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Himes, Debicella Talk Jobs, Education In Final Debate

NORWALK, Conn. – The candidates for Fairfield County’s Fourth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives talked about creating jobs and education in their final debate in Norwalk on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Congressional candidates Dan Debicella and Jim Himes meet in their final debate at the Norwalk Inn.

Congressional candidates Dan Debicella and Jim Himes meet in their final debate at the Norwalk Inn.

Photo Credit: Casey Donahue

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat, is seeking re-election and his Republican challenger is Dan Debicella.

They met in a debate at the Norwalk Inn hosted by the Norwalk and Stamford Chambers of Commerce, the Business Council of Fairfield County, the Bridgeport Regional Business Council and Cablevision.

The debate was moderated by Tom Appleby of New12 and featured questions by journalists from the Hour, Hearst Newspapers and the Fairfield County Business Journal.

On the issue of the economy, both said they were in favor of raising the minimum wage. Himes said that the best way to improve the economy was through investment in transportation infrastructure. Debicella said the government needs to get rid of loopholes in the tax structure and lower tax rates for the middle class and small businesses.

When asked about income disparity in Fairfield County, both said more needs to be done to help those struggling in cities.

“It’s something we all feel in Fairfield County as we travel from the communities of affluence – Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien – and just 25 miles down the road of course you’ve got a city like Bridgeport, where an awful lot of people are living below the poverty line,” Himes said.

“We need to fix the failing schools that are unfortunately keeping our young people in communities of need, that are not offering them the kind of opportunity to live the American Dream,” Himes said. “We ought to try to restructure our tax code and the subsidies we give as a government to actually help those people who need help and who are struggling today.”

“This is an area where we have to stop talking about income inequality and start talking about social mobility,” Debicella said. “We should be talking about the fact that, it doesn’t matter if you were born in Bridgeport or Greenwich, we need to have the same opportunities.”

Debicella outlined his plan to help cities by creating enterprise zones where businesses don’t pay federal or state income taxes, and their local property tax is paid for by the federal government.

When asked about education and Common Core, Himes said, “Common Core, unfortunately, I think has been subject to a spectacularly botched rollout.”

He said the basic ideas of standardized curriculum was a good one, as it will help create jobs in the future and make sure that American students can compete on a global market.

Debicella said that federal mandates like No Child Left Behind and Common Core have hurt schools.

“The people who will come up with the innovative solutions are our teachers, our local boards of education, our parents and PTAs, and we have to give them the flexibility to experiment, the flexibility to try new things,” Debicella said.

The candidates were asked about forgivable loans and deals with companies like UBS, which is considering leaving Stamford. Debicella said he was against these kinds of deals with large companies.

“These deals have been the cornerstone of the Malloy-Himes plan for jobs here in Connecticut, and they’ve failed,” Debicella said. “We should not be giving out sweetheart deals to individuals companies to get them to stay here. Use that money to lower the tax rate on all small businesses.”

Himes said that while states competing to offer the best subsidies was a “race to the bottom,” there are still successful companies in the state and it would not be good to stop those kinds of deals altogether.

“You’d rather have NBC Universal, you’d rather have Blue Sky Studios in the area than not have them,” Himes said. “I’m not sure the answer is to unilaterally disarm when New York is offering very, very aggressive subsidies.”

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