Reprinted from The Trumbull Times © Copyright 2009
October 8, 2009

By Donald Eng

Both sides claimed victory following last week's first debate between first selectman candidates Raymond G. Baldwin and Timothy M. Herbst.

In the 90-minute forum the questions ranged from the philosophical, "Please explain the difference between needs and wants," to the overtly political, "Why is a swimming pool more important than full-day kindergarten?"

Baldwin generated the most unexpected moment of the night when he answered a question about last year's proposed 11.6% tax increase with seven words:

"I was wrong, I made a mistake," he said.

After the debate, Baldwin said the increase had come about because the finance board had allocated $2 million from the previous year's surplus to deliver a deceptively low tax hike the year before. Thus, the 11.6% was actually a two-year increase.

"At the time I proposed the increase, my intent was to present a starting point for negotiation," Baldwin said. "But the bottom line is I should have taken more responsibility for the budget right from the beginning."

Herbst criticized Baldwin for putting the finance board and Town Council in the position of performing a line-by-line revision of the proposal.

"These are volunteer boards," he said. "Presenting a responsible budget is the job of the first selectman and finance director."

Baldwin, in turn, questioned Herbst's campaign promise to identify $1 million in savings from the current budget in his first 100 days in office.

"He said twice that he was going to explain, then never did," Baldwin said. "That's Debating 101. Never leave a question unanswered."

Herbst sidestepped the question at the debate, but on Tuesday his campaign released a four-part plan designed to outline his campaign promise in greater detail.

The four parts are zero-based budgeting, increasing the town auditor's power to identify waste, more aggressive bid and purchase order reviews and partnering with other communities to share costs.

"Manchester partnered with other communities to collectively bid their health insurance," he said. "The partnership, combined with maintaining an independent contract, represented substantial savings for the town while at the same time maintaining high quality care for municipal employees."

In addition, Herbst pledged to continue to reduce the number of take-home town vehicles and monitor use of the town's gas pumps, switch to salt instead of sand on icy roads to save the cost of spring cleanup and use Highway Department workers to remove trash from town buildings.

Also on Tuesday, Baldwin announced his own plan to maintain the town's financial stability.

"My administration's efforts are paying off for taxpayers," he said. "By any reasonable measure, we are in great shape."

Baldwin pledged to maintain at least a AA bond rating and a substantial fund balance, which is currently $14 million. He also promised to take advantage of market fluctuations to refinance town debt and allocate 50% of any annual budget surplus into the town's employee pension fund.

"We invested wisely when times were good, and that has left us in a strong position to weather the economic storm," he said.