The recent proposals to implement catastrophic cuts to school funding in eastern Connecticut put forward by Democratic insiders in Hartford have demonstrated why, more than ever, we need a strong local voice fighting for our interests.

The two Democratic proposals floated, one by the legislature and one from Gov. Malloy, would gut the quality of education in eastern Connecticut and force higher property tax increases onto already struggling Connecticut families.

Democratic insiders in the legislature first proposed a staggering $6.6 million in cuts to Education Cost Sharing grants to the towns in the 18th Senatorial District, including a massive $4.6 million cut to Groton schools.

Southeastern Connecticut was particularly hard hit in the proposal. The Groton cut was the largest, almost 11 percent of the entire proposed ECS reduction statewide. The proposal would have also cut just over $1 million from Stonington education funding, nearly 50 percent of the town’s entire grant amount under ECS.

Just days after the catastrophic proposal from the legislature, Gov. Malloy offered his own budget blueprint that would instead cut $870,000 from Groton classrooms.

Groton is proud to be home to the largest military base in Connecticut. Hundreds of students in its schools come from families who live in Navy housing that does not produce property tax revenue. Grants like the ECS are essential to maintaining a strong education system for Groton.

It’s not just Groton that can’t afford any more misguided priorities from Hartford. Small and too often forgotten are towns such as Griswold, which would lose over $400,000 under Gov. Malloy’s proposal.

The governor and the insiders who brought us the two largest tax increases in state history have refused to make the tough calls needed to trim the size and scope of the bloated bureaucracy in Hartford. Having run away from the smart, long overdue decisions our state so desperately needed, Malloy and his allies now intend to shift the burden of their failure onto the children, teachers and property taxpayers of the state.

In addition to the proposed cuts to education funding, the governor has floated an end to sales tax reimbursements for municipalities. The combined cuts would leave towns and school systems in the hopeless position of facing new property tax increases, just to maintain the existing quality of education for students, let alone make any improvements or offer our children competitive new programs or equipment.

Hartford insiders should be cutting back the size and scale of an engorged Hartford bureaucracy, and taxpayer funded pipe dreams like CT-N, a taxpayer funded news outlet, rather than looking to our children, teachers and property taxpayers to bail them out.

Through the frenzy of proposals to suck eastern Connecticut dry the region has had remarkably little in the way of real representation. The same lawmakers who voted for the massive state tax increases, driving away jobs and stifling wages for hardworking Connecticut families, have stayed quiet as Hartford moves to throttle southeastern Connecticut’s quality of life.

These proposed cuts demonstrate why, more than ever, eastern Connecticut needs a strong, local voice in Hartford fighting for our interests. If we want different results from Hartford, we simply must send a different type of person to Hartford: a Hartford outsider who isn’t there for a political career, who hasn’t been part of the problem, but who has the grit to fight for our community, the local experience to know what our region needs to thrive, and the business sense to take on the big government, job-crushing agenda of the status quo.

Our community simply has too much on the line to elect yet another insider who has been part of the problem.

Heather Somers is the former mayor of Groton and a Republican candidate for state Senate in the 18th District.