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. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Q: What do you think are the greatest challenges facing the district right now, and how will you help address them? Be as specific as possible.
State Rep. Frank Smith, Democrat, District 118 (Incumbent)
Frank Smith
A: There are a number of challenges confronting the residents of Milford’s Devon and West Shore areas as we prepare for a new election. Some owe to the losses and dislocations of the recent COVID pandemic, which altered our lives and routines in unprecedented ways.
First and most immediately, the cost of living, driven in large part by both unconscionably high electric rates and the escalating price of goods and services, is too much for our working families to bear. Holding the utilities accountable not to their shareholders, but rather the ratepayers that they serve, is critical. We have some of the highest utility costs in the country and it is impacting virtually every resident and business in the district. It is long past time that the public utilities recognize the public as their primary responsibility. This will require close review and accounting of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority that oversees and sets rates charged by investor owned utilities. I believe that the new 2025 legislative session will afford a renewed opportunity for the General Assembly to identify and pursue true bipartisan solutions that might not have been considered more recently. I am committed to looking at ways to decrease this burden on all of our ratepayers while also ensuring that programs are available for energy efficiency and green alternatives. Ensuring that we continue to keep more money in our taxpayers’ pockets through continued tax relief to working families is critical as a key piece to alleviate that burden.
Secondly, as a city with the longest linear coastline in Connecticut, and significant inland tidal areas and wetlands, the threats we face from climate change are having increasing catastrophic and costly impacts to our community and its residents. As we see with startling regularity on our evening newscasts, these events (rising ocean temperatures, elevated tides) are happening in greater magnitude and frequency. They are not confined to shoreline communities but threaten to fundamentally transform every area of our town’s infrastructure, residential and commercial property, land use and critical services. We need to redouble coastal resiliency efforts while also adopting policies that set an example for climate change mitigation more broadly.
This is long beyond a political debate. This is a national and global emergency, and the response will require coordination and collaboration at the local, state and national levels. The threat is real and immediate and many of us are one bad storm away from catastrophe. We must focus on both the impacts and the causes of climate change now. As a member of the Environment Committee and Coastal Caucus in the legislature, I pledge my commitment to advance and prioritize this existential issue.
Lastly, while I recognize and acknowledge the critical need for more affordable workforce housing to support our growing local economy, we must ensure that we retain local autonomy when it comes to most zoning policies. It is the local governments that know their communities and their challenges best, not Hartford. While there have been some commendable ideas, no two communities are the same. Housing and zoning policies that work in rural eastern Connecticut likely do not work in an urban area like New Haven nor in a suburban area like Milford. Different communities have different challenges for which a one-size-fits-all approach simply does not work.
I remain committed to locally directed affordable housing development reflected in the Milford Affordable Housing Plan 2023, submitted to the state by the Milford Zoning Board last year and funded in part through incentives to prospective developers through direct state subsidies, low interest loans and tax credits. This would go a long way to achieve levels of affordable housing needed to satisfy the statute without the imposition of the state statute bypassing our local zoning authority.