddenly starting to use
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: the same exact language that New York had successfully used.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: And this is a big deal, and it's upsetting that
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: the media doesn't ask the candidates about this because this
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: is one of the biggest things this next governor is
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: going to have to deal with. It's going to have
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: to deal with feedback and the demands that they want
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: And no one's talking about it. And this is going
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: to cost us billions of dollars if CBAC gets their way.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: But no one asks them about it. I know it's
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: not fun.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: To talk about. I'm probably putting your audience to sleep
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: talking about pensions.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: But this is what.
• 35:20
  Speaker 10: Affects our pocketbook.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Let's go to 35,000 feet again, which is in the
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: private sector, as you mentioned, having worked for General Electric,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: they did away with their pensions just after the year 2000.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: That's a perfect example of what is going on and
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: has gone on in the private sector. For a quarter century,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: you have to go back a quarter century before you
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: find any pension programs for private sector employees. Yet public
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: sector employees across the country and most dramatically in this
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: state still have pensions. And they still have the most
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: expensive form of pensions, which is called a defined benefit pension,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: which is the benefit is defined. The state has to
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: pay it, come hell or high water, no matter what
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: financial condition the state is in. Correct.
• 36:26
  Speaker 24: And as they should.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I don't agree with the pension system. I think it
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: needs to go away. I think it's outdated. It's not sustainable.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Well, it's just not fair.
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: It's not fair.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: And we need to honor our agreements with them.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: It's just not fair. I mean, the private sector.
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: It's not fair.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: You know, 85, 90 percent of the taxpayers work in
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the private sector. They don't have a pension, yet they're
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: paying inflated taxes. So that public sector workers, supposedly public servants,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: can make more than they do.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, and they get to retire earlier. And that's fine, too.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: That's an agreement they made. But, I mean, my parents
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: are still working. My parents are in their late 70s.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: They're still working every day. There's no pension for them.
• 37:11
  Speaker 36: Yeah.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: That's the private sector. That's the reality that 95%, 98%
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: of Americans live... except for those that this special class
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: public sector employees who have an entirely different existence. They
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: have a parallel, much more generous existence they're living.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know if your listeners go on social media
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: or follow Yankee Institute on Facebook. They don't like me
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: because I call them out on this stuff, and they
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: comment all the time. They're so entitled, some of them.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: They'll put in gifts on there, show me the money.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a big joke. I mean, they look
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: at us as a cash cow for them. And they're
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: the public servants. They're here to serve us, not themselves.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: But they actually look at us in the private sector
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: and expect us to live our lives and use our
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: labor for them so that they can get benefits that
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: are a lot more lucrative than what we get. There's
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: got to be a balance. There's a way where the
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: state employees can get, you know, fair pay, fair benefits
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: as the taxpayers. But that's not the way these negotiations
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: ever go. It's always, you know, they put the sum
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: on the scale on one side of the negotiations, and
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: it's never on our side.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Well, in the private sector, employer-union negotiations have a self,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: limiting factor, which is absent in the public sector. But
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: in the private sector, if the unions demand too much,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: they run the risk of putting their employer out of business.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: So their jobs are in jeopardy if they're over demanding.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: That serves to keep the negotiations in balance. So for
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: listeners here, At this juncture, both Megan and I, I think,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: support private sector unions because you have that naturally balancing factor.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: In the public sector, the state of Connecticut cannot be
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: put out of business by over-demanding unions. So the unions.
• 39:28
  Speaker 40: Demand too much.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: They use arbitration as their ammunition. Oh, okay, don't give
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: us what we want. We'll take it to arbitration. And
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: you know what? The arbiter can actually come out with
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: benefits better than what we even asked for. So now
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: the lawmakers are sitting there, almost like there's a gun
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: to their head, What do I do? Do I vote
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: against this and then it go to arbitration and it's
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: worse for taxpayers? Or do we just, you know, vote
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: for it? Do we want to roll the dice or
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: do we just, you know, pass the contracts? And ever
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: since I've been here, they've just passed the contracts.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but again, what the legislators are facing is a
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: vote on this five-pound bill bill 800 pages that's been
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: plopped on their desk two days prior. The real negotiation
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: is obviously between the governor and the unions. Okay, that's
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: where this all takes place. The governor has no incentive
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to go to war with the unions, especially governors in
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: this state. Because for the most part, the unions are.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Working on their campaigns.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, every weekend.
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: Every weekend.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Every single one of them. They do door knocking. They
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: have an army of people that go out every single
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: weekend across the.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: State knocking on doors and making phone calls. So if
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: you want to get elected or reelected, are you going
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: to go toe-to-toe with the unions and really negotiate for
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: taxpayers who are this, you know, Populists out there that's
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: in almost on another planet, from your point of view,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: you see the unions and the union representatives every day,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: if not every hour of every day on all of
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: the issues, wages, benefits, work rules that we haven't touched
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: work rules. And let's stay away from work rules other
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: than to observe that state employees only have to show
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: up at the office one day a week. That's not COVID.
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: That continues.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: Even in Deep Blue State, California, Gavin Newsom, the governor
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: out there, he's even like, nope, you guys are coming
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: back to the office. You're here to serve the people.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: That's your job. Don't call yourself public servants when you're
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: just servicing yourself. He's bringing those workers back in, and
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: as we should. I would love to have them, the state,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: maybe this year pass a bill where they do track productivity.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: How is the productivity with all this work at home?
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: I know various stories. I don't have this all documented,
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: but people tell me all the time, oh, yeah, I
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: called the state voicemails from a month ago. Hey, it's
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: June 1st. I'm not in the office. They're not even
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: changing their voicemails. And a lot of these are public-facing positions.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Like at the universities, a lot of these guys want
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: to work from home. But you're public-facing. You should be
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: there servicing your students and your faculty, not working from home.
• 42:39
  Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: So let's review and sum up a little bit, Megan,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: because we covered a lot of territory. First, the public
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: should be aware of what is called supersedence, that the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: power of the unions is– almost unlimited, because whatever they
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: can demand of the governor and get into a contract,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: that supersedes state law. That means legislators that the audience
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: members elect cannot pass a law to manage this state
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: workforce more efficiently because the contract supersedes any law that
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: they might pass.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and a fun fact about that, Senator Rob Sampson
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: from Wolcott almost every year puts a bill into the
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: Labor Committee to get rid of it. Almost every year
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: I see this bill. The woman that runs the Labor
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Committee is a former UAW boss. So she's a former
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: union boss.
• 43:47
  Speaker 43: She won't call that bill.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever seen that bill get a
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: public hearing. It gets introduced and dies. So they won't
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: even advance the bill to actually get down to the
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: House and Senate for a vote. They won't even have
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: a public hearing on that because the person that runs
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: that committee is a former union boss.
• 44:05
  Speaker 17: Yeah.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: So that's number one. We're fighting a battle that virtually
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: cannot be won by law. Number two. We're talking about pensions,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot of talk about pensions. The governor
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: loves to talk about pension progress. There are two points
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: that should be made. The first is that the private
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: sector does not have pensions, and there have been no
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: pensions for workers in the private sector for a quarter century.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Yet we are still talking about how rich the pension
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: benefit should be for state workers. That's a head-scratcher. In
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: other words, highly unfair to the general public.
• 44:51
  Speaker 6: It's unfair to the taxpayer. It's unfair to.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: They're the first at the trough of taxpayer money. They
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: are first in line. They are in front of our schools.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: I constantly hear about how our schools are not funded,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: special eds underfunded. They're in the back of the line.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: The nonprofits that do great work, they're at the back
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: of the line. Any taxpayer relief, we're at the back
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: of the line. feedback gets fed first, and then the
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: rest of us get the scraps.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we should point out that the state employees
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: on the pension side, as I referred, the current governor
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: likes to talk about pension progress. In fact, had a
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: press conference not too long ago announcing how much more
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: money is in the pension fund. He failed to observe
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and make mention of how much The pension obligation has
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: grown under his administration. Up through the last formal evaluation
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: of the pension fund, the pension obligation had increased $ 10 billion.
• 46:02
  Speaker 44: Why?
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Primarily because of the wage increases that he has awarded
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: state employees. Because when you award a wage increase, you
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: at the same time implicitly are awarding a pension increase.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Pensions are calculated off of wages. When wages go up,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: pensions go up.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: You nailed it.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's $ 10 billion. It's never talked about. So they
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: put in $ 12 billion over the last eight years under
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the current governor's administration. The net increase in the pension... condition,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the pension fund's condition, is only $ 2 billion.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: I wish we had more time, because I'd like to
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: just note that once our rainy day fund is full,
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: statutory full, the rest of that money is supposed to
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: go towards paying down debt. Well, this administration has created
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: all of these off-book accounts. We have this some child
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: care account now.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Megan, before you go off to your next major subject,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: we'll have to have you back in the future.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, I need another hour to talk about that.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, you do, but we don't have an hour. Oh, man.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: So thank you for coming on.
• 47:27
  Speaker 12: I do appreciate it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Talk to you next time.
• 47:50
  Speaker 45: Colonial chevrolet cadillac hyundai is your hero with zero zero
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• 48:11
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  Speaker 12: The all-new line of Hyundai hybrids. Get up to 58
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• 48:52
  Speaker 36: Broadcasting live from the Bruce Delon View at GMC Studios.
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: WJJF.
• 48:57
  Speaker 36: Montauk. Ledger. Mystic. Norwich.
• 48:59
  Speaker 9: 94.9 News Now.
• 49:04
  Speaker 7: He'll wake up in the U.S. for the first time
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: in years.
• 49:09
  Speaker 38: I'm Dave Anthony, Fox News. Stephen Hubbard returned last night
• 49:12
  Speaker 38: from Russia on that plane that landed at Lackland Air
• 49:17
  Speaker 38: Force Base in Texas.
• 49:18
  Speaker 7: The 74-year-old retired American.
• 49:20
  Speaker 38: Teacher was jailed in Russia for four years, accused of
• 49:23
  Speaker 38: being a mercenary fighting for Ukraine. President Trump says there
• 49:26
  Speaker 38: was no prisoner swap, but it comes after he paused
• 49:29
  Speaker 38: new sanctions on Russia that Congress approved.
• 49:31
  Speaker 7: If you would have put.
• 49:31
  Speaker 31: Those sanctions on or whatever you want to call him,
• 49:36
  Speaker 31: you could forget about him. You'd never see him again.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: He'd be back in jail for 25 years.
• 49:40
  Speaker 38: Trump envoy Steve Witkoff helped broker the release of Hubbard
• 49:43
  Speaker 38: after talks with leader Vladimir Putin trying to broker a
• 49:45
  Speaker 38: ceasefire with Ukraine, but there were more attacks overnight.
• 49:48
  Speaker 46: The Ukrainian foreign minister is warning that appeasement, servility and
• 49:52
  Speaker 46: flattery will not stop Russia's war. Andrei Sabiha posting on
• 49:56
  Speaker 46: X after a missile attack damaged buildings and infrastructure near
• 49:59
  Speaker 46: his country's capital Kiev. At least two people were killed.
• 50:03
  Speaker 46: The attack comes after Russia said it was ready in
• 50:05
  Speaker 46: principle to restart three-way peace negotiations.
• 50:08
  Speaker 38: Fox's Jonathan Savage. There's also no end in sight to
• 50:11
  Speaker 38: the Iran conflict. Overnight, Iran claims it attacked seven oil
• 50:15
  Speaker 38: tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Some were set on
• 50:17
  Speaker 38: fire as Iran-backed Houthi militants attacked Saudi Arabia again. And
• 50:21
  Speaker 38: oil prices are up more than 2%. But President Trump
• 50:24
  Speaker 38: at a rally for Republicans last night in South Carolina
• 50:26
  Speaker 38: again insisted the conflict will end soon and then prices
• 50:29
  Speaker 38: will plunge.
• 50:30
  Speaker 7: But as for the high costs now.
• 50:31
  Speaker 31: It's a very small price to pay. The number one
• 50:34
  Speaker 31: state sponsor of terror. The most evil nation on Earth.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: If they had a nuclear weapon, they'd.
• 50:41
  Speaker 17: Use it within.
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: One day or one hour?
• 50:45
  Speaker 23: I would say one hour.
• 50:46
  Speaker 38: The president will campaign today in Iowa as Democrats campaign
• 50:48
  Speaker 38: against him, trying to win back control of Congress.
• 50:50
  Speaker 7: And a federal judge has blocked a Trump.
• 50:52
  Speaker 38: Administration investigation into voting fraud allegations involving non-citizens in California
• 50:56
  Speaker 38: and other states, warning legal voters could be caught up
• 50:58
  Speaker 38: or intimidated.
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: America's listening to Fox News.
• 51:02
  Speaker 28: The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is expanding their commitment to
• 51:05
  Speaker 28: America's heroes with the May and George Siller Scholarship Program.
• 51:10
  Speaker 28: The scholarship supports eligible children pursuing education undergraduate degrees trade
• 51:14
  Speaker 28: schools certification programs helping cover tuition fees books supplies and
• 51:19
  Speaker 28: on-campus housing now it serves families from tunnel to towers
• 51:23
  Speaker 28: gold star fallen first responder and smart home programs donate
• 51:27
  Speaker 28: a car land big donation 11 bucks a month the
• 51:30
  Speaker 28: letter t the number two the letter t.org an.
• 51:33
  Speaker 47: Official message from medicare Medicare plans change from one year
• 51:37
  Speaker 47: to the next. And this year, it's important for you
• 51:39
  Speaker 47: to review your current coverage and compare all your options
• 51:43
  Speaker 47: during Medicare open enrollment. Compare health plans.
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: Drug coverage, and costs.
• 51:48
  Speaker 47: See if you can save some money, and don't forget
• 51:51
  Speaker 47: to make sure your drugs are covered. Open enrollment ends
• 51:54
  Speaker 47: December 7th. Visit Medicare.gov or call 1-800-Medicare.
• 52:00
  Speaker 7: Paid for by the U.S.
• 52:00
  Speaker 17: Department of Health and Human Services.
• 52:05
  Speaker 12: Wailing City Ford's been around since 1957 and gas prices
• 52:09
  Speaker 12: then were 24 cents a gallon well guess what times
• 52:12
  Speaker 12: are changing so Wailing City Ford wants to take care
• 52:15
  Speaker 12: of you come into Wailing City Ford and buy any
• 52:17
  Speaker 12: new Ford in stock and get a year's worth of
• 52:20
  Speaker 12: free gas that's right one year's worth of free gas
• 52:23
  Speaker 12: It's simple, and Whaling City Ford makes it easy. Either
• 52:26
  Speaker 12: get that amount discounted off the purchase price of MSRP,
• 52:29
  Speaker 12: or purchase.
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  Speaker 6: Your new vehicle and walk out with a.
• 52:31
  Speaker 12: Gas card for a value that you won't believe. But
• 52:34
  Speaker 12: that's not all. Every new Ford also comes backed by
• 52:37
  Speaker 12: our lifetime powertrain warranty. Don't forget about our huge selection
• 52:40
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• 52:42
  Speaker 12: of your service needs. Whaling City Ford is saving you
• 52:45
  Speaker 12: a year's worth of money. gas when you buy any
• 52:47
  Speaker 12: new ford in stock 475 broad street new london connecticut
• 52:51
  Speaker 12: on the corner of broad and coleman 860-443-8361 whalingcityford.com have
• 52:54
  Speaker 12: we met yet we are see dealer for complete details.
• 53:02
  Speaker 48: At Austin Massione CPAs, we want to thank our clients.
• 53:06
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• 53:11
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• 53:15
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• 53:17
  Speaker 48: All while providing clear communication and exceptional customer service. And
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  Speaker 48: we believe success on the field and in business comes
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  Speaker 48: from the right gameplay. Austin Mazzione CPAs, where planning meets performance.
• 53:36
  Speaker 5: Good morning, I'm Sean Murphy.
• 53:37
  Speaker 10: Gradual clearing today with a high in the 60s.
• 53:40
  Speaker 41: Julio Alessio of Massachusetts faces felony charges for allegedly sexually
• 53:45
  Speaker 41: assaulting a girl under 12 in Norwich. The arrest follows
• 53:49
  Speaker 41: a months-long investigation into allegations first reported in April 2025.
• 53:54
  Speaker 41: Alessio was released on a.
• 53:57
  Speaker 42: $ 200, 000 bond.
• 53:58
  Speaker 41: The League of Women Voters will host a debate at
• 54:00
  Speaker 41: 6 tonight between 41st District State Representative Andre Bumgardner and
• 54:05
  Speaker 41: Republican challenger Taylor Heffel. The debate will take place at
• 54:10
  Speaker 41: Thrive 55 Plus in Groton with voters invited to submit
• 54:13
  Speaker 41: questions by email. Governor Ed Lamont and Republican challenger Ryan
• 54:17
  Speaker 41: Fazio will meet tonight for their first televised debate hosted
• 54:21
  Speaker 41: by WFSB and Connecticut Insider. The debate comes less than
• 54:25
  Speaker 41: two weeks before Election Day with voting already underway in Connecticut.
• 54:30
  Speaker 41: Fire crews responded to a working structure fire at a
• 54:33
  Speaker 41: commercial property on Frontage Road in North Stonington last night.
• 54:37
  Speaker 41: Smoke was visible from I-95 near Pendleton Hill Road. Further
• 54:41
  Speaker 41: information was not immediately available. A 22-year-old New York man
• 54:45
  Speaker 41: was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 44-year-old man during a
• 54:49
  Speaker 41: fight on Block Island Thursday night. William O'Brien faces felony
• 54:53
  Speaker 41: assault charges after the victim suffered four stab wounds requiring
• 54:56
  Speaker 41: 22 stitches. O'Brien was released on $ 10, 000 surety bail.
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 55:22
  Speaker 25: Prepare yourselves for Connecticut's political Republican powerhouse, who spent 35
• 55:28
  Speaker 25: years in the Republican trenches.
• 55:31
  Speaker 49: In 2021, he was overwhelmingly elected to take the reins
• 55:35
  Speaker 49: as chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party. He now faces
• 55:39
  Speaker 49: the ultimate challenge, resurrecting the great nutmeg elephant and cracking
• 55:44
  Speaker 49: the code to deliver statewide victories.
• 55:47
  Speaker 11: Hey!
• 55:49
  Speaker 25: It's a tall order, but if anyone can do it,
• 55:52
  Speaker 25: it's this season maestro of GOP politics. Grab your political
• 55:57
  Speaker 25: playbooks and welcome Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, good morning. This is not Ben quite yet. This
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: is Red Janky filling in as guest host on the
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: LLC radio show News Now 94.9. I'm happy to be
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: here at Lee's invitation. For those of you who don't
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: know me, which has to be 95% of the audience,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: I run the Townsend Group, which is a business and
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: public policy consulting firm, and I'm the founder of The
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Red Line, where I post my commentary. I'm also a columnist,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: as well as other great columns that I find around
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: in the news media and being a news junkie myself,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: and that's on the-red-line.com. And as we've just heard praises sung,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: I'm on with Ben Proto, chairman of the Kinetic GOP,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about a bunch of stuff
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: this morning, right, Ben?
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: Hey, Red, how you doing?
• 57:10
  Speaker 7: I'm doing great.
• 57:11
  Speaker 6: We're going to talk about whatever comes to mind. We might,
• 57:13
  Speaker 6: you know, even... Gail is the listeners with maybe some
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: fun recipes. Who knows what we're going to come up
• 57:19
  Speaker 6: with this morning. Maybe some recipes for electing some Republicans
• 57:23
  Speaker 6: around the state if some folks are willing to do
• 57:27
  Speaker 6: a little work to make that happen.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be good. And recipes, let's stir the
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: pot a little bit. The big order of the day
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: main topic is affordability, right?
• 57:41
  Speaker 6: You know, contrary to what the governor says, the state
• 57:46
  Speaker 6: of Connecticut did not become unaffordable on January 20th, 2025,
• 57:52
  Speaker 6: at noon when Donald Trump raised his right hand and
• 57:54
  Speaker 6: took the oath to become president. It had been unaffordable
• 57:57
  Speaker 6: for long before that, mostly because of Ned Lamont and
• 58:01
  Speaker 6: the Democrats in Hartford. I know he likes to, you know,
• 58:04
  Speaker 6: make the note that it's all because of Washington that
• 58:08
  Speaker 6: Connecticut's unaffordable. He conveniently forgets about really the bad policies
• 58:13
  Speaker 6: that he and the Democrats in Connecticut have put in
• 58:15
  Speaker 6: place over really the last 16 years dating back to
• 58:19
  Speaker 6: Dan Malloy and the Democrats and the things that they
• 58:23
  Speaker 6: have done. And, you know, Brad, you and I have
• 58:26
  Speaker 6: had a lot of conversations about this over the last,
• 58:29
  Speaker 6: you know, number of years. I am a real believer
• 58:33
  Speaker 6: that the economic situation of a state is really dictated
• 58:39
  Speaker 6: more by the state capital of the state than it
• 58:43
  Speaker 6: is by Washington, because a lot of what happens in
• 58:45
  Speaker 6: Washington takes a long time to play out, whereas what
• 58:49
  Speaker 6: happens at a state capital is almost immediately impacted in
• 58:53
  Speaker 6: that state. And so when we see the real bad
• 58:56
  Speaker 6: policies that have come out of the state capital here
• 58:59
  Speaker 6: at Hartford, and a lot of what has been put
• 59:02
  Speaker 6: in place. There's a reason why we are last in
• 59:05
  Speaker 6: all the categories you really want to be first in
• 59:07
  Speaker 6: in the country, and we're first in all the categories
• 59:09
  Speaker 6: you really want to be last in in the country,
• 59:11
  Speaker 6: and that's because of Neville Mott and the Democrats.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's categorical. I might do a carryover, if you will,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: indulge me from my guest the previous hour here where
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: we talked about the state workforce. And in terms of
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: unaffordability categories, Ned Lamont, under Ned Lamont, something has occurred
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: that I don't think has ever happened before. Each and
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: every year under his administration, state employees have gotten a
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: robust wage increase. If you take their wage increases over
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: the eight years that Ned Lamont has been in office,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: they compound to a 50% plus increase. So if things
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: are unaffordable in the state of Connecticut, one of the
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: primary reasons is how much money is going out to
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: pay the state workforce. And the state workers like to
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: say that they need to be so well paid because
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Connecticut is a high-cost state. The reality is just the opposite.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Connecticut is a high-cost state. because we have such a
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: high cost of government on the strength of those incredibly
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: generous wage increases. That's affordability issue number one in my mind.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 13: Absolutely.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 6: You know, look, you think about Connecticut. You know, we
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 6: are the third smallest state in the country after Rhode
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 6: Island and Delaware. in geographic size and to some extent
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 6: not quite population. We're probably, I think, fifth or sixth
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 6: in population. We have one of the larger workforces per capita,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 6: state workforces in the country. We have over 40,000 state
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 6: employees for a population of just under 3.5 million people.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 6: When you think about that, that's, you know, over 1%
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 6: of the population is is employed by the state of Connecticut,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 6: and probably close to over an additional 1% to 2%
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 6: of the population are retirees of the state of Connecticut.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 6: Make note of that, everyone. Making the state of Connecticut
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 6: the largest employer and retiree, quote, of the state of Connecticut.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 6: And we talk about– and I know, Brad, you're big
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 6: on the state employee contract and pay situation– But when
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 6: we look also at what state employee retirees program is,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 6: and I, you know, in full disclosure, I am a
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 6: state employee retiree. I've worked for the state of Connecticut
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 6: for over 17, almost 17 years, and I am a
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 6: state employee retiree. And I look at what, you know,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 6: the benefits are that retirees get. And the governor, you know,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 6: back the week of the Costas Diamantis, you know, field
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 6: trip to Greece, said, you know, made a statement that
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 6: kind of went under the radar and really never was
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 6: really reported on by any of the far left media
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 6: in the state of Connecticut that, you know, if he's reelected,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: he is going to protect and expand state employee retiree benefits,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 6: which are among the most lucrative in the country right now.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 6: I'll give you an example. I always found this rather interesting.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 6: For those of you who don't know, for anybody who's
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 6: on Medicare, there's the Part B part of Medicare that
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 6: the recipient has to pay their premium for, which this
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 6: year I think is about $ 205 a month, and depending
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 6: on your income could go up to as high as
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 6: $ 280 a month. If you're a state employee retiree, the
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 6: state of Connecticut reimburses you the Part B premium. which
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 6: if you and your spouse are on the Medicare or
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 6: on Social Security and you're a state employee retiree, that
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 6: could be upwards of $ 400 to $ 500 a month just
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 6: in the Part B premium reimbursement, not your premium retirement.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 6: that the state of Connecticut is paying for what might
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 6: be your Medicare Advantage program, which is a tremendously lucrative
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 6: program as well. So the cost structure there is very expensive.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 6: And what I found interesting about that, as you recall,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 6: during the Dallas convention, when the president came out on
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 6: stage and said that if we reelect Republicans to the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 6: majority in the House and Senate, he would give everybody
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 6: a $ 5, 000 check. And the Democrats went nuts over that,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 6: including Democrats here in Connecticut, But no one seemed to
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 6: have a problem with the governor standing up and saying,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 6: if you reelect me, I'm going to give state employee
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 6: retirees better benefits.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: And the better benefits.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 6: Actually, to me, it's a more expensive proposition than giving
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 6: everybody $ 5, 000 in the state of Connecticut.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 6: But that just kind of got swept under the rug.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 6: And that's what the governor is looking to do. He's
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 6: buying votes among state employees and state employee retirees.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the math of the numbers you just shared with
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: us work out to that. I mean, you got up
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: to 400 plus per month that the state employees want
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: and NED has promised to give them on these health
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: care retirement benefits that you just outlined. So 400 a
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: month over 12 months is pretty close to that $ 5, 000 number, right?
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 6: Just on the reimbursement.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 6: Or, yeah, just on your Part B reimbursement. Yeah.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 17: Yeah.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: So Donald Trump.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 6: Not including the premium.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 36: Yeah.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump is taken to the cleaners by the media.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 6: You know, at some point it becomes unsustainable. And then,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 6: of course, we add on all of the other interesting
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 6: little parts, as you well know, right, because you've really
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 6: delved into this, you know, back then. During the COVID era,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 6: you know, the governor agreed, and, you know, he kind
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 6: of often says, you know, that, you know, he didn't
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 6: really have a choice, and, you know, what was he
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 6: going to do? And, you know, he put in their contract,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 6: in their contract, and if you think the state employees
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 6: are going to come to the table and let this
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 6: come out of their contract in the next negotiation, it's
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 6: in their contract that they only have to be in
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 6: their office one day a week.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: It's in their contract.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 6: Think about that. Think about if you worked in the
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 6: private sector, if you worked for an accounting firm or
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 6: you worked for an engineering firm or you worked for
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 6: Amazon or you worked for Target and you only had
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 6: to show up at the office or your store one
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 6: day a week but got five-day-a-week pay. And don't worry.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 6: I'm going to answer the phone at home or I'm
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 6: going to answer my emails at home or I'm going
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 6: to do inventory control at home. or I'm going to
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 6: do my spreadsheet work at home, or I'm going to
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 6: do it while I'm sitting on the cruise ship, or
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 6: I'm going to do it while I'm sitting on the
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 6: beach at Cabo, which we know happens. We've seen it happen.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 6: It's insane as to where it's at. And those are
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 6: all costs that the people of the state of Connecticut
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 6: who are in the private sector, and as you well know, Red,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 6: because you've looked into this and you've run the numbers,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 6: The private sector wages have not kept up with just
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 6: the national average of private sector wages, let alone the
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 6: public sector wages in the state of Connecticut to be
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 6: able to pay their bills. So if you really want
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 6: to be able to pay your bills in the state
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 6: of Connecticut, go work for the state of Connecticut. Don't
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 6: get a private sector job.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The numbers when I ran that you're referring to
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: was when I calculated the compound increase over the first
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: six years that Lamont has been in office, not the eight,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: which is up to 50% plus. But over six years,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: it was a 33%. And the private sector had gotten
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: only 23%. So the state is beat the private sector
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: by 10 points. Inflation over the period was 26%. Those
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: are the Federal Bureau of Labor statistics. So 33% has
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: now turned into 50%. Ned could actually negotiate with state
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: workers and achieve some savings, and they would still be
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: on parity. Getting 10% less, they'd be on parity with
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: the private sector. His predecessor did that.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 6: Also remember the benefit structure that state employees get, and
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 6: they have a relatively low... copay on their health insurance
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 6: and dental and vision insurance, whereas private sector employees' benefits
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 6: usually are tremendously more expensive on their premium copays and
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 6: their copays when they go to a doctor or the
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 6: dentist or the eye doctor, as opposed to what state
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 6: employees pay. So when you factor that in, it's an
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 6: even greater disparity in and cost structure to a private
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 6: sector employee versus a public sector employee.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Every study that's been done of Connecticut state employee health
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: care benefits finds them to be the most generous of
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: state employee in all 50 states by a large margin.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Number one by a large margin, and it's expressed pretty easily.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: There's no annual deductible, period, for any state employer. health
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: care benefit program what's more it's right on the state
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: website informing state employees what their benefits are the maximum
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: you pay as a premium as a single state employee.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 13: Is $ 200.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: A month For a family of any size, the maximum
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: you pay monthly for health insurance coverage is less than $ 550.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: People in the audience should compare that to what they
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: themselves are paying for their health care coverage.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 6: And then once you get into.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 6: Again, you take that differential in pay structure between a
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 6: state employee and a private sector employee from gross wages,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 6: and then you start taking out the deductions from it
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 6: for federal taxes, state taxes, the infamous Family and Medical
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 6: Leave Act deduction, your health insurance premiums and whatnot. You
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 6: begin to get down to a point where your net
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 6: pay is that on the private side, the private sector side,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 6: simply isn't enough to pay the cost structure of everyday living,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 6: to pay your mortgage or your rent, to pay your insurance,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 6: to pay your grocery bill, to pay your electric bill,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 6: to pay your phone bill, to pay the things that
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 6: are not necessarily luxuries in life, things like your internet bill,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 6: your cell phone bill, things that really become necessities, not
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 6: luxuries in life, in order to live on a day-to-day basis.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 6: And you can go on and on to pay the
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 6: gasoline that you have to put in your car to
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 6: make your car payment, whether it's an auto loan or
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 6: a lease. And in today's day and age, if you're married,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 6: you probably have two cars, two car loans, multiple insurances.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 6: And as you know, Red, because you've looked into us,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 6: Connecticut is one of the highest insurance cost states in
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 6: the country. Thank you, Ned Lamont, because your insurance commissioner
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 6: that you appointed, not Donald Trump, but that you appointed
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 6: has approved pretty much every rate increase that has come
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 6: down the pike in the last eight years, which is
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 6: why we have among the highest health insurance premiums in
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 6: the country that your insurance commissioner has approved. We have
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 6: among the highest energy rates in the country. Thank you again,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 6: Ned Lamont, because you appointed the peer commissioner, particularly Marissa Gillette,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 6: destroyed the energy market in the state of Connecticut. Donald
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 6: Trump had nothing to do with that, even though you
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 6: want to blame Donald Trump. You appointed her. The Democrats
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 6: approved her not once but twice. And she destroyed the
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 6: energy market in this state. And why we have among
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 6: the highest energy rates and the highest and we have
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 6: this stupid public benefit charge, which are things that don't
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 6: even impact the energy market in the state of Connecticut,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 6: but raise our energy bills by over 20 percent. Some
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 6: of the highest gross receipts tax that are put on
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 6: our bill and energy taxes that are put on our
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 6: bills But those are all done by our legislature, not
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 6: by anybody in Washington, whether it was Joe Biden or
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 6: Donald Trump. They had nothing to do with any of that.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 6: That was Ned Lamont and the Democrats who did that.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 6: And so when I hear, you know, Ned Lamont and
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 6: the Democrats talk about how Donald Trump made this unaffordable,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 6: I laugh because it's just simply a lie. Because if
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 6: you're going to do that, then you have to say, well,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 6: Joe Biden did that as well. And Barack Obama did
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 6: that as well. Because that's just simply not the case.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 6: It is Ned Lamont and the Democrats who have destroyed
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 6: the economy in the state of Connecticut.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: And I think what sums all of that up, Ben,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: is that the number of people who want to leave
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: the state of Connecticut has increased and increased. The latest
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: measure is out of a survey by Wesleyan College Survey Center.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: They found that 37 percent of Connecticut residents want to
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: leave the state, want to leave. Now, the metric there
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: is they think that things are better in another state.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: So Connecticut has become less affordable demonstratively. in the assessment
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: of the citizens themselves living their lives, 37% definitively feel
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: that they can move to another state and reduce their
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: cost of living and live a better life. That is
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: the report card for Ned.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 6: Lamont and the Democrats. If Ned Lamont is correct, that
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 6: it's Washington that makes states unaffordable, and the policies of
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 6: whether it's Donald Trump or Joe Biden or Barack Obama
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 6: or whoever the president is, is what makes states unaffordable.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 6: It wouldn't matter what state you move to, they would
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 6: all be unaffordable.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 11: Exactly.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 6: And that's simply not the case.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 17: Exactly.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 6: We know what states are unaffordable, and we know which
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 6: is one of the most unaffordable, if not the most
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 6: unaffordable state in the country, and it's the state of Connecticut.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 6: What's interesting, you know, there's a lot of.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: We've got about 30 seconds, Ben.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 6: You know, we are last where we should be first
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 6: and first where we should be last. There was a
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 6: recent study that came out that Connecticut is number two
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 6: in the country for 18 to 34-year-olds who still live
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 6: with their parents because they can't afford to pay their
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 6: bills on their own.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 29: Yeah.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: When we come back.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll talk about what Ned Lamont
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: could do about the most egregious elements of the state
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: currently being unaffordable.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 14: In New London, slow traffic, I-95 northbound. The Gold Star
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  Speaker 15: Route 12 is moving slow in both directions in Groton.
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  Speaker 14: Route 32 moving slow northbound at the Coast Guard Academy.
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  Speaker 22: Hello, this is Richard Sosimo from Pasta Vida, the place
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  Speaker 35: Neighbors in Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledger, Lisbon, Marlborough, Montville, Norwich,
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  Speaker 35: and Sprague. I'm Jason Guidon, a neighbor from Hebron, running
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  Speaker 24: Fox News, I'm Gianna Gelosi.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 54: Abdul El-Sayed's alleged Muslim brotherhood ties taking center stage. The
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  Speaker 54: Michigan Senate candidate clashed with Mike Rogers in their last
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 54: debate before the midterms.
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  Speaker 17: I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 17: Constitution that guarantees all of.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 33: Us the right to pray as we choose to pray.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: And the question that you would ask that I.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 52: Think is actually really quite shameful.
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  Speaker 11: You know, we're the uniform of the United States, proudly,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 11: as my son did, my wife served, my brother served,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 11: my father served, so you could pray any way you want.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 54: Former President Obama campaigns with al-Sayed this Saturday. Trump will
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 54: be rallying with Rogers Sunday. Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 54: to resume U.S.-mediated peace talks with Ukraine after Ukraine's president
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 54: told Fox & Friends he's open to freezing the front lines.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 26: Freeze and stop.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 30: And of course, this is minimum what we need from
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 30: Russia today.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 54: And an American schoolteacher freed from Russia is now back
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  Speaker 54: on American soil. America's listening to Fox News.
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  Speaker 29: Keith's Appliances, your hometown holiday-ready superstore, with locations in Norwich
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  Speaker 55: Joining me today are Craig and Heather Calkins, the husband
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  Speaker 55: building custom instead of buying an existing home?
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  Speaker 9: Fish on sports. More than a score.
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  Speaker 26: Brought to you by Charter Oak Federal Credit Union, where
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 26: members bank better. So the World Series is getting ready
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 26: to start tomorrow, and of course the Milwaukee Brewers are
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 26: in it and hosting games one and two. But back
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 26: in 2015, When the Brewers were gone awful, the team
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 26: needed to do something to sell some tickets. So they
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 26: came up with this promotion called the timeless ticket, which
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 26: cost a thousand dollars, but guaranteed whoever bought the ticket,
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 26: a pair of tickets to any future Brewers home game
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 26: with the best seats available. Well, as you can imagine,
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 26: people are trying to cash in on these timeless tickets
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 26: that they bought 11 years ago.
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 5: For world series tickets this year.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 26: Well, this wacky promotion from 2015 is coming back to
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 26: bite the brewers right in the backside because fans are
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 26: having a hard time getting their timeless tickets.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 5: And when they get them, the seats stink. You'd be
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 5: upset too if.
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  Speaker 17: It happened to you.
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  Speaker 26: But nonetheless, being at a World Series game that your
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  Speaker 26: team's playing in, even if it's sitting behind.
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  Speaker 5: A pole, is still priceless. With more than just a score,
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  Speaker 5: I'm Fish on Sports.
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  Speaker 10: Good morning, I'm Sean Murphy. Gradual clearing today with a
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 10: high in the 60s.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 41: Julio Alessio of Massachusetts faces felony charges for allegedly sexually
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 41: assaulting a girl under 12 in Norwich. The arrest follows
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 41: a months-long investigation into allegations first reported in April 2025.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 41: Alessio was released on a $ 200, 000 bond. The League of
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 41: Women Voters will host a debate at 6 tonight between
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 41: 41st District State Representative Andre Bumgardner and Republican challenger Thaler Heffel.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 41: The debate will take place at Thrive 55 Plus in
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 41: Groton with voters invited to submit questions by email. UConn's
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 41: Gampel Pavilion will be renamed M & T Bank Center
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 41: at Gampel Pavilion under a multi-year naming rights agreement. Officials
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 41: say that the expanded partnership... We'll support university athletics, academics,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 41: and community programs. Fire crews responded to a working structure
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 41: fire at a commercial property on Frontage Road in North
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 41: Stonington last night. Smoke was visible from I-95 near Pendleton
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 41: Hill Road. Further information was not immediately available. A 22-year-old
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 41: New York man was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 44-year-old
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 41: man during a fight on Block Island Thursday night. William
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 41: O'Brien faces felony assault charges after the victim suffered four
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 41: stab wounds requiring 22 stitches.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 5: O'Brien was released.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 41: On $ 10, 000 surety bail.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 5: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 9: A seat of honor.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 48: Brought to you by Densmore Oil and Bugbee Plumbing.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: Good morning again. Welcome back to the Lee Elsey radio show.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: I'm Red Janky. I am a guest host at Lee's
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: invitation while he is running for office and unable to
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: host the show himself. I am president of the Townsend Group,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: which is a business and public policy consulting firm. also
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: the founder of the Red Line, d-red-line.com, where I post
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: my columns. I'm also a journalist and other great commentary
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: from around the country. I have the distinct honor and
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: pleasure to have as my guest, guest host, guest appearance
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: by Benjamin Proto, who's chairman of the Connecticut GOP, We
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: were just talking about the unaffordability of the state of
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: Connecticut and discussing the fact that the state, this state,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: is unaffordable for reasons that have nothing to do with Washington, D.C.,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: that are entirely homegrown, paying, for example, our state workers
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: the highest wages of any state in the country, a
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: compound wage increase under the current governor that exceeds 50
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: percent over the last eight years. If you're working in
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: the private sector, have you gotten a 50 percent pay
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: raise over the last eight years? Ask yourself that. State
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: employees have, as a gift from Ned Lamont. That is
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: homegrown unaffordability. If we are living in a state that
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: is a high-cost state, state employees say we need to
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: be paid a lot because we live in a high-cost state.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: The reality is we live in a cost state because
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: we overpay state employees. That's the driver. That and all
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: the other ridiculous policies that the governor either has introduced
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: or continued. Now let's flip the, and the real bottom
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: line that proves that is that the recent polling shows
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: that 37%, remember that number, 37% of state residents want
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: to leave the state. Not that they're leaning, thinking, they
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: want to in the latest polls. Now, when you want
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: to move to another state, that means that you think
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: other states are more affordable. That proves that this state
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: conclusively is more unaffordable than those other states that people
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: would like to move to, because all states are living
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: under the same national regime, the same federal policies. the
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: same Washington, D.C. policies. The only difference between states is
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: what's homegrown in each state. And if 37 percent of
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: our populace wants to move out, they're moving out because
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: of what's the unaffordability that's been homegrown in this state.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: So that we just discussed. And what I'd like to
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: discuss with Ben now is that which is introducing increased
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: costs that It is actually being caused by Washington. What
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: can be done about that? So, Ben, let me throw that.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: We know that the Iran war.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 6: Before we get there, I want to go back real
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 6: quick to where we were and make sure everybody understands
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 6: one thing. You talked about that 50 percent pay raise
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 6: increase over the last eight years. If I'm not mistaken,
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 6: I know, Red, you follow this very closely, but I
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 6: think the CBAC agreement is up this year. And the
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 6: next governor, whether it's Ned Lamont or Ryan Fazio, is
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 6: going to negotiate the next CBAC agreement, whether it's this
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 6: year or in 2027. And we know that state employees
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 6: are going to be coming in looking for an additional
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 6: pay increase. Question to the people of the state of Connecticut,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 6: knowing that Ned Lamont has already given them a 50
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 6: percent pay raise over the last eight years. Who do
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 6: you think is going to bring a better control over
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 6: state employee pay raises in the next CBAC agreement? Is
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 6: it going to be Ned Lamont and the Democrats or
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 6: Ryan Fossey on the Republicans? That's a question you need
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 6: to ask yourself if you want to try to get
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 6: control over some of the affordability issues in the state
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 6: of Connecticut. I know who it's going to be, in
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 6: my opinion. It's not going to be Ned Lamont because
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 6: he's already said he's going to give away the store
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 6: if he gets reelected. He's already told you that.
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 4: He's going to do that.
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 6: So just throw that out there. But let's get back
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 6: to your new question.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: The new question is.
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: Let's put aside for a moment the real driver of
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: unaffordability in this state, which is homegrown policies. That has
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: to be true if everybody wants to move out and
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: therefore thinks that homegrown policies in other states make those
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: states more affordable. But now let's flip it. We know
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: that the Iran war has increased energy costs across the board.
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: So inflation is reignited Everybody's paying more at the pump.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: That which is being paid by truck drivers at the pump.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: Diesel has more than doubled. In my hometown, diesel is $ 6. 70
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: a gallon. That's more than double what it was before
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: the war. So unarguably, the Iran war has increased costs
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: for everyone. So what could Ned Lamont in this state
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: do about that, actually do, instead of just complaining about it?
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: I'll throw it to you, Ben. What could he do? Ben,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: you there? We seem to have lost Ben. We'll take
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: a quick break and we'll retrieve him.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 23: Slow traffic in New London, I-95 northbound.
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  Speaker 14: Your stop and go in both directions on Route 12
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  Speaker 14: in Groton. Route 32 moving slow northbound at the Coast
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  Speaker 14: slow northbound in Montville.
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  Speaker 23: No delays on I-395. I'm Eddie Schaefer, Time Saver Traffic.
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  Speaker 13: We're back.
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  Speaker 5: This is the ALC show. This is Red Janky.
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 12: I'm going to do away with introductions here. I'm on
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 12: with Ben Proto, chairman of the Connecticut GOP.
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: We were interrupted inexplicably. We lost Ben about five minutes ago.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: He's back. We're going to go back into the conversation.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: We talked in our first segment before the bottom of
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: the hour about homegrown unaffordability in the state of Connecticut.
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: Now we're going to talk about the increase in prices
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: and re-ignition of inflation in that has come out of
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: Washington because of the Iran war, 98%. But things can
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: be done about that here in this state, and I'm
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: going to throw it to Ben to discuss what Ned
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: Lamont could do right now. And what can he do, Ben?
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 6: Look, we know gas prices are up, diesel prices are up.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 6: AND THAT'S CAUSING INCREASED PRICES AT NOT ONLY AT THE PUMP,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 6: BUT ALSO AT THE STORES. SO, you know, again, we
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 6: have among some of the highest gas taxes, diesel taxes
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 6: in the country and mileage taxes. One of the things
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 6: that the governor could do right now, and I would
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 6: love to hear Ryan Fazio say he would do the
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 6: moment he's sworn in on an executive order, is– Remove
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 6: the 25 cent a gallon gasoline tax that we have
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 6: at the pump that we pay. We did that during COVID.
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 6: We got rid of that gas tax, the 25 cents.
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 6: That would reduce gasoline at the pump by 25 cents
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 6: and reduce and eliminate for a period of time the
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 6: tax on diesel fuel, which I believe right now is
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 6: about 50 cents a gallon. that truckers pay. That would
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 6: reduce diesel costs by 50 cents a gallon. Again, it
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 6: doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're pumping, you know,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 6: these trucks are putting 200 or 300 gallons of gasoline
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 6: or diesel fuel into their trucks every time they load up.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 6: It becomes a substantial cost. The other thing that can
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 6: be done is, as many people may know or may
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 6: not know, Ned Lamont and the Democrats, in their infinite wisdom,
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 6: decided that one of the ways to make Connecticut even
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 6: more unaffordable was to impose a truck mileage tax on
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 6: large trucks, and basically any truck weighing 20,000 pounds that
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 6: travels our road, our Class C truck, and those are
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 6: the trucks that deliver goods to Home Depot and Lowe's
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 6: and Walmart and Target and to our supermarkets, which increase
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 6: the cost of those goods significantly. that we go by
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 6: every day. Put that on hold. Get rid of that
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 6: truck mileage tax for a while. Actually, I would love
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 6: to see it repealed entirely to reduce that and make
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 6: that a little more affordable, to reduce the cost of
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 6: the goods that we're buying every day. We do that.
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 6: Some of that, that's That's how you address the issues
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 6: that come out of Washington to the homegrown problems that
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 6: we've created in the state of Connecticut, which have made
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 6: Connecticut more unaffordable. There are things that we can do
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 6: here in Connecticut right now that the governor can do
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 6: by the stroke of a pen to address some of
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 6: the issues that are coming out of Washington. But, again,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 6: chose not to do any of that, sitting back not
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 6: doing anything because, you know, God forbid, you know, we
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 6: only have like I think it's about a $ 2 billion surplus.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 6: You know, he did create, along with the Democrats, the
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 6: half a billion dollar slush fund that they've created. And
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 6: rather than use it to make Connecticut more affordable, they're
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 6: using it for things like illegal immigrant health care, you know,
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 6: things along those lines, so-called free child care. Again, as
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 6: we all know, the Democrats love to put the word
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 6: free in front of things. And folks, if you're not sure,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 6: there is no such thing as free. I would prefer
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 6: if they were at least more honest with people and
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 6: say taxpayer funded things.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Ben, I think let me interrupt and just give
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: emphasis to one thing you just said. The Democrats gave
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: Ned Lamont a half a billion dollars in a special
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: fund that was, according to the Democrats, designed to cushion
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: the impact of policies coming out of Washington. So what
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: better use could be made of that fund, and he
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: can use it with the stroke of his pen. They
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: gave him absolute authority over a half billion dollars. He
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: could suspend all of those energy taxes with the stroke
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: of the pen, and tomorrow all of those taxes would
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: go away. For how long, we don't know, but— Plenty
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: of money available, plenty of executive authority available to Ned
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: to do that immediately. Has he done it? He has
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: done nothing except blame it on Donald Trump, complain about it.
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: He can do these things, and he hasn't.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 39: The reality of.
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 6: The situation, Red, is he does not, and the Democrats
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 6: do not want to help the middle class. Contrary to
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 6: what they say, they do want to help. Here's another
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 6: one for you. How about getting rid of the 1%
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 6: tax you put on prepared food? You know that rotisserie
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 6: chicken you buy at Stop and Shop or Big Y
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 6: or Costco or, you know, BJ's? You know, there's an
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 6: additional 1% on top of the 6.35% that you already
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 6: pay on it. There's an additional 1%. And if you're
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 6: not sure, and I know it kind of sounds like
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 6: we're joking around when we say it, But the prepared
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 6: foods that people buy at the grocery store are often
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 6: bought by elderly people who are buying it. This is
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 6: their meal, maybe in some cases their only meal of
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 6: the day that they're getting. A lot of single moms
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 6: are buying it to feed their kids because they're trying
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 6: to work between jobs to get their kids fed. It's
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 6: a quick and easy way for them to get their
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 6: children fed. So they're paying more. to pay for that.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 6: And in some cases, they're using their EBT cards that
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 6: the state of Connecticut provides them. So think about that.
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 6: The state of Connecticut is giving them an EBT card
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 6: to buy food and then increasing the cost of the
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 6: food that they have to come off their EBT card
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 6: and buy less food with their EBT card. It's an
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 6: absolute joke as to how the state of Connecticut operates
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 6: this system. And it's all the Democrats and then Lamont
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 6: who have done this. They put in place a system
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 6: that simply is broken. It has been broken for years.
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 6: And the very fact that people are thinking about reelecting
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 6: the guy who has created the problem, when we look
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 6: at the polling, it's too expensive. I can't afford to
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 6: be here. I can't afford to pay my bills. Connecticut
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 6: is out of control. I want to get out of here,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 6: but let's reelect the guy who's created the problem. The
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 6: polling is counterintuitive. I don't believe the polling. It's clearly
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 6: not a 20-point race, folks. This is a very close race.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 6: Ryan Fazio can and will be the next governor of
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 6: the state of Connecticut, and I assure you of this.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 6: We elect Ryan Fazio and Matt Corey to the governor
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 6: and lieutenant governor's office. We will see a significant change
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 6: in the state of Connecticut, and that 37% who want
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 6: to leave this state, we will see that number come
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 6: down because we will get common-sense Republican initiatives in the state.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 6: We will see the cost of living come down in
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 6: the state of Connecticut. We will see people take on
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 6: the issues that are actually affecting the people of the
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 6: state of Connecticut, and we will begin to see Connecticut
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 6: become less unaffordable and more affordable to middle-class people.
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 35: In this state.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 6: And that is what we need in this state. If
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 6: we are going to become competitive in this country as
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 6: a state, because we are one of the least competitive states,
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 6: we are one of the most– the most inefficient states
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 6: to start a business, to hire employees, to put people
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 6: to work here. There's a reason why our unemployment rate
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 6: is higher than the national average. Our inflation rate is
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 6: higher than the national average. It is all because of
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 6: Ned Lamont and the Democrats. If you want change, do
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 6: not put the same people back in place. I will
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 6: leave everyone with this. We all know what the definition
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 6: of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over again,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 6: expecting a different result. Re-elect Ned Lamont and the Democrats.
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 6: The result's not going to change. It's going to be
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 6: the same thing, only worse.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: And again, keeping it simple, you, if you are even
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: thinking in your wildest dreams of voting for Ned Lamont,
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: watch to see whether he suspends the gas tax, whether
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: he suspends the diesel tax, whether he suspends the mileage tax.
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: All of those taxes contribute to the current unaffordability.
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 12: All of those.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: Taxes could moderate the increase in energy costs that admittedly
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: come from the Iran war that's come out of Washington,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: but Ned Lamont prefers to complain about it rather than
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: do something about it. If you don't see him do
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: something about it, how can you think he'll do anything
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: about affordability in another four years in office?
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 17: It's a test.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 15: It's just not.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: He can do things now.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 6: If he does not act now, why would you think
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 6: he would act over the next four years? Ain't going
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 6: to happen. He has a half a billion dollars of
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 6: your money that he's unwilling to use to make your
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 6: life better.
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 17: Period.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: Exclamation mark. Pause for sake of emphasis. OK, Ben, it's
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: been a great pleasure to have you on. Thank you
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: so much for laying out the issues in clear and
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: concise and articulate forms. Hopefully listeners have have learned or
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: not learned something new, but had something clarified that has
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: been lurking in their minds. Great stuff, Ben. Thanks for
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: coming on. We've got to go to station break and
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: news and weather and traffic. All that good stuff.
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 6: All the good stuff that radio hosts do. Brad, you
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 6: got a new career for you. Look out, Lee.
• 1:48:08
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• 1:48:10
  Speaker 16: Medicare Open Enrollment is now through December 7th.
• 1:48:17
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  Speaker 7: Just 12 days to go.
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  Speaker 38: I'm Dave Anthony, Fox News, and President Trump will go
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 38: to Iowa ahead of the November elections after rallying Republicans
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 38: last night in South Carolina.
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 31: If the Democrats win, you will have, in my opinion,
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 31: I hope this would be wrong, the 1929 style economic.
• 1:49:24
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  Speaker 38: Though they're campaigning against him amid low Trump approval poll
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  Speaker 7: In Michigan, a debate in a closely watched race.
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  Speaker 11: To go to the United States Senate, we need to know,
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  Speaker 11: groups overseas?
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  Speaker 38: We're Republican Mike Rogers facing off with progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
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• 1:50:03
  Speaker 38: Democrat Sherrod Brown has a five-point lead over Republican Senator
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  Speaker 38: John Husted in a new Fox News poll. In Texas,
• 1:50:09
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  Speaker 38: candidate Ken Paxton and Democrat James Tallarico. Now in Texas also,
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  Speaker 38: that's where Stephen Hubbard wakes up this morning. He was
• 1:50:20
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  Speaker 57: Hours after being released from a Russian prison, the 74-year-old
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  Speaker 7: Fox's Chanley Painter.
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  Speaker 38: Russia launched another deadly attack in Ukraine overnight despite attempts
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  Speaker 5: Now to the Middle East.
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  Speaker 46: Iran says sea mines and overnight military attacks have left
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• 1:50:52
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  Speaker 38: And oil prices, they are up more than 2% this morning.
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  Speaker 12: If you're a senior, November 3rd is about you.
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  Speaker 17: You've paid off your house.
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  Speaker 9: You've raised your kids.
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  Speaker 12: And now the tax bill says you.
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  Speaker 37: Can't afford to stay in the house that you've lived
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  Speaker 37: in for decades. assessments go up fixed incomes don't here's
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 37: my plan if you're 65 or older and living on
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 37: a fixed income.
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 59: You should be able to freeze your property tax bill
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 59: we'll call the program home base and we can pay
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 59: for this by cutting the waste a line by line
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 59: audit of every state agency if it doesn't work it
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 59: gets shut down and the savings go to property tax
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  Speaker 59: people who built it.
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  Speaker 23: I'm Lee Elsie, running for state senate, and freedom has
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  Speaker 34: The cost of living in Connecticut is simply too high.
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  Speaker 34: That's why we need real leaders like State Senator Heather
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  Speaker 34: Summers fighting for hardworking families. Heather Summers stands up to
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  Speaker 34: the broken politics of Hartford and does the hard work
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  Speaker 34: this year. And with Connecticut families straining under out-of-control energy prices,
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  Speaker 34: Heather Summers is fighting to eliminate the public benefits charge
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  Speaker 34: on electric bills. Some candidates talk a big game but
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  Speaker 34: never do the work. Heather Summers shows up every time,
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  Speaker 34: delivering results for eastern Connecticut, challenging the status quo in Hartford,
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  Speaker 8: I'm Heather Summers, candidate for state senate, and I approve
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  Speaker 52: It's October at Wailing City Mazda.
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  Speaker 10: Good morning, I'm Sean Murphy. Gradual clearing today with a
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 10: high in the 60s.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 41: Julio Alessio of Massachusetts faces felony charges for allegedly sexually assaulting.
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 42: A girl under 12 in Norwich.
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 41: The arrest follows a months-long investigation into allegations first reported
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 41: in April 2025. Alessio was released on a.
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 42: $ 200, 000 bond.
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 41: The League of Women Voters will host a debate at
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 41: 6 tonight between 41st District State Representative Andre Bumgardner and
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 41: Republican challenger Taylor Heffel. The debate will take place at
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 41: Thrive 55 Plus in Groton with voters invited to submit
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 41: questions by email. Governor Ed Lamont and Republican challenger Ryan
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 41: Fazio will meet tonight for their first televised debate hosted
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 41: by WFSB and Connecticut Insider. The debate comes less than
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 41: two weeks before Election Day, with voting already underway in Connecticut.
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 41: Fire crews responded to a working structure fire at a
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 41: commercial property on Frontage Road in North Stonington last night.
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 41: Smoke was visible from I-95 near Pendleton Hill Road. Further
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 41: information was not immediately available. A 22-year-old New York man
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 41: was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 44-year-old man during a
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 41: fight on Block Island Thursday night. William O'Brien faces felony
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 41: assault charges after the victim suffered four stab wounds requiring
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 41: 22 stitches. O'Brien was released on $ 10, 000 surety bail.
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 5: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: Good morning. And those of you who have been listening,
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: welcome back. This is the Lee Elsey radio show. I
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: am Red Janky. I'm guest host at Lee's Invitation. Lee
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: is running for office, will be a great representative in Hartford.
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: But during the campaign, he cannot host his show. He's
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: invited a number of great people on. I'm flattered that
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: he included me in that group. I am president of
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: the Townsend Group, which is a business and public policy
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: consulting firm. I am also the founder of The Red Line, the-red-line.com,
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: which I'm also a columnist, and I post my columns
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: there once they've been published elsewhere. And other commentary from
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: around the country that I think is interesting and informative.
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: And speaking of interesting and informative, I have a guest
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: on with me. I'm a guest host, and I have
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: a guest appearing, Greg Stroud, who is the managing editor
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: of The kinetic examiner. I'll have Greg fill in a
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: little bit more about his background and what has motivated
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: him to enter the news business. But I want to
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: say what he has taken on is unusual. And to
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: his great credit, starting a news paper. Online, yes, but
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: starting a newspaper in this day and age is an
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: act of great courage and commitment to public service. We
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: all know that the news business has been clobbered over
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: the last quarter century. All of the local newspapers in Connecticut,
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: the existing legacy in-print newspapers have have been dying out
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: or been acquired by conglomerates. They are no longer the
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: local newspapers that we once knew. So Greg has an
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: interesting model. I'll have him elaborate a bit on that.
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: But without anything more, Greg, tell us a little bit
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: about the decision to go into the newspaper business and
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: how you decided to go about it.
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 17: Well, first, thanks for having me on, Rhett.
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: And my pleasure and honor.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 21: Yeah.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 17: The news business, you know, I started on academics and,
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 17: you know, I have a Ph.D. in history. And, you know,
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 17: like many people in Connecticut, I think we had an
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 17: interest in in politics and policy. And the first thing
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 17: that got me involved was actually high speed rail. And
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 17: it was a giant federal project, you know, aiming for
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 17: a lot of these towns, going through a lot of
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 17: these towns in southeastern Connecticut. And I realized how poorly
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 17: equipped a lot of small volunteer government was to deal
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 17: with a huge once-in-a-lifetime project. And so I got involved.
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 17: I started researching. I started using those PhD skills. to
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 17: make sense of this. And, you know, and I remember,
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 17: you know, I was told there's no way we could
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 17: beat the FRA. And, you know, and we beat them back.
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 17: And we did it through a lot of grassroots activism,
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 17: talking to the press and explaining to the press how
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 17: these things worked. And so part of what I understood
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 17: is that newspapers, that reporters are so They're so stressed,
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 17: they're so stretched that where they get their information is
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 17: part of what determines the news. And so, you know,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 17: there were 270 some odd stories, news stories, all the
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 17: way from The Guardian to The Wall Street Journal to
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 17: The New York Times. How did they get their information
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 17: to report on high-speed rail? Well, I talked to almost
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 17: every single one of those reporters and explained the process.
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 17: And it was unsettling. in terms of the power, essentially,
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 17: behind the scenes. But it also gave me a sense
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 17: of how to go about making something from scratch that
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 17: would work. And that's really the root of CT Examiner,
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 17: that fight with high-speed rail.
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: Very interesting. I'm reading part of what you just said
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: to say that you've prevented Connecticut from what has been
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: a disaster in California, where high-speed rail has been railed
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: to nowhere for billions and billions of dollars, is it not?
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 17: You know, I think rail, it's hard for rail to
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 17: make money, right? And, in fact, Fortress Capital down in
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 17: Florida built high-speed rail, and that just went into bankruptcy recently.
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 17: Fortress Capital, by coincidence, actually is one of the primary
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 17: owners of one of our news outlets, which is the
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 17: Gannett chain and owns the Norwich Bulletin up here. So
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 17: we see it's a tough model. For me, it was
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 17: trying to get planners and bureaucrats and people to take
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 17: seriously local lives. small communities, towns. It's in many ways
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 17: a fight that we see in Connecticut played out in
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 17: so many ways. And it's, you know, it's a long-running problem.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 17: I mean, this is what Kafka wrote about. This is,
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 17: you know, bureaucracies tend to eat people alive. And, you know,
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 17: and so in some ways being an editor is learning
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 17: to be a bureaucracy whisperer in a sense. You understand
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 17: how it works. You understand how to get information from
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 17: it to attack it if necessary, and to work with it.
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: Interesting. Give some emphasis to small town. I see that
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: as a theme here. For the Connecticut Examiner.
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 17: Absolutely. I mean, our idea is that every news story, ultimately,
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 17: if it's important, it impacts you on the local level, right?
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 9: That's where we live.
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 17: We don't live on the federal level.
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 9: We live locally.
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 17: And so our idea is to take those big policies
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 17: that are hatched in Hartford or New York City or
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 17: Washington and see how they play out locally and also
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 17: transmit that information in the other direction so that people
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 17: in Washington, Hartford, that they get a better understanding of
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 17: what their policies are doing or aren't doing. So an
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 17: example would be, what was the One of the biggest
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 17: stories that's happened since we launched in 2019 was police accountability.
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 9: So the news was all over this.
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 17: And then once it passed, no more coverage. Did it work?
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 17: Did it raise prices? Did it drive people, cops, out
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 17: of the business? Did not? Is it actually making policing better?
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 13: No.
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 17: Well, doesn't that deserve as much coverage as passing the legislation?
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 17: And where does that happen? A lot of that happens
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 17: on the local level. And, you know, and we've actually
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 17: had some pretty tough stories about policing. And, but guess what?
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 17: The sources of those stories almost always are actually members
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 17: of the force. They're actually police officers who talk to us.
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 17: In fact, one of the secrets of the, who likes
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 17: to talk to the press more than anyone else Lawyers, cops,
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 17: you know, and firefighters. They're, you know, pinging us about
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 17: all sorts because they know what's going on.
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 17: And so anyhow, that would be an example of taking
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 17: this big policy that may be another newspaper was all
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 17: over until it passed. And so part of what we
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 17: want to do is we want to see is are
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 17: all these laws or all these policies, are they actually
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 17: doing what they claim to be doing? If you pass
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 17: a– right now if you pass a funding stream or
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 17: create a funding stream or a tax or fee for, say,
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 17: environmental cleanups, is that money going– to environmental cleanups? Is
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 17: it going where it's supposed to go? Or is it
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 17: just being used for willy-nilly whatever, donuts at the office?
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, interesting. The police accountability bill, that harkens back
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: to one of the sections of the legacy print media
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: that people used to read religiously almost as the first
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: thing on a daily basis, the police blotter.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 17: You know, we didn't do, I always felt like the
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 17: police blotter, well, one thing I learned is that not
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 17: everyone makes it into the police blotter. And so the
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 17: fairness of that or tearing, you know, it's also, it's
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 17: the realization when you run a newspaper that you have
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 17: incredible power over people's lives and you can really hurt people.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 17: And it's something that I didn't want to do. It's
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 17: balancing that accountability without hunting heads. And actually, one of
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 17: the things we heard from people was how much pain
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 17: the police blotter caused them. It's one of those things, oh,
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 17: you had too many drinks, and next thing you know,
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 17: you're the talk of the town. But it's, yeah.
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: So you're doing an exceptions policy to that. Something has happened.
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: It's egregious. You don't allow that to be swept under
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: the rug.
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 17: I think there's the knowledge that in Connecticut we have
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 17: volunteer government, a lot of volunteers, and it's respecting those people.
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 17: It's trying to help those people. It's trying to work
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 17: for those people. But when they do wrong— And, you know,
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 17: it's holding them accountable. And it's holding them to the law.
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 17: And to me, I have a lot of respect for
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 17: people of both parties and no party that engage in government.
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 17: But you can't hide things when you make mistakes. You know,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 17: you have to you have to correct them. You have
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 17: to own up to them. And everyone makes mistakes.
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: So it's the police blotter in in a photo negative sense.
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: It's you're not putting out a blotter that basically feeds
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: the gossip column, serves as a gossip column. Negative one,
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: to be sure, in a town. But you're not letting
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: someone off the hook. if they should have been genuinely
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: on the police blotter.
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 17: What you realize is that with the decline of newspapers,
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 17: the fact is when we started in 2019, we were teeny.
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 17: The day was huge. We have a bigger newsroom by
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 17: far than the day right now. And what does that mean?
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 17: It means that all these towns, a lot of towns,
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 17: they're not used to having any coverage. They're not used
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 17: to ever having a reporter talk to them And that
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 17: breeds bad habits. And getting that local news, it's essential
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 17: to democracy. And, you know, one of the things, I
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 17: think one of the challenges is why does somebody start
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 17: reading a newspaper? And from my perspective, certainly a local newspaper,
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 17: it's because you get married, you have children, you buy
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 17: a house. And then you start caring about your property taxes.
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 17: You start caring about the schools. You start caring about
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 17: local government. Well, what if we have a whole generation
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 17: that isn't having kids, isn't getting married, and they're not
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 17: buying houses? And then they focus more on the federal level.
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 17: But a lot of the things that really impact your life,
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 17: those are happening in small towns. I think right now
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 17: everyone is focused on These congressional races and these Senate races. But,
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 17: you know, it's probably the races that are in these
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 17: state houses, the state house, the state Senate, the governors.
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 17: Those are the races that most affect people's lives.
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: So you started in southeast Connecticut. Now you've expanded, I know,
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: because you're down in Greenwich and Stanford, my hood, shall
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: we say. Now tell us where you are. Where have
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: you expanded already? Where are you setting your sights to expand?
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: Because if I read you correctly, you want to be
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: the local newspaper in every town in Connecticut.
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 17: You know, absolutely. Statewide. We've expanded from southeastern Connecticut. We're
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 17: based in Old Lyme. And we've expanded pretty much across
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 17: the shoreline, up into, and then the nine, we're sort
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 17: of those 984, these major corridors. Our number one readership
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 17: is actually in New York City. And it's people with
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 17: feet in both states. We cover a lot of things
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 17: like housing and development and government and things that lawyers and.
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 9: Officials are interested in. Why Fairfield County?
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 17: It's sort of like, well, why do you rob banks?
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 17: It's because that's where the money is, and that's where
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 17: the power is in the state. And also what you realize,
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 17: and I really realized when I was working on high-speed rail,
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 17: is that the state does not have... It does not
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 17: have a common conversation. What they're talking about in Fairfield
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 17: County is just entirely disconnected from Hartford or for southeastern Connecticut.
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: I was tempted to interject right before to say that
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: that's an anomaly. All of the money, all the power
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 1: in the state is in Fairfield County. But Fairfield County
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: is in the New York media market. We have no
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: idea what's happening in Hartford unless we read The Connecticut examiner.
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 17: It's it's it's I appreciate that. It's it's it's that's
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 17: if one of our biggest goals is to knit together
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 17: that conversation, because I think it's important for a healthy state,
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 17: for Hartford and Fairfield County to be talking to each
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 17: other and southeastern Connecticut. You know, you wouldn't believe the
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 17: conversations I have in Hartford where they're like, I don't
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 17: get down there very much. You know, it's it's just
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 17: like 30 minutes away. It's this sense of disconnect. Like,
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 17: we could be in West Virginia for a lot of people.
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 17: And I'm not talking about the quiet corner. I'm talking about,
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 17: you know, New London or Stonington or East Lyme. Just,
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 17: you know, regular towns are just disconnected from the conversation.
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We should continue this. When we come back, I
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: want to ask you this, and I'll give you a
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: couple minutes to... while we're on station break, to contemplate.
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: But one of the key areas of news in local
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: newspapers is sports. So give me your take for the
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: Connecticut Examiner on sports when we come back.
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 25: On 94.9 News Now.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 14: Stop and go traffic in New London. I-95 northbound. Road
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  Speaker 15: Route 12 moving slow in both directions in Groton. Route
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  Speaker 15: 32 slow in both directions between the Coast Guard Academy
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  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm State Representative Greg Howard.
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  Speaker 21: For the last six years, I've been your voice in Hartford,
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  Speaker 21: leading with honesty, integrity, and common sense. That's right, common sense.
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  Speaker 21: Just to be photos lost in politics, I continue to
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  Speaker 21: maintain a degree of common sense and the ability to
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  Speaker 21: articulate it in a way to make everybody understand what
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 21: your voice is when it needs to be heard.
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  Speaker 12: Certain things like local control. public safety, and education.
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  Speaker 21: I've been a focal point of my tenure in Hartford,
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  Speaker 21: and I will continue to bring your priorities to our capital.
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  Speaker 5: Are you searching for hope?
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  Speaker 57: For truth, for something more, Arise and Shine Ministries is
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 57: here to share the life-changing message of the gospel of
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  Speaker 57: Jesus Christ with people everywhere. Listen to Arise and Shine
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  Speaker 57: every Sunday at 9 a.m. right here on 94.9. We're
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  Speaker 57: inspiring hearts, strengthening believers, and spreading the light of Christ
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  Speaker 57: across our region. No matter where you are in your journey,
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  Speaker 57: hope is here. Truth is here. Light is here. Arise
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  Speaker 57: and Shine every Sunday at 9 a.m. right here on 94.9
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  Speaker 57: News Now. Leader Furniture and Leader Bedding in Norwich. Warehouse
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  Speaker 1: Their largest sale ever.
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  Speaker 27: Is rocking the block with savings, selection, and crazy pricing.
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  Speaker 27: All living room furniture, including stationary, sectionals, motions, sleepers, accent chairs,
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  Speaker 12: Off by England, a Lazy Boy company, and Ashley.
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  Speaker 27: Save 20% off all recliners, 33% off all mattresses, including
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  Speaker 27: See 20% off all bedroom and dining room furniture. Leader
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  Speaker 27: Furniture in Norwich has the largest selection and lowest prices
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  Speaker 27: on pride power lift chairs starting at just 699 don't
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  Speaker 5: See leader furniture for details.
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 33: Dan's Place in West Greenwich, Rhode Island is an awesome
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 33: barn-style restaurant with a great family atmosphere, offering creative pizzas
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 33: and exciting entrees. And they have an extensive gluten-free menu, too.
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 33: Dan's Place also has a full barn and live music
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 33: every weekend. Famous for their pizza, burgers, wings, seafood, and more.
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 33: Veteran-owned Dan's Place on Victory Highway in West Greenwich, Rhode Island.
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 33: And now open down the street, Tavern on 3. Check
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 33: them both out on Facebook and at DansPizzaPlace.com.
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 12: We are whaling city ford's been around since 1957 and
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 12: gas prices then were 24 cents a gallon well guess
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  Speaker 12: what times are changing so whaling city ford wants to
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• 2:18:50
  Speaker 12: buy any new ford in stock and get a year's
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  Speaker 12: worth of free gas that's like one year's worth of
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  Speaker 12: free gas It's simple, and Whaling City Ford makes it easy.
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  Speaker 12: Either get that amount discounted off the purchase price of MSRP,
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 12: or purchase your new vehicle and walk out with a
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 12: gas card for a value that you won't believe. But
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  Speaker 12: that's not all. Every new Ford also comes backed by
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  Speaker 12: our lifetime powertrain warranty. Don't forget about our huge selection
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  Speaker 12: of your service needs. Whaling City Ford is saving you
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  Speaker 12: a year's worth of gas when you buy MSRP. any
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  Speaker 12: new Ford in stock. 475 Broad Street, New London, Connecticut.
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  Speaker 12: On the corner of Broad and Coleman.
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  Speaker 5: WhalingCityFord.com. Have we met yet?
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  Speaker 12: Highway and City! See dealer for complete details.
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 7: Fox News. I'm CJ Papa.
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 23: President Trump on the stump in South Carolina.
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 31: They're so bad, they don't have a clue.
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 7: Touching on the Democrats handling the U.S.
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 5: Economy, predicting... If.
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 31: The Democrats win, you will have, in my opinion, I
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 31: hope this would be wrong... The 1929-style economic depression that
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 31: everyone dreads.
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 30: The president travels to Iowa today.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 60: We've been noticing that officials here are not specifically tailoring
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 60: the president's script depending on what state he is in. Instead,
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 60: they are going for a one-size-fits-all approach to make these
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 60: midterms about Trump v.
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 17: Everyone else.
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 7: Fox's Peter Giussi of the White House.
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 30: Pope Leo will not need further treatment for lung cancer.
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 30: Vatican reports that cancer has not spread. Great news for
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 30: the 71-year-old first-ever U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church.
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 7: America's listening to Fox News.
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 22: Hello, this is Richard Sosimo from Pasta Vida, the place
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 22: to go for gourmet to go. Chef Lou and I
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 22: started Pasta Vida more than 30 years ago as a
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 22: wholesale pasta factory and have become Connecticut's leading destination for
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 22: gourmet prepared meals. Delicious selections are ready for you to
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 22: simply heat and serve or freeze.
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  Speaker 12: To be used another day.
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  Speaker 22: We're located at 225 Elm Street in Old Saybrook. Find
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 22: our menu online at pastavida.com. There's no place like Pasta Vida.
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 3: At Ascend Bank, they believe business gets done through relationships,
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  Speaker 3: a handshake, a call, a bank that knows you and
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 3: your business. Their bankers work with you to bring the
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  Speaker 3: lending power that gets deals across the finish line without
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  Speaker 3: sending you up the chain or out of state for approval.
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  Speaker 3: Local business experts, real relationships built for your business.
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  Speaker 17: Hi, it's John Mancini.
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  Speaker 34: Ascend Bank has the experts and the lending authority, so
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 34: when your business is ready to move, we're.
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  Speaker 9: Here to help you get it done.
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  Speaker 12: Ascend Bank.
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  Speaker 3: Built for your business and what's next.
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  Speaker 24: Visit ascend.bank.
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  Speaker 10: Member FDIC.
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  Speaker 3: Equal housing lender.
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  Speaker 29: Forget driving ordinary when you can drive a new or
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  Speaker 29: certified pre-owned BMW for much.
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  Speaker 5: Less than you think.
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  Speaker 29: Get behind the wheel of the BMW X3 or the
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  Speaker 29: incredible 3 Series for less than you think. And with 0.9% financing,
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  Speaker 29: drive past the competition and trade up to BMW. BMW
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  Speaker 11: BMW.
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• 2:22:04
  Speaker 56: I guess summer really is over, isn't it?
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 6: True.
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 7: But fall is my favorite.
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 24: Pumpkins, mums, and gourds galore.
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 56: We do also have some beautiful fresh plants to spruce
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 56: up your garden.
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 20: And loads of different pumpkins and decor to make your
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 20: home look so festive. Let's not forget about the fresh
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 20: fall produce that's still coming over from the farm daily.
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 51: And apples, apples, apples.
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 56: So come see us in.
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 24: Niantic, where fall fun is everywhere.
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 56: Fall is fabulous at Smith's Acres.
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 29: Check out smithsacres.com for info, events, and all the season's best.
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 25: One party has held the State House and State Senate.
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 25: This fall, Republicans are trying to pick up seats. Democrats
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 25: are talking a blue wave. Who actually gains power in Hartford? 94.9
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 25: News Now tracks every district, every race, every shift in
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 25: the legislature. The imbalance of power and whether it changes. 94.9
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 25: News Now. Connecticut's election station.
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 13: Good morning. I'm Sean Murphy.
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 10: Gradual clearing today with a high in the 60s.
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 41: Julio Alessio of Massachusetts faces felony charges for allegedly sexually
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 41: assaulting a girl under 12 in Norwich. The arrest follows
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 41: a months-long investigation into allegations first reported in April 2025.
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 41: Alessio was released on a $ 200, 000 bond.
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 5: The League of Women Voters will host.
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 41: A debate at 6 tonight between 41st District State Representative
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 41: Andre Bumgardner and Republican challenger Thaler Heffel. The debate will
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 41: take place at Thrive 55 Plus in Groton with voters
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 41: invited to submit questions by email. UConn's Gampel Pavilion will
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 41: be renamed M & T Bank Center at Gampel Pavilion
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 41: under a multi-year naming rights agreement. Officials say that the
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 41: expanded partnership... We'll support university athletics, academics, and community programs.
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 41: Fire crews responded to a working structure fire at a
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 41: commercial property on Frontage Road in North Stonington last night.
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 41: Smoke was visible from I-95 near Pendleton Hill Road. Further
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 41: information was not immediately available. A 22-year-old New York man
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 41: was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 44-year-old man during a
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 41: fight on Block Island Thursday night. William O'Brien faces felony
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 41: assault charges after the victim suffered four stab wounds requiring
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 41: 22 stitches. O'Brien was released on $ 10, 000 surety bail.
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 5: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break news.
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: All right. We're back on the Lee Elsie show. This
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: is Red Jenke. I'm guest hosting for Lee. It is invitation.
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: I'm president of the Townsend Group, which is a business
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: and public policy consulting firm. just so you know who
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: I am, who's stepping in for Lee, and also a columnist,
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: and I post my columns on the-red-line.com, along with other
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 1: good commentary that I find and have the time to post.
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: I'm here, and that's a good segue to who my
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: guest is, Greg Stroud, who's managing editor of a No
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: longer Startup, but a brand new newspaper that's expanding statewide
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: from a beginning in southeast Connecticut. And we were talking
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: off the air while we were on news break about
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: the state of the news and along a couple of
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: different metrics. And I throw it to Greg to kind
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: of share the beginnings of the conversation we were having
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: about Is all politics local, as according to Tip O'Neill,
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: if anyone is old enough to remember Tip O'Neill, the
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: famous representative in the U.S. House of Representatives back in
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: the President Reagan era. And he's famous for that quote,
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: all politics is local. And now politics is, in many ways,
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: in the Trump era, All nationalized. So where is it?
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: Where is it headed? Is the nationalization of news purely
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: a function of Donald Trump or is it something else
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: going on?
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 17: Well, I'll tell you what. At Connecticut Examiner, local news
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 17: is our bread and butter. So it's taking those sometimes
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 17: it's taking those national issues and playing them out on
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 17: the local level. But, you know, for me, it's I
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 17: think of it as a trust issue. So you read
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 17: the news, and a lot of people don't trust the news,
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 17: and they don't trust reporters, they don't trust their news sources.
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 17: And part of it is because it's all way out
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 17: there in outer space. It's what's happening in Washington or
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 17: in Iran or wherever. But if it's in your own town,
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 17: you have a way to judge it. Is this a
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 17: good news source? Is this a biased news source? Is
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 17: this a bad news source? And so, to me, I
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 17: look at local news as a way... to build trust
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 17: with readers. They can see with their own eyes whether
• 2:27:16
  Speaker 17: we're doing a good job, and they can see, build
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 17: that trust. And then when we talk about something that's
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 17: happening in Washington, or when we're talking about something that's
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 17: happening in Hartford, then I think that trust carries over.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 17: And also, frankly, part of the reason that we got
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 17: into the news business, that I got into the news business,
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 17: wasn't to make money, but to be sustainable, to have
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 17: a sustainable model that we could build and grow. And
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 17: I think that local news– and.
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 9: There just isn't any coverage.
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 17: It's a desert out there. There's most towns– Middletown, I
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 17: don't think Middletown currently– has a reporter covering the entire town. Recently, Stonington,
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 17: here in Southeast, doesn't have a reporter. Fairfield doesn't have
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 17: a reporter. Darien doesn't really have a reporter. There's no.
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 9: Major towns have no local coverage.
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 17: And so that's where the sweet spot.
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 9: That's where we need to be making the news.
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 17: Because if it was just about making money, God, I
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 17: would not be starting a newspaper. You know, it's about...
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 17: The fact is that democracy, healthy democracy, a healthy government
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 17: depends on people knowing what's going on.
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 1: So building from the local level up is the strategic model.
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: That resonates. I hope our listeners absorb that. We do
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: have a caller on the line. We have John from Mystic.
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 39: Yes, hey, good morning. A couple things. First off, I
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 39: am shocked to hear that you're behind the microphone instead
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 39: of on the payroll as a state employee because I
• 2:29:11
  Speaker 39: know you love the benefits of the state employee. However,
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 39: I am calling today. It's great that we have a
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 39: news person with you because I had a reunion with
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 39: a bunch of state employees recently. And we used to
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 39: work together at the prison. And it was interesting to
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 39: learn that there is a program where there is an
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 39: instructor that's going to the facilities, two in particular, one,
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 39: the women's, and two, the other one up in Brooklyn,
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 39: which everybody that's worked for DOC that knows anything about
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 39: it knows that Brooklyn is 75% sex offender residents. Well,
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 39: they are teaching them how to get their CDL. What
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 39: could be better than putting a sex offender over the
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 39: highway and letting them travel interstate? But let's not stop there. Rogowski,
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 39: the old building that was closed over by Route 32,
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 39: one of our illustrious commissioners under the Lamont administration, ordered the...
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 39: maintenance people to go in there and remove all the plumbing,
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 39: all the plumbing from that facility so that it can
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 39: be never used as a jail again, which if you
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 39: don't want to use it as a jail, that's great.
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 39: Pass off the crimes down, whatever. If we all want
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 39: to get ourselves that that scenario has happened, by all means,
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 39: go for it.
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: But Okay, John, I'm going to interrupt here for just
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: a second. This could be a news story that Greg
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: might cover, but what you're talking about is very deep
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 1: in the weeds stuff. You're a former Department of Corrections officer, right?
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 1: You're retired?
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 39: Yes, I retired in 2011.
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, very good. We've got you on the line. We've
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: been talking a lot about state employees with prior guests.
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: We're now talking the news media, and how do you
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: feel the news media is covering the Department of Corrections?
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 1: Give us 25 words, and then I'm going to throw
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: it back to Greg Straub.
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 26: Okay.
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 39: Well, I want to say that this is the first
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 39: time you're hearing about the CDL class and the ripping
• 2:31:35
  Speaker 39: of the pipes out of that facility. So I don't know.
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 39: How do you guys think you're doing on reporting that stuff?
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 17: I'll tell you what.
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 34: DOC.
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 17: Is one of the hardest beats. It's one of the
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 17: hardest things to cover, in part because, you know, we
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 17: actually have been up in Hartford, not just in the
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 17: Freedom of Information Commission, where we were just fighting DOC,
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 17: but we were also in court trying to get the
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 17: right to view video coverage of, in that case, of
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 17: deaths in the corrections. it's enormously hard to file and
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 17: get any information out of DOC. Basically, they tell us
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 17: if the information gets out, it risks the safety or
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 17: the security of the systems. And my sense is that
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 17: the more freedom of information exemptions, the more privacy exemptions, uh, a, uh,
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 17: exemptions an agency has, the, the worse functioning it is. And,
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 17: and I look at, uh, you know, and so for me,
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 17: I depend on, uh, people like you. I depend on, uh,
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 17: correction officers and people that are inside to give us
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 17: the information, whether it's doctors, certainly we, we hear from, uh, uh, uh,
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 17: doctors that are, um, at the women's facility. And, you know,
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 17: so I'm happy to follow up on those.
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: I think that Greg has done a good job of
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 1: covering those issues. Certainly the cases that he's covered have
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 1: not been allowed to have been swept under the rug.
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: And that's the journalism challenge.
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 17: It's a fight. And, you know, and for me, it's
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 17: every time I request a document the official way, It's
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 17: going to take me a year, and it will often
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 17: take me multiple hearings to get that document. If somebody
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 17: on the inside talks to me and gives me the information,
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 17: we build that trust, then that's the way to get
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 17: things done. And, you know, anyone out there, I've actually
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 17: got somebody right now I'm talking to at DOC. But
• 2:33:56
  Speaker 17: if anyone out there, just write to editor at ctexaminer.com,
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 17: you know, and it's confidential. And I'll talk to you
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 17: and I'll take you seriously.
• 2:34:07
  Speaker 1: You've got on your homepage somewhere, send us a tip.
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 17: You got it.
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 38: Yep.
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: So go to the homepage of the Connecticut Examiner and
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: email a tip in anonymously, and Greg commits to cover it.
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 17: I follow up. I follow up.
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: So this just generally is background. We're going to take
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 1: another call here, but this is illustrative of the fact
• 2:34:29
  Speaker 1: that Greg is not just small town Connecticut, town by town.
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: Good coverage in Hartford as well. So we've got a
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 1: call from Jan in East Line.
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 8: Good morning. I wanted to make a comment about the
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 8: focus on news has become national. And as a historian,
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 8: we look at the growth of towns over centuries. And
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 8: your freedom and your voice, your voice comes from local
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 8: government that flows like a bunch of small rivers that
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 8: flow up and should affect the government at the top.
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 8: But right now, that's not entirely happening. So, Greg, I
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 8: congratulate you. I do look at the Connecticut Examiner and
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 8: congratulate you. And I've gone to hear you speak on
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 8: what you're doing to promote all sorts of avenues to information.
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 8: But it's discouraging to me when I go to town meetings,
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 8: and they'll say, okay, we've got a big crowd here tonight,
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 8: and so we're going to let you speak. I mean,
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 8: the meeting's fine, but the big crowd to them is
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 8: 10 people. Nobody goes to the meetings where they're deciding
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 8: issues that are important to the town, but everyone's busy fighting.
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 8: You know, lots of people are busy fighting about national politics.
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 17: Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people feel
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 17: disempowered and they don't feel heard. I don't think when
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 17: I talk to readers, a lot of times it's like
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 17: they don't necessarily want to need to win every political issue,
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 17: but they do feel the need to be heard and respected.
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 17: And they feel like, well, they feel it's all out
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 17: of control. And really, the way that a lot of
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 17: people can affect, most affect, change, better government, help people's lives,
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 17: change people's lives, is at the local level. And it's
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 17: where lives are won and destroyed often. And, you know,
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 17: it's schools. It's policing. It's good government. you know, everything
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 17: that affects people's quality of life. And I appreciate that, Jen. And,
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 17: you know, a lot of times these hearings, I think
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 17: people say, well, why do we need a newspaper? I'll
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 17: research it myself. And it's the need for that context
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 17: or having a reporter that'll sit there for four hours
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 17: and go to these meetings at night. And they're doing
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 17: the work for you. And in that case, we'll do
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 17: that work for you. Really, for pennies a day. I mean,
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 17: that's the cost of somebody there looking out for you.
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 17: And we're small in that. that we can't do every
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 17: town we can't do every issue but what we pride
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 17: ourselves in is when something important is happening in east
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 17: lime or greenwich we'll come in we know what's going
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 17: on and we'll we'll do the hard coverage and we
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 17: when we don't take sides You know, we take sides
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 17: for good government.
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 8: Well, and I think I hear that occasionally from people, too.
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 8: I do my own research, which, you know, for me,
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 8: why did I spend all those years learning that my
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 8: tutors knew how to do research? Some people really are
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 8: pretty good at it, but most people look at what
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 8: their algorithm gives them. And so they might look at
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 8: several sources, but it's already sources that they believe in
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 8: or that has a point of view. Or even, and
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 8: this is a question I have with newspapers that are online,
• 2:38:30
  Speaker 8: you know, that have just the e-version. Are you giving,
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 8: do people have an algorithm where they're getting fed what
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 8: they want to hear? Or are they, how do you
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 8: keep it broader? How do you keep the information in
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 8: front of people? Because if you have a paper newspaper,
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 8: you open up and you see an article. You may
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 8: not necessarily want to know about it here, but there
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 8: it is in front of you. How do you address
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 8: that when you have an online version?
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 17: You know, I think that's a great point. When you
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 17: read a paper copy of a newspaper, the one advantage
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 17: is you see things and you read things you wouldn't
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 17: otherwise read. You flip through and you just read that
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 17: last story that happens to be in the real estate
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 17: section that you'd never search for online. And these news
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 17: bubbles and getting into these news bubbles is clearly a problem.
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 17: It's something that I feel. I feel it right now.
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 17: I can tell you my entire coverage, my access to
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 17: readers is being radically changed on social media around the
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 17: elections and And in fact, and it's a challenge, you know,
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 17: you feel yourself in the news business, you feel yourself
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 17: almost in the Petri dish where Meta and these larger
• 2:39:48
  Speaker 17: companies are sort of putting in things into the Petri
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 17: dish and changing how our business model works day to day.
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 17: And we have no control of it. What I do
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 17: tell people is, is that if we're not offending you
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 17: 20 percent of the time, then we're probably not doing
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 17: our job. And we try to keep it civil, but,
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 17: you know, it's trying to break out of that bubble.
• 2:40:11
  Speaker 17: And it's a tough one. You know, online, there's no doubt, Google,
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 17: the social media, they feed you what they think you'll,
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 17: not necessarily what you like, but what you'll interact with
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 17: the most. Right. And for me, sometimes it's the truth.
• 2:40:27
  Speaker 8: I think a lot of it ends up focusing on
• 2:40:30
  Speaker 8: the emotion as opposed to the fact.
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 8: And these are bigger things. societal issues that this is
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 8: a more focused example of. But this is true in
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 8: all of our society. Or the social media post that
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 8: has a million exclamation points, it shows you the horrors
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 8: of the party, the person, the subject you dislike. And again,
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 8: it brings out the emotion.
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 17: As opposed to the facts. Every so often I think
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 17: I could weed out a certain number of just trolls
• 2:41:16
  Speaker 17: that are in social media posts, but if I did that,
• 2:41:19
  Speaker 17: I might improve the conversation, but meta would not show
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 17: that conversation to anyone, because the trolls are what feed
• 2:41:29
  Speaker 17: the whole thing. I mean, because those are the people,
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 17: it's the emotion, the sort of manic obsession with interacting
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 17: with their digital platform. So it's a problem.
• 2:41:42
  Speaker 8: I think people have been taught to look at the emotion.
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 8: When I was still teaching at the university, the students
• 2:41:47
  Speaker 8: would say, this is how I feel. And I go, well,
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 8: that's fine, but we're going to look at facts and
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 8: I want you to analyze them. It's not about how
• 2:41:56
  Speaker 8: you feel about this historical process. It's how you watch
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 8: it unfolding and you analyze it. Your feelings about it
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 8: is not what we're here to talk about. And unfortunately,
• 2:42:10
  Speaker 8: a lot of the schools do have them talking about
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 8: their feelings, which I feel is intrusive and uncalled for.
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. This is Red
• 2:42:22
  Speaker 1: Janky talking. I think Greg is doing a good job
• 2:42:26
  Speaker 1: with that. When you cover and you cover dispassionately, and
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: present the facts, that's exactly what you're talking about, and
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: I think that's part of Greg's strategy. We have another call.
• 2:42:39
  Speaker 1: If we can thank you for yours and move on,
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: we'll do that if that's okay.
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 4: Hey, good morning. Thanks, you guys, for being on there.
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 4: I'm glad you brought up the rail issue because I
• 2:42:52
  Speaker 4: think it's just one of probably the 11,000 issues where
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 4: the government gets involved, and it just becomes a giant
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 4: flush issue. grift. And, you know, to Jan's point, that
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 4: if two plus two turns out to be five, how
• 2:43:09
  Speaker 4: does that make you feel? That's the kind of math
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 4: they're using in the Congress and the Senate to take
• 2:43:16
  Speaker 4: enormous amounts of money from the people. I mean, I
• 2:43:19
  Speaker 4: can't understand how in the six out of every $ 8
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 4: they spend is, is not somehow a newsworthy thing. It just,
• 2:43:33
  Speaker 4: it just shocking to me that, that that could go by.
• 2:43:36
  Speaker 4: Do you think that that has something to do with
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 4: corporate ownership of a lot of the news outlets? The
• 2:43:42
  Speaker 4: fact that nobody can say anything about the, uh, you know,
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 4: you can't go too far this way or too far
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 4: that way without treading on a sponsor.
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 17: You know, certainly, um, certainly I think that there's this
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 17: idea that if you've gotten free news, if you can't
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 17: figure out what they're selling, it's you. Propaganda. But I'll
• 2:44:11
  Speaker 17: say it's enormously hard right now to get anything out
• 2:44:15
  Speaker 17: of government. I mean, prying it out with getting the documents,
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 17: certainly Red does this all the time, even with you know,
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 17: spreadsheets and figures, it's a task. And, you know, when
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 17: in 2005, roughly, the Hartford Courant had about 250 reporters,
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 17: and now they have, what, a little bit over a dozen,
• 2:44:44
  Speaker 17: you know, maybe. And, you know, the press is in
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 17: some ways overmatched. And I don't know, I sort of,
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 17: I've come to respect a lot of things being on
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 17: the inside now, a lot of things about journalists. If
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 17: there's problems, sometimes it comes down to corporate and editors
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 17: that push them in the wrong direction or are fearful.
• 2:45:09
  Speaker 17: One of the things that I know we brought in
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 17: reporters from some of the bigger outlets, and they said
• 2:45:15
  Speaker 17: one thing they liked is we didn't run everything by
• 2:45:18
  Speaker 17: the lawyers.
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 9: Ahead of time.
• 2:45:21
  Speaker 17: And it's the fear of advertisers, the fear of lawyers
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 17: is something that it just doesn't really.
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 9: Occur to us.
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 17: We're pretty tough in that regard. I am, you know,
• 2:45:34
  Speaker 17: being owning CT Examiner. You know, we haven't been sued yet.
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 17: So we'll see.
• 2:45:42
  Speaker 13: Yeah, I don't know.
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 1: Probably will be sued at some point. Someone's going to
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: come after you. We're in a litigious society. Thank you, Dan.
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your phoning in. We're going to wind down here.
• 2:45:56
  Speaker 1: I do want to kind of sum up here that
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 1: there's a newspaper. There's a new newspaper in town, not sheriff,
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: but in some ways sheriff, because the function of a
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: newspaper is to keep people honest. So there's a new
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 1: newspaper in town across the state. It's the Connecticut Examiner
• 2:46:18
  Speaker 1: with a model of reporting the news from the ground up.
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 1: That will build trust because, as Greg said.
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 12: Earlier, the news.
• 2:46:30
  Speaker 1: If it's about your hometown, you know what it's reporting on.
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 1: You can tell whether that news reportage is accurate or not.
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 17: And no place more than in Connecticut where, I mean,
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 17: with property taxes, with the cost of schooling, so much
• 2:46:51
  Speaker 17: of where your dollars go is it happens as determined
• 2:46:55
  Speaker 17: on the local level. And so making sure that that's
• 2:46:58
  Speaker 17: done right. I mean, one of the things it's you know,
• 2:47:01
  Speaker 17: I tell my reporters, you know, I come from an
• 2:47:04
  Speaker 17: academic background. I come from schooling. I believe in schooling.
• 2:47:08
  Speaker 17: But I always tell my reporters, remember that schooling and
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 17: education is an industry in Connecticut. That's 60 percent of
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 17: roughly 60 percent of your local dollars. And taking a
• 2:47:20
  Speaker 17: hard look and making sure that things like that are
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 17: done right while still, you know, we're not tearing things down.
• 2:47:26
  Speaker 17: We're building them up, but trying to build them, build
• 2:47:29
  Speaker 17: them in the right way.
• 2:47:30
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, listen, I think we're done for the morning.
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 1: I would thank Lee Elsie for inviting me to step
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: into his shoes for one morning. This morning, he's running
• 2:47:42
  Speaker 1: for office. We wish him good luck and have a
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 1: great experience. He'll be back once the campaign is over.
• 2:47:52
  Speaker 1: Until then, this is Red Janky signing off as his
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 1: stand-in guest host. Have a good day, folks.