The Milford-Orange Times is continuing its election-year tradition of asking the candidates to respond to questions about what they would do for the residents of Milford and Orange if voters elect them. This special section features the responses from the candidates. Election Day is Nov. 8.
James Maroney is the incumbent Democratic state senator for District 14.
Question: What do you think the greatest challenges for the district will be in the next two years, and how will you help address them?
James Maroney
Workforce shortages are one of the most pressing issues facing our state’s economy. According to the US Department of Labor, Connecticut had 114,000 job openings at the end of September. From teachers to police officers, to firefighters, to restaurant workers, and more, it seems that we cannot hire enough workers. Like many issues facing our state and country, it is a complex issue with many consequences. The lack of an adequate workforce impacts health care, supply chain, public safety and more. Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to this issue.
Over the past couple of years, much has been made of student loan debt. In my first session in the Connecticut legislature, I worked with my colleagues to pass a tax credit for companies that helped pay off their employees’ student loans, to give companies a tool to help recruit new workers. In the past session, I worked with my colleagues to get $1 million for student loan forgiveness for police officers, to help with recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers.
If I am fortunate enough to be reelected and continue with the honor of representing our community, I intend to work on two more issues that are contributing to our workforce shortages.
First, during the pandemic, it is estimated that we lost one quarter of our child care capacity. Combined with the cost of child care, the dearth of good options has led to many parents, especially mothers, leaving the workforce. I have already started a working group to look at expanding child care options. Through this working group, we will look at ways of ensuring the delivery of high-quality early childhood education, which studies have shown is dollar-for-dollar the best investment you can make in workforce development. In addition, we will look at methods of funding child care to make sure that it is affordable for families, enabling them to reenter the workforce.
Another issue causing workforce shortages is a skills mismatch. While one of the greatest strengths of our state is the quality of our workforce, many of the job openings are unfilled because our residents do not have the specific skills necessary. My second priority is to increase workforce development opportunities, specifically for adults who need retraining or those who want to reenter the workforce.
We have entered an era where we will need to learn a living, and continually retrain as the economy is constantly innovating. Last session, I worked with my colleagues and passed a bill that created a pilot program to help people get training for commercial drivers license jobs. If reelected, I would like to expand that to other mid-skill careers. Mid-skill careers are careers that require more than a high school diploma, but typically less than a year of training. Since many adults have other challenges preventing them from going back to school, we would like to include wraparound services with this program. Services such as child care, transportation assistance, access to counselors and others to help ensure that the adults participating in these programs are set up to succeed and move on to higher paying careers.
The challenges facing our state and our country are many and complex. Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions. If reelected, I will continue to work diligently and collaboratively to help solve the pressing issues facing our community.