Doc Foley's Common-Sense Plan for Connecticut

Dr. John Foley believes Connecticut needs practical leadership focused on affordability, accessible healthcare, public safety, strong schools, and greater accountability in state government. His approach combines fiscal responsibility and local control with a commitment to finding workable solutions that improve life for families, seniors, and small businesses.

Connecticut must become a more affordable place to live, work, raise a family, and retire. John supports significantly reducing Connecticut's income tax, protecting the state's fiscal guardrails, paying down long-term debt, addressing the rising cost of housing, and opposing new spending commitments that taxpayers cannot afford. By promoting responsible budgeting and sustainable economic policies, John will work to ease the financial burden on families, seniors, workers, and small businesses across our state.

Preserve the spending cap, revenue cap, and volatility cap to prevent unsustainable growth in state goverment
Use budget surpluses to pay down long-term debt, provide responsible tax relief, and reduce pressure on local property taxpayers.
Require the state to fully consider the local cost of new mandates before passing those expenses on to municipalities.

Affordability and Tax Relief

Lower Energy Costs

Families and businesses should not be burdened by some of the highest energy costs in the country. John supports eliminating the Public Benefits Charge, expanding reliable energy supplies, protecting Millstone Nuclear Power Station, and carefully reviewing renewable-energy projects to ensure they are affordable and dependable.

ELIMINATE THE PUBLIC BENEFIT CHARGE
Remove or reduce state-mandated charges that force ratepayers to fund programs unrelated to their actual electricity use.
Grow Millstone as a dependable source of large-scale, lower-emission power and support a balanced mix of energy sources.
Require stronger cost-benefit reviews of offshore wind and other energy contracts before costs are passed on to consumers.

Education and Opportunity

Every child deserves access to a high-quality education, regardless of their ZIP code. John supports fair and adequate Education Cost Sharing (ECS) funding, strong early-literacy programs, timely intervention for struggling students, educational choice, and greater support for teachers and local school districts.

Review the ECS formula to ensure funding is distributed fairly and reflects the needs of students and communities.
Expand early screening, evidence-based reading instruction, and intervention services for students who are falling behind.
Give families greater educational choice while protecting local control and supporting teachers in the classroom.
Create a comprehensive trade program for middle and high school students for GDEB career opportunities.

Affordable, Accessible Healthcare

As a physician, John understands the challenges facing patients and healthcare providers. He will work to lower costs, improve transparency, protect access to quality care, and ensure hospital consolidation or

private-equity involvement does not place profits ahead of patients.

Strengthen price transparency so patients can better understand the cost of medications, procedures, testing, hospital care, and all other services, while requiring providers and institutions to report quality and safety outcomes.
Use the Certificate of Need process to protect local access, affordability, and quality when hospitals merge or services are reduced.
Increase scrutiny of private-equity ownership and other financial arrangements that may compromise patient care or community hospitals.

Public Safety

Connecticut must support law enforcement, first responders, victims of crime, and safer communities. John believes police should have the resources needed to address violent crime, mental-health emergencies, substance abuse, and criminal activity while ensuring meaningful consequences for dangerous offenders.

Restore meaningful consequences for violent and repeat offenders while protecting the rights of crime victims.
Provide police and emergency personnel with better training and resources to respond to mental-health and substance-abuse crises.
Strengthen tools for combating organized crime and gang activity while supporting school resource officers and local policing.

Local Control and Individual Freedom

Decisions affecting schools, neighborhoods, zoning, and community development should not be dictated through one-size-fits-all mandates from Hartford. John will defend local decision-making, parental involvement, constitutional rights, and the freedom of communities to determine what works best for their residents.

Oppose unfunded state mandates that increase costs for municipalities, schools, and property taxpayers.
Protect local authority over zoning, land use, school policies, and community development.
Defend parental rights, educational choice, personal medical freedom, and constitutional protections for law-abiding citizens.

Connecticut needs more attainable housing, but development must account for roads, schools, water, sewer, emergency services, and local infrastructure. John supports removing unnecessary barriers to

construction while reforming state policies that override responsible local planning.

Reform permitting, building-code, and regulatory barriers that unnecessarily increase the cost of constructing new housing.
Require housing policy to account for local infrastructure capacity, including schools, roads, utilities, and public safety.
Review 8-30g and similar mandates so they encourage affordability without eliminating local planning authority.

Housing That Fits Our Communities

Conservation and Environmental Stewardship

John supports protecting clean water, open space, farmland, and Connecticut’s natural resources. Environmental policy should encourage conservation and innovation without imposing costly mandates that harm families, businesses, housing, or economic growth.

Continue supporting open-space and farmland preservation while recognizing the need for housing and responsible development.
Prioritize clean-water protection, local conservation efforts, and practical environmental stewardship.
Evaluate environmental mandates for their economic impact and favor incentives, innovation, and local solutions over rigid statewide requirements.

Transportation and Infrastructure

Connecticut needs safe roads, dependable bridges, reliable rail service, and transportation investments based on the actual needs of our communities. John supports protecting the Special Transportation Fund and pursuing balanced improvements to highways, rail, and local transit.

Protect the Special Transportation Fund from being diverted to unrelated state spending.
Prioritize the maintenance and repair of roads, bridges, rail lines, and other critical infrastructure.
Conduct regional transportation reviews to identify where highway, bus, rail, and possible light-rail investments would provide the greatest benefit.

Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability

Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent. John supports stronger oversight, transparent budgeting, public review of legislation, accountability for fraud and waste, and a government that

operates with integrity.

Require public disclosure of legislative earmarks, their sponsors, and the organizations receiving taxpayer funding.
Strengthen independent oversight of fraud, waste, abuse, and misconduct within state agencies.
Oppose the passage of major legislation without public hearings, adequate review, or meaningful public participation.

Fair and Competitive Elections

John supports transparent elections and reasonable reforms that make it possible for qualified candidates to compete. He believes ballot access should be fair and that the Citizens’ Election Program should empower small-dollar donors rather than favor wealthy or politically connected candidates.

Review Citizens’ Election Program fundraising thresholds so first-time, working-class, minor-party, and unaffiliated candidates can compete.
Preserve strong disclosure and transparency requirements for candidates receiving public campaign financing.
Improve ballot-access rules to give voters more choices while maintaining clear and consistent election standards.