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Edward Meyer

Democratic State Senator Edward Meyer is looking to earn his fourth term as a Connecticut state senator. He attended Yale University, Yale Law School, and Cambridge University. He currently is the chair of the Environment Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly and was the prior chair of the Children’s Committee. He was previously a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, a New York state assemblyman, and a New York state regent. Meyer has served on the Guilford Economic Development Commission and the Board of Directors of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

The Guilford resident has six children with his wife, Patty Ann, and 13 grandchildren.

“It has been a great privilege to represent the residents of the 12th District in recent years, and I am excited to continue this public service and try to make Connecticut an even better place to live,” Senator Meyer said.

In The Sound’s online voter guide, Meyer cited the three highest challenges facing the 12th District as rebuilding Connecticut’s economy, supporting a strong environment of clean water and air, and reducing our cost of living, particularly the property tax.

Meyer said he supports the Small Business Express Program incentives, which provides businesses that employ 100 or fewer the possibility of state grants, low interest loans, job training support, and tax credits for hiring unemployed residents.

“In the last few months, these initiatives in my senate district have resulted in over 100 new jobs and over 5,000 new jobs statewide,” said Meyer. “Further, as chair of the Environment Committee, I have helped bring about greater speed and flexibility in the environment permitting process.”

Meyer said that while serving as senator, he has worked to reduce the cost of living for senior citizens, particularly with home heating costs and health insurance, and pledged to continue to vote in favor of state funds to go toward home healthcare versus nursing homes.

In light of last year’s Tropical Storm Irene, Meyer said he has been working this past year to help residents better deal with the aftermath of heavy storms.

“I am an author and sponsor of state legislation this year that requires CL&P and other utilities to have strict performance standards to deal with extreme weather conditions and reduce power outages or the length of such outages,” he stated. “Legislation enforces those standards by imposing strong penalties for nonperformance, and those penalties must be paid from utility equity and not by ratepayers.”

In our voter guide, Meyer also noted his vote for school reform legislation to bring “more accountability and better academic performance” from urban schools. He also supports a tax reform to enable Connecticut to bring more state funds in to support local schools.

“Compared to other states, the state of Connecticut underfunds its state support of our schools, which puts an excessive burden on the local property tax. A series of governors of both parties, as well as state legislatures, have unfortunately ignored recommendations for an increase in Education Cost Sharing,” Meyer said. “Part of that increase should be for special education, which has been mandated by the federal and state governments. I have offered legislation to achieve these results and will continue to do so.”

While the state budget is still in deficit after an historic tax increase, Meyer said it will come under control once jobs and the state’s economy continue to rebound.

“The recent state budget deficit was about $150 million, which is less than one percent of the total $20 billion budget. Any further budget deficits should be addressed by responsible spending cuts including further state agency consolidation,” he said.