Ned's Plan to Renew Our Cities

Keep Our Cities Safe

In order to revitalize our cities, we must make sure they are safe for our families. Over the last two decades, our cities have grown dramatically safer, with crime falling by half.⁸ As governor, I will build on this.

• I will get guns off our streets by creating a registry of the state’s worst gun offenders and supporting the Connecticut Forensic Science Lab, which performs forensic investigations for the whole state.
• I will invest in prevention efforts, such as after-school and summer programs, that treat the problems, not the symptoms, and help kids avoid the criminal justice system altogether. Prevention pays: it costs nearly as much to send someone to prison as it does to send him to Yale.⁹
• I will work with our mayors to break the cycle of incarceration. That means helping the newly released get a job, find a home, and be good parents for their kids, rather than just dumping them in our cities with little or no support.

Help Our Families Succeed

Revitalizing our cities doesn’t just mean bringing in new residents and outside investment; it also means creating growth from within. We must help parents in our cities give their children the tools to succeed.

• I will focus on providing affordable, high-quality childcare so every child in Connecticut gets a good start on life.
• I will build stronger families by supporting teen pregnancy prevention and promoting initiatives that help fathers develop parenting and job skills.
• I will implement a state earned income tax credit—something all of our neighboring states have done¹⁰—that reduces the tax burden on our most vulnerable families and increases their incentive to work. As well, I will expand eligibility to noncustodial fathers who make their child support payments to encourage responsible fatherhood.

We must also help families build prosperity—that starts with a good job and a bank account. Many families in urban areas do not have accounts, so they face exorbitant fees to cash paychecks and triple-digit interest rates to get tax refunds. At the same time, many industries face staff shortages, even in this recession.

• I will encourage more collaboration between labor, business, and the state’s job training and placement programs to match strong candidates with employer needs. Shortsighted policies like cutting the licensed practical nurse (LPN) programs at our vocational schools would not happen under my watch.
• I will team with local banks to offer financial literacy training and first-time checking accounts with simple terms, low fees, and effective advertising so our families can begin to find firm financial footing. San Francisco pioneered this approach, and it is spreading across the nation.¹¹

Conclusion

Our cities are primed and ready to succeed, but they have lacked an ally in Hartford. Starting day one of my administration, that will end. By investing in our urban areas—and in their residents—I will get our cities growing again. We can’t do, or afford, it all at once, but after a few years, you’ll see more cranes on our skylines, more businesses in our downtowns, more people on our city streets. Our cities will reclaim past prosperity and with them in the lead, so will Connecticut.

Read the complete plan by clicking these links:

Part 1
Part 2

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⁸ Connecticut Department of Public Safety, Uniform Crime Reports.
⁹  Christopher Reinhart, Cost of Incarceration and Cost of a Career Criminal, Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, February 2008; Yale University, Factsheet – Statistical Summary of Yale University.
¹⁰  State EITC Online Resource Center, 50 State Resource Map.
¹¹  National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Cities, and Families, Bank on Cities Campaign Backgrounder, May 2009.