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Thomas Vicino

Vicino is the father of two sons, Tom and Chris, and is currently in his second term with the Clinton Board of Selectmen. He is a member of the Economic Development Commission and is involved in the Middlesex County Revitalization Commission and the Clinton and Westbrook Chambers of Commerce. He was formerly a member of the Clinton Planning & Zoning Commission and the Clinton Municipal Building Committee. He also owns an auto sales and services business in Westbrook.

A big focus of Vicino’s is economic development. As a business owner, he said it’s important to implement the Jobs Bill from this past term in order to make grants available to small businesses to hire and train veterans and others who are unemployed.

“While offering some infusion of money into local businesses, the program has the added bonus of helping to get people back to work,” Vicino said. “We need to start to get the Connecticut economy back to where it was by growing it and creating some new jobs.”

The Democratic candidate also has plans to get the state’s budget deficit back in line.

“First, I support cutting unnecessary agency spending and [adopting] results-based accountability. Second, creating new jobs and moving the economy forward is a significant component to fixing the budget,” said Vicino. “With higher employment and better-paying jobs will come more revenue and a shrinking budget gap.”

Utilizing the community’s tourism capabilities as well as the shoreline’s natural beauty is a goal for Vicino. He would like to see the legislature support a “12-month tourism economy” in Connecticut to help bring in some additional money to the state.

The candidate said that there are challenges facing the community that need to be addressed, including fine tuning the state’s role in recovery efforts of the local economy and combating rising property taxes by fighting for state aid.

In light of Tropical Storm Irene, which was just over a year ago, Vicino said that he is looking forward to seeing what recommendations come out of the Shoreline Preservation Taskforce.

“Along with clearly mandating more line maintenance of the utilities, I think that helping victims of the storms deal with all the permitting and paperwork is a clear role for me as state representative,” he said. “Sometimes helping a constituent navigate their way through getting the services they need is the best way to help them.”

Regarding seniors, the Clinton selectman said, “I will pledge to protect the safety net that provides seniors with prescription-drug assistance, nursing- home care, and work to keep them in their home as long as possible.”

Vicino has also been vocal about his views toward education reform. He believes preschool is a critical time for learning and would like to give children an earlier start at education.

“We need preschool—getting the kids going right off the bat with the first three or four years,” said Vicino. “Universal pre-kindergarten is a program I support and will advocate for. Students who start school in kindergarten are already behind some of their peers who have had the benefit of an extra year of pre-K.”