Debate: Griebel, Lamont talk taxes, jobs and take shots at a missing Stefanowski

From New Haven Register.

Oz Griebel said that — if elected — he would try to lower the rate of the personal income tax. He admitted that a projected $4.5 billion deficit over the next two years is a giant challenge. “This is serious stuff that has to be dealt with,” he said. “I do not believe in the elimination of the income tax.”

Lamont and Griebel took uncontested swipes at Stefanowski’s campaign promise to eliminate the personal income tax over eight years. “It’s time you had a governor who told you the truth,” Lamont said. “Eliminating the income tax would be devastating for schools, devastating for our towns and cities.”

Both candidates agreed that the state has to do better in partnering local businesses with schools to create a better-educated and trained workforce. “Don’t go. Stay in Connecticut,” Lamont said in response to a University of St. Joseph undergraduate.

“The first thing employers want to do today is to keep the jobs they have here today,” Griebel said, stressing the need to better communicate with business leaders. “We need to reignite confidence in business owners and business leaders.”

Lamont reiterated his position for new tolls on interstate tractor trailers that use Connecticut highways and use the funding to rehabilitate the roads. He said that brick-and-mortar stores that are subject to the sales tax are at a competitive disadvantage to e-commerce entities that don’t.

Griebel agreed with Lamont that the technology is available to chase after e-commerce transactions.

Read the full article at the New Haven Register.