To The Editor:

I have lived in Newtown my whole life. I went through the schools here, got married here, and raised my kids here, and they’ve gone through the schools too now. In all those years I've watched a lot of people move to town for the schools, push taxes up to get the town where they think it should be, and leave once their kids graduate. Some of them don't want to adapt to how the town is. They want to change it.

Taxes are where that shows up first. Property taxes are out of control and the electric bill keeps climbing, and it's getting harder for people who grew up here to stay. Growth is the other one. Newtown could be turned into a small city one project at a time if we’re not careful. It would take years for people to notice because of how large the town is, and by the time anyone tries to stop it, it'd be too late. Unfortunately, a lot of the decisions behind that get made in Hartford, not here.

What Newtown needs is someone who wants it to stay what it is and will push back on Hartford to keep it that way. That's why I'm supporting Amybeth Laroche for state senate. I met her when she moved into town, and she dove in headfirst. She’s involved in as many parts of town as she can be and has friends in all of them. I'm no expert on every part of Newtown, but she fits in. She talks about taxes and electric bills in plain terms, and she believes towns should decide how they grow.

She didn't come to this town to use it, she came here to add to it.

Ken Canfield

Newtown