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Not Buying It

In the Sept. 6 letter “People Want Change,” Democratic Town Committee Chair Noreen Clough attempted to defend Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Maltese and her party’s past fiscal blunders and asked for proof of the three deficits that were run between 2007 and 2010 “at the hand of the Democrats.”

Page 25 of the official 2007-2008 town audit confirms a deficit of $3.7 million. Page 19 of the official 2008-2009 town audit confirms a deficit of $3.7 million. Page 16 of the 2009-2010 audit confirms a $2.8 million fund balance deficit. These audits are available right in the Town Clerk’s office. Ms. Clough was a member of the Board of Finance for all of these years and it’s astonishing she would conveniently forget these figures.

Now, Sal Maltese has adopted the same fiscally irresponsible team that nearly bankrupted the town and is betting on people forgetting those deficits and the crippling 17 percent tax hike that it enacted to dig out of the hole it created.

Contrary to Ms. Clough’s criticisms of about the town’s “poor image and condition,” Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., has invested more than $5 million into infrastructure over the past two years alone, while reducing our debt to a modern low.

Ms. Clough conveniently forgets this as well, even though she voted on those two infrastructure packages as a member of the Board of Finance.

We’ve seen the brand of change Mr. Maltese is promising and that Ms. Clough is trying to sell to the voters. I’m not buying it, and the voters shouldn’t either.

Robert Parente

East Haven

Republican Town Committee Chair Robert Parente is seeking re-election to the Town Council representing District 1.