| Tom Foley, the GOP gubernatorial candidate and Dannel Malloy, his Democratic counterpart, continue to exchange body blow on the air and in their news releases. Here’s Foley’s latest from Thursday night, followed by Malloy’s counter punch from Friday morning.From Foley: |
“Dannel Malloy has never seen a tax hike he didn’t like.
In Thursday’s New Haven Register, Malloy said he is in favor of providing cities and towns the ability to charge sales taxes and other levies as a means to raise revenue. He would not however, be willing to trade more revenue flexibility at the local level for less state aid. He wants you to pay twice.
Under Dannel Malloy taxes would go up at the state and local level.
“Tom Foley believes we can balance the state budget without raising new taxes. Dannel Malloy has already ruled that out by acknowledging he would raise the sales tax and that everything must be on the table – code for raising the income tax rate,” said Justin Clark, Tom Foley’s campaign manager.
“Today Dannel Malloy has taken things one step further by advocating for higher taxes at the local level without a simultaneous decrease in state aid. So what’s the plan, Dan? Whose taxes are you going to raise and by how much? An increase in the state sales tax and introduction of local sales taxes will fall hardest on middle class families. When are you going to come clean and tell voters how much more you will have them pay in taxes?”
Dannel Malloy’s tax, borrow, and spend policies while mayor of Stamford resulted in property taxes rising 80%, unemployment going up 50%, and over 13,000 jobs being lost since 2000. Every flawed budget decision made at the state level in the last decade was repeated by Dan Malloy in Stamford with the same results. This is not the change we need.”
Here’s Malloy’s release:
“‘Dan Kelly, Campaign Manager for the Dan Malloy for Governor Campaign, today released the following statement:
“Today, the differences between Dan Malloy and Tom Foley – in their character, the types of campaigns they’re running, and the kind of governors they’d be – were made crystal clear. Both campaigns put up new TV ads, and they couldn’t be more different. Just days after claiming he wanted to run a campaign free of negative ads, Tom has once again gone back on his word with misleading attacks he knows are untrue. I wish I could say we’re surprised.
“Our campaign created a 60-second ad that began airing across the state this morning, focused on one very clear thing: telling voters about Dan Malloy’s remarkable record in Stamford, and explaining how will bring that same energy and success to the rest of Connecticut. Successes like bringing thousands of new jobs to the city, reducing the size of city government in a responsible way, lowering crime by 63%, and creating the state’s first universal pre-Kindergarten program.
“Tom Foley doesn’t have that kind of record to run on. His experience lies in buying companies, driving them into the ground, laying people off and destroying their lives, all while paying himself tens of millions of dollars. And when it comes to his ideas for Connecticut, it’s a mix of four-sentence plans, empty promises, and a commitment to using the same failed economic policies of the Bush era.
“So, instead of talking about his record or his plans, he does what desperate candidates do – he lies and he attacks, trotting out the same old false and misleading claims about Dan’s record that voters know just aren’t true. We don’t think voters are buying what Tom Foley is selling.'”