Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, left, and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton wave to the crowd while walking in the Danbury Memorial Day parade on Main Street in Danbury, Conn. on Monday, May 27, 2013. The parade began at Rose Street and Main Street, finishing at Rogers Park, where skydivers dropped onto the field at Rogers Park Middle School. The parade was followed by a memorial service at the Rogers Park Rose Memorial Garden.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
That’s the message coming from Democratic surrogates of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
And it’s being directed toward Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a Republican who Wednesday filed exploratory papers for a potential run for governor in 2014.
Democrats say that Boughton owes his record of low unemployment and higher-than-average quality of life in his city to a healthy infusion of state aid during Malloy’s tenure.
“His city has benefited from this administration that the mayor has criticized,” former Malloy adviser Roy Occhiogrosso told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
State Democratic Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo Tweeted that Boughton has “got a strange way of saying ‘thank you,’ and noted that Danbury is on pace to receive $13.6 million more in educational funding from the state since Malloy assumed office in 2011.
Boughton responded that New Britain received $50 million more in state education aid than Danbury and has fewer students and overall population than Danbury.
“I think the best way you can look at it is to say that Danbury has historically been underfunded by the state of Connecticut,” Boughton told Hearst. “Governor Malloy has not really helped in any substantive way.”
Boughton went on to say that Danbury, home to New England’s largest shopping mall, multiple big box stores and the Federal Road business corridor, sends more sales tax revenue to the state than any other city in Connecticut.
“The money we get back is an insult compared to what we send up to Hartford,” Boughton said.