Candidates Talk Economic Development

As the campaign for the Democratic Mayoral nomination proceeds, candidates are talking about issues facing the city, including economic development.

As part of her Virtual Listening Tour Delandro says that, “I met with business owners to learn more about how they were working to support their employees during the pandemic and maintain their operations. Many of them also shared the need for additional resources to assist them in the midst of a pandemic.”

Delandro’s campaign says that she wants, “to dissect the implications of our current tax base while using the network of businesses to help recruit and retain businesses,” establish, “a city-wide business council to provide support and mentorship, as well as ensure the sustainability of small businesses in our city,” and form, “partnerships with local companies to aid with investing in educating employees and offering to pay some or all their college tuition.”

Delandro’s campaign says that she plans to support, “developments of neighborhoods into small business hubs, in efforts to attract investment into existing small businesses and spur additional investment into the local area,” and establish, “an Economic Opportunity and Workforce Equity subcommittee to identify barriers that disproportionately impact marginalized populations.”

Democratic Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25) has focused reversing inequities in current city hall policies and investing in education.

“Our current leadership has failed our future,” Rep. Sanchez has said, discussing underfunding by the city of education and the economic impact of that on the city’s future, as well as budgets balanced by borrowing that, “kick the can to the next generation to deal with,” and an “abysmal” city response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Sanchez has said that, “many of our neighborhoods have been ignored. And I am here to bring equity back to New Britain.”

“I am running for you,” Rep. Sanchez said, “for everyone in these neighborhoods that have been forgotten for decades. I am running for Mayor, for our taxpayers, who need to not face the future’s financial burdens due to irresponsible debt refinancing.”

Community activist and Democratic Mayoral candidate Alicia Hernandez Strong says, on her campaign website that, “Economic development must be done with working class people in mind. That means prioritizing affordable housing and cultivating local entrepreneurs.”

“For too long,” Strong says, “City Hall has focused on trying to attract wealthy people & businesses through wasteful spending on downtown aesthetics and costly tax breaks to developers. Meanwhile, New Britain’s working families are paying unreasonably high taxes without seeing any return.”

The three Democratic candidates for Mayor have been invited to a debate on the issues in the city, hosted by the New Britain Progressive, to be broadcast live at newbritainindependent.com on Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 10:00am.