By Meredith Crawford, Courier Associate
Editor:
Incumbent State
Rep. Steve Fontana
(D-87th) is serving his sixth term in the Connecticut House of Representatives.
He chairs the General Assembly’s Energy & Technology Committee and is a
member of the Transportation and Insurance & Real Estate committees. He is
also North Haven’s second selectman. Fontana faces Republican
challenger Veronica H. Kivela at the polls on Nov. 4.
Before he was state
representative for the 87th District, Steve Fontana was a nervous patient in a
hospital room, worrying how he would pay the medical bills that had piled up
after a minor procedure.
“The need for
healthcare reform,” Fontana
says, is what motivated him to pursue elected office in 1996.
“I thought, ‘If I’m
having this much difficulty [paying medical bills], how much must someone who
has no insurance be affected?’ I felt that I had something to contribute and I
wanted to get involved,” said Fontana.
According to Fontana, “some progress”
on healthcare reform was made in his first term, during which the HUSKY Plan
was adopted. Fontana
also points to the ConnPACE program, which assists eligible seniors and the
disabled in affording prescription medicines and some medical necessities.
“[ConnPACE] really
serves as the national model,” said Fontana.
Working toward
energy efficiency and sustainability is another effort close to Fontana’s heart. As chair
of the General Assembly’s Energy & Technology Committee, Fontana
says he sees a connection between Connecticut’s
future economic health and developing cleaner, renewable energy, which he calls
“a huge growth industry.” In particular, Fontana
says the state should be investing its resources in hiring engineers and other
professionals who can lead the charge toward relying on solar and geothermal
energy sources.
“We want to make
sure that our colleges are turning out the kinds of [professionals valuable to
these concerns]…We want to make sure that people know where the opportunities
will be and how to get there…If we want to hold onto those kids, we need to
give them a clearer path,” said Fontana.
What makes this
election season different from the past six he’s been a part of, Fontana believes, is the
economic situation.
“There’s a higher
level of anxiety than in years past,” said Fontana. “It’s just the whole economic
picture that we’re facing; energy costs, gas, food prices have all gone
up…People are now having to balance their budget for those things [alongside]
trying to figure out how to” pay for insurance, prescriptions, and other
necessities.
“We have to balance
our books first off…There’s a budget deficit at the state level [that should be
addressed by] using the Rainy Day Fund, making budget cuts, and trying to increase
revenue…We need to invest in roads and bridges and other public works projects
to get people back to work and rebuild the infrastructure,” said Fontana.
Helping North Haven
residents with local concerns is the “real meat and potatoes” of his job, Fontana says. He believes
this effort has been aided-not hurt, as some of his detractors claim-by his
concurrent position as North Haven’s second
selectman.
“When I go door to
door, easily three-quarters of the complaints that I hear are local,” said Fontana. “For a number of
years, I had to refer them to the administration and its official, who I
couldn’t guarantee would address them…Being second selectman gives me the
opportunity to hear what they have to say and to give them…a level of
responsiveness at the local level.”
Fontana says he’s proud of his record of bringing
state aid to North Haven for such projects as
the new high school and the lights at Montowese field.
“I think that most
people in North Haven want to know that you’re in there fighting for them every
day…I have a record on issues that matter to people…I have 12 years of
experience at the state level,” concluded Fontana.
Fontana works as a title examiner. He earned a
bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Oberlin
College and holds an MBA in marketing
from Cornell University’s Johnson School of
Management and a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
For more information
on Steve Fontana and upcoming campaign events, visit www.stevefontana.com.