Martin J. Gersten

(D)

 

Personal Information: Martin J. Gersten, an honors graduate of Columbia Law School and The George Washington University. I have been engaged in the private practice of corporate, tax, securities, and finance law for the past 37 years and am currently a partner in the law firm of Freedman & Gersten, LLP, with offices in Newtown and New York City and Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. After starting my career as an associate and then partner of a boutique Wall Street law firm, I continued to practice individually while expanding my activities to include chief operating and financial officer roles at both a public and private independent oil and natural gas production company and a temporary help/staffing company. I has served as treasurer of a number of enterprises, the most recent of which is Rock Ridge Country Club in Newtown. My wife Debra owns and operates her own New York City-based women’s clothing design and manufacturing business and our son Ben, a recent graduate of the Middle School, presently attendees The Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass. A “Kennedy Democrat,” I was active in the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy and the senatorial and presidential campaigns of Robert Kennedy.

What personal qualities do you have that you believe will benefit the Legislative Council and the community it serves? Honesty, integrity, the ability to identify and understand significant issues, the discipline to develop and implement solutions to complex problems and the tenacity to pursue the solutions to culmination, and an understanding of the political process of compromise in the context of the needs of competing interest groups.

What do you believe is the council’s biggest challenge over the next two years? Education of the population as to the existence of the legitimate needs of competing interest groups; the cost of increased services in relation to the sources and magnitude of tax revenues; and the impact of limited commercial tax revenues and the removal of property otherwise subject to development from the tax roles on the magnitude of residential real estate taxes.

What can the Legislative Council do to limit the growth of Newtown’s tax rate? Any one or more of the following: reduce the cost of existing services; increase the existing tax base by encouraging both residential and/or commercial development; and limit the expansion of services and reallocate existing revenues to satisfy the needs of a greater portion of the population.