Lambasting Milford's Barbara Lambert

It has been nearly a year since our Freshman Representative has taken office in Hartford at the state capitol. Many folks have been asking me what she has been up to because there is nothing in the papers about her positions, no mention of how she is implementing her "plan" or how she is challenging "utilities" "taxes" and all the buzz she put in her mass mailed sales brochure. To be quite honest I personally have not seen or heard a thing about how she is serving Milford, not in the papers or in the news.

Today I googled her name, and I even visited her legislative website. It mentions she is on a labor committee, and some other trivial "hoopla" and the Google results just come up with a bunch of other self promoting party propaganda probably written by herself, kids, friends, and party bosses.

While she is off in space somewhere, Milford is in the process of having its school funding cut from the state, and yet I have not heard a mention that she somehow is for or against this. I and other parents, would like to know what Ms. Lambert (and our other representatives are doing)to save our school funding from the cutting board? Now that I am personally running for the board of ed I am going to voice my complaint here since she is basically MIA on all issues. Most people I speak with, especially those who voted for her along with Obama, do not even remember her or know who she is, but when I asked them how they voted they said all Democrat.

To cut to the chase on this one, I am personally very disappointed that Ms. Lambert does not seem to stand for anything, that she is making no effort to take a public stance in the papers to defend the things that are being taken from our town. The Courthouse Annex, green energy, the Boardwalk and now our schools are about to be shortchanged further. I think we need to ask Ms. Lambert "what exactly are you doing and why are you not standing up for our town?"

I am personally really disappointed that she is not fighting hard for us. Milford deserves better.

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SUMMARY OF MILFORD EDUCATIONAL CUTS
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Governor Rell's budget cuts would:

* Reduce many state education grants by 10% from their current funding level.

* Reduce special education service grants by 10% in all municipalities.

* Eliminate state funding for internet access, and filtering of "adult" content in all public libraries and K-12 schools in Connecticut.

* Eliminate or reduce by 40% the amount of state funding given to local health departments and health districts.

These cuts would come on top of other cuts in municipal aid or flat-funding of programs that our cities and towns rely on. The Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, which is the largest portion of state aid for local education in Connecticut, would be flat-funded for the two year budget. In addition, other programs such as the PILOT (Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes) Grant, which helps cities and towns make up for tax losses for tax exempt properties such as state property, hospitals and universities, have been reduced as well. These cuts, along with elimination of funding for our libraries, will put a strain on our municipalities.