Here’s a practical way to save taxpayer mone

The fiscal bad news is hitting us everywhere we turn.

Four-thousand-one- hundred Connecticut residents lost their jobs last month and another 5,000 people lost their jobs the month before that.

The state tax on businesses has been doubled and our gas tax is now the highest in the contiguous 48 states.

Despite my staunch opposition, your income tax, property tax, and sales tax were just hiked as part of the largest tax hike in state history.

With all this bad news making our heads spin, you may be asking yourself, “Is anybody doing anything at the State Capitol to actually save me money?”

The answer is yes.

I bring you a bit of good news.

It involves those political mailers that seem to always be filling up your mailboxes.

You know the mailers – the ones that you toss into the trash faster than you can say “stop taxing me.”

Well, I want you to know that you will not be seeing mailers coming from me. I have discontinued them.

To me, this seemed like a good opportunity for me to 1) help save state taxpayers some money and 2) lead by example.

It’s a small gesture, but let’s face it: these mailers really are a waste of taxpayer dollars.

How much? Consider this:

General Assembly is granted weekly mailing privileges ranging from 500 pieces per week in the House, to 1,000 pieces per week in the Senate.

The total postage cost to the state, and ultimately taxpayers, exceeds $1 million annually.

To stay informed and receive up-to-date information, I would like to ask you and your family to take a moment to visit my state senate website at www.senatorwelch.com.

There, you can follow me on Facebook, view press releases, legislative updates and other news from the State Capitol.

I know there are still many folks who do not use or have access to the internet, email or other online resources. Therefore, I will still mail out an annual legislative update – meaning that you will receive one mailer per calendar year.

But I do encourage those of you who can, to sign up online in order to best keep up with updates and capitol news. Your online involvement will help my office grow our technology and ultimately save the state some money.

If you have questions about this, or any matter affecting state government, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or toll free at 800.842.1421.

In these small types of ways, I will continue to do my part to help the taxpayers. You elected me to fight for you and your families and to speak out against higher taxes and higher government spending. As your state senator, nothing is more important to me than keeping an open line of communication with you and keeping a closer eye on your tax dollars.