This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/10/2018 08:00 AMAs a small business owner and an active member of the shoreline community, Christine Cohen says she has the real-life experience and commitment to be a positive voice for all those who live in the 12th District as their next state senator.
Cohen will face off against Republican Adam Greenberg at the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 6 in what is likely to be an exciting race after current District 12 State Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D) announced early this year that he would not seek re-election.
Cohen moved to Connecticut when she was a child and then moved to the shoreline with her husband back in 2001. As a business major, she worked for Stanley Black & Decker for years. She and her husband opened their own business, Cohen’s Bagel Company, in 2003.
“We brainstormed and then thought, ‘Well there’s a really good market for this and let’s become entrepreneurs,’” she said. “My husband has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and I thought this was a really great idea, so together we decided we move forward with it.”
Now settled in Guilford with her husband and three kids, Cohen has volunteered for numerous organizations, both through her business and independently, and is a current member of the Guilford Board of Education (BOE). She said several things encouraged her to run for the State Senate seat, including a desire to serve and her firsthand knowledge of what state education funding can do to a town budget, but she said her knowledge of big and small businesses in this state position her to be an effective voice for the district up in Hartford.
“I was reading articles about how we are the fifth worst state to do business in and thinking to myself, ‘Well I know why that’s true,’” she said. “I can add to that conversation and I know what businesses want. Both my perspective as a big business employee as well as a small business owner have lent to just this knowledge of what I believe we could do as a state to help remove a lot of barriers to entry.”
Supporting Business
As a small business owner, Cohen said she understands the struggles so many face before they can even open the door to their business. She said there are a couple of taxes and fees that could be eliminated to make things easier for business owners and without damaging state revenue.
“One thing that a lot of small businesses talk about is the Business Entity Tax. It’s just one of those fees that no matter the size of the business, it’s...really unnecessary and so I would like to see that eliminated,” she said. “I think ultimately we need to remove some of the red tape to really allow businesses to come to this state and enable them to thrive.”
Cohen said another key part of supporting businesses is finding a way to support the employees. She said at Cohen’s, she had tried for years to provide health benefits to her employees, but continuing cost hikes finally made it impossible. She said at the end of the day, if businesses can offer those types of services to their employees, those employees are more likely to stay.
“When you can provide insurance to your employees, they can maintain their health and you can just go on and on about the benefits of that,” she said. “Not only does it have a big impact on business, but it has an impact on every individual. It’s something we need to have a conversation about…There are solutions that don’t require changing federal law that could have meaningful impact on the small business community, thereby enticing more small businesses into the state because then suddenly we become a state where this is feasible.”
Education
As a member of the Guilford BOE, Cohen said she has seen firsthand how municipalities have to scramble when various state education funding doesn’t come in at expected levels or is suddenly cut mid-year. She said the current instability in education funding harms both students and taxpayers.
“Not having answers and not knowing were we would net out and seeing what the ramifications of that might be really led me to think that we need people [who] understand those ramifications,” she said. “I mean, we are talking about either not providing programming that can be really beneficial or providing those programs, but seeing a tax burden that might be too much to bear for the community. Ultimately what that does is it either lowers the quality of the school district, thereby driving people out of the state and the district, or it drives people out of the state and the district and lowers enrollment because the tax burden is too heavy to bare…It’s important to have someone with the knowledge base who can go up there and speak to the importance of maintaining some stability.”
Pensions
The pension systems in the state, for both state employees and teachers, have been underfunded for decades. As legislators have come to terms with the sheer size of the unfunded liability of the past few sessions, various ideas have been thrown out to try to shrink the size of the issue. Cohen said some good steps have already been taken to try to address the unfunded liability.
“Leveling out payments has been tremendously helpful,” she said. “Doing that in conjunction with the agreements and really working with that I think we’re going to recognize some significant savings.”
However, Cohen said some changes need to be made to make the pensions sustainable in the coming years.
“We have to really dig in and see what we can do and that just goes back to good decisions,” she said. “To me, are there cuts to be had? Absolutely we need to peel back the layers of the onion, really get in there, and figure out what we can do to affect some spending change.”
Transportation
Highways, bridges, and train lines are a statewide concern as roads deteriorate, bridges are getting lower safety ratings, and trains like Shore Line East have borne the brunt of significant funding cuts. Cohen said when it comes to transportation, people need consistency and government needs to be investing money in the right areas.
“I talked to someone who was at Electric Boat and they said, ‘Oh it’s so great we created all these jobs at Electric Boat and there is a rail line that goes on to Groton, but we cut it so now it stops in New London’,” she said. “We’ve created all these jobs, but we’ve eliminated an employee’s ability to get all the way up there by rail. Here’s a company that is offering thousands of jobs and has committed to doing so and we are making it difficult for them to get employees there. It’s really about looking at it in a smart way.”
Funding any sort of transportation repairs or improvements has been a hot-button issue up in Hartford. The Special Transportation Fund (STF), which funds transportation projects, has only a few years left before the well runs dry. Tolls have been widely debated as a way to fund the STF and Cohen said she supports tolls. She said it is unfortunate tolls have been turned into such a partisan issue, hindering productive discussions.
“I think we need to pay special attention to ensuring that Connecticut residents received an EZ Pass that is Connecticut-issued [and] that has discounts,” she said. “I think we need to look at tax credits for people who are commuting and look at lowering the gas tax, so there are a lot of ways to alleviate the burden Connecticut residents might feel as a result of tolls. When I’m out at the doors, most people I talk to are in favor of tolls and if they’re not or they’re not sure yet, when we talk about revenue [and] what this could mean to the state, hearing that approximately 40 percent of drivers are out-of-state drivers using our roadways, and that we are really the only state that doesn’t have tolls in the region—all of that make sense to people.”
Environment
The 12th District is known for its open space, beaches, trails, rivers, and any number of other environmental assets. Cohen said if elected, she would like to sit on the Environment Committee to not only protect the natural resources of the area, but also help residents and businesses be environmentally conscious as well.
“Climate change is real and we have to lead by example and be a state that is at the forefront,” she said. “It’s very important to me from a business perspective…We just switched to paper straws at our business and the cost of that is astronomical to buy paper straws…We need to be encouraging businesses to be green and there is programming we can put in place as a state to do that.”
Additionally, Cohen said protecting the region’s environmental assets goes hand in hand with promoting those assets. She said she was working late one night and was suddenly drawn to an ad on the TV highlighting the land, rivers, and lakes of what turned out to be Michigan.
“We need to be doing something like that, because all they are doing is advertising their environment and it’s just gorgeous and you think, ‘Oh well you need to go visit there,’” she said. “We need something like that and we need a better plan around tourism, because people come here to visit and then they want to stay.”