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What Can We Expect From Connecticut's 3rd Gubernatorial Debate?

Connecticut gubernatorial candidates Ned Lamont, left, Democrat; Oz Griebel, unaffiliated; and Bob Stefanowski, Republican; will debate at the University of Connecticut at Storrs on Wednesday evening.
Jessica Hill / Bill Sikes / Susan Haigh
/
AP
Connecticut gubernatorial candidates Ned Lamont, left, Democrat; Oz Griebel, unaffiliated; and Bob Stefanowski, Republican; will debate at the University of Connecticut at Storrs on Wednesday evening.

The next televised gubernatorial debate in Connecticut has the potential to become a tag team attack on Republican candidate Bob Stefanowski.

That’s because two of the three candidates in the debate, Democrat Ned Lamont and unaffiliated candidate Oz Griebel, are against Republican Stefanowski’s plan to eliminate the Connecticut income tax over eight years. They say it would leave a $10 billion hole in the state budget.

“Elimination of the income tax would be devastating for our schools. It would be devastating for our towns and cities. It would jack up property tax,” said Lamont.

Griebel, a former Republican, says tax cuts will not solve Connecticut’s economic problems.

“Only an independent governor can bring both parties together. Bring the leaders of business and labor and health sectors to work together to strengthen our significant asset base and address these formidable fiscal challenges that we’ve just touched on briefly,” Griebel said.

Stefanowski says he’s prepared to defend his tax cut plan in the upcoming debate. He’s says there’s enough waste, fraud and abuse to make up for the lost revenue.

“There is rampant spending all over this state, we got to get it down,” Stefanowski said.

Wednesday’s debate is scheduled to take place at the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Auditorium in Storrs.

Copyright 2018 WSHU

As WSHU Public Radio’s award-winning senior political reporter, Ebong Udoma draws on his extensive tenure to delve deep into state politics during a major election year. In addition to providing long-form reports and features for WSHU, he regularly contributes spot news to NPR, and has worked at the NPR National News Desk as part of NPR’s diversity initiative.
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