Laura Glesby Photo
Steve Winter with pooch pal Toly on the campaign trail.
So you have a school that needs repairs.
You have a planet that needs fewer carbon emissions.
You have a neighborhood where people pay too much for electricity.
Steve Winter has an idea about how to address those three needs at once — and where to find buckets of money to do it.
Winter, New Haven’s climate and sustainability czar and a former alder, spoke about that idea Tuesday during an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” about his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the open 94th General Assembly District state representative seat. He faces Hamden Council member Abdul Osmanu and Tarolyn Moore in an Aug. 13 primary. Incumbent State Rep. Robyn Porter is retiring after 10 years in the post. The district includes southern Hamden and New Haven’s Newhallville and Prospect Hill neighborhoods. New Haven’s Democratic Town Committee and state AFL-CIO have endorsed Winter’s candidacy, as have the mayors and top legislative leaders in New Haven and Hamden.
“I want to approach by leading with humility and with listening and with really trying to understand what we should be focused on, what we should be prioritizing,” said Winter, who’s 35. He spoke of “leading by listening, by finding common ground, by building coalitions, getting people to rally around things. Being responsive is about following up with people. Being effective is about finding common ground, building support, building constituencies.”
Winter said he supports New Haven State Sen. Marty Looney’s proposal to explore a “mansion tax” or marginal surcharge on conveyance taxes. He plans to continue advocating for ranked-choice voting, a cause he has helped organize for statewide.
Knocking on doors, he said, he hears most from voters about a desire for more productive stuff for kids to do. He said he’d like to explore having the city and state working toward devoting some of the 3,000 square feet of community space in the plan for a new adult education home at 188 Bassett St. to a youth center. He’d similarly pursue including a youth center in a community campus proposed in the 94th District at the former Hamden middle school site.
One Independent reader commented in a campaign article that Winter should forego his run in order to devote his full energies to his day job as New Haven government’s climate czar. Asked about that on “Dateline,” Winter responded by noting that most legislators (a part-time job) have second jobs; and that he sees the city job’s mission dovetailing with that of a state representative focused on climate and environmental issues.
“There’s so many ways that the city and the state can work together to address these issues,” Winter said. For example, the city recently purchased its first electric refuse vehicle. The state can support municipalities purchasing many such all-electric replacement for diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles, “which contribute a disproportionate amount to air pollution, to our asthma, to our health.”
In his city job he has encountered counterproductive state rules that a legislator could address, such as one that restricts electric-car rebates to purchases of models less than three years old. He’d like to expand that.
“What if I want to buy a 2019 Chevy Bolt and get a great deal on it? Shouldn’t someone in New Haven be able to do that and then drive emissions-free with a really low cost?” he asked. “These are real world issues that we’re seeing every day in our work, and they have real impacts in terms of our health, in terms of our affordability of life here in Connecticut.”
He spoke as well about the idea mentioned at the top of this article, weaving together seemingly unrelated challenges.
The idea began with his efforts to support geothermal energy. He noted that communities like Framingham, Mass., have piloted neighborhood-scale geothermal, creating municipally-run networks that neighbors can tap as an alternative to gas for heating and cooling their homes. Not only is that better for the school system and for the health of the planet, he said; it can lower utility bills.
Then he spoke of how such a network could be based out of a school that’s undergoing renovation. That would make the project eligible for multiple federal and state subsidies for both school renovation and the creation of federal “energy communities.”
“If you have a $10 million geothermal project at the end of the day, you’re eligible for $5 million in federal reimbursement. If we can figure out how to pair that with the reimbursement structure for school construction, we could be making big, big investments in locking in improvements for our school facilities,” he said. “The schools can be central nodes in these grids. If you’re smart about how you’re designing it, and then we can use the Inflation Reduction Act funding.”
Click on the above video to watch the full discussion with state rep candidate Steve Winter, on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.
Click below to watch and here to read about a previous “Dateline” interview with Abdul Osmanu. Tarolyn Moore told the Independent she is too busy with her campaign to do a “Dateline” interview.