Villamaino announces bid for state rep seat

Date: 2/8/2010

Feb. 8, 2010

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW -- Enrico "Jack" Villamaino believes the state needs to build better budgets. He has helped craft strong budgets for the past three years as a member of the town's Board of Selectmen and now his goal is to help create sound budgets for the state.

Villamaino announced his bid for the House of Representatives in the 2nd Hampden District last Thursday evening at Romito & Sons in East Longmeadow.

During a brief speech, he noted that thanks to the hard work of his fellow selectmen and himself, the town saw its first bond rating upgrade since 1968 this year. "The town has never been stronger," he stated. "This is proof strong budget building can be done."

A Republican, Villamaino said the increased taxation in the Commonwealth, on everything from candy and soda to gasoline, is only hurting consumers and that the practice of raising taxes to "patch holes" in the budget needs to stop.

"The state legislature has broken down," he said. "We have to build a better budget and I have done that on a local level. I have experience in building strong budgets and I want to be a part of that at the state level ... and I always want to hear what you have to say."

Villamaino explained his reasoning to Reminder Publications: "The state's rainy day fund had over $2.3 billion three years ago, now it has $580 million. The legislature cannot keep raiding the rainy day fund -- the well will eventually run dry.

"The unemployment rate in this state has risen from 4.8 percent to 9.4 percent in just three years," he continued. "People need jobs to earn money, businesses need consumers with money to succeed and people need businesses to succeed to be able to provide jobs. Overtaxation only gets in the way."

In addition, Villamaino noted that the constituents of the 2nd Hampden District have not had a local office in over 40 years.

"It is unreasonable and unfair to expect people in this district to drive 100 miles to see or dial a long distance number to speak to their state representative," he commented. "As state representative I will be accessible to the people of this district while in this district."

More than 70 supporters attended the campaign kickoff, including Mary Rogeness, who held the district seat for 17 years, and an aide to Bradley H. Jones, House Minority Leader. Rogeness said it was good to see a Republican campaigning for the seat again.

Marty Kane, president of the East Longmeadow Republican Town Committee, said he's known Villamaino for a long time and described him as "a dynamic young man who knows how to get the work done."

"[Brian] Ashe [who currently represents the district] is a seat warmer," Kane said. "He hasn't done much. He's only initiated one bill."

He added that Villamaino is a conservative and that is what the people of Massachusetts need to elect to "bring sanity back to the state."

Longmeadow Select Board member William Scibelli, who ran for the seat in 2008, said he is "100 percent behind Jack" because he's seen the hard work he's done on the East Longmeadow Board of Selectmen.

"I've seen the dedication he puts into his job," Scibelli said. "He has the skills to accomplish positive things in Boston."

Fellow East Longmeadow selectmen Paul Federici agreed. "Even though he's younger than me, as someone who has learned so much from him since last April [when Federici joined the Board of Selectmen], I look up to him in a political sense. He's motivated, intelligent, focused person."

To learn more about Villamaino and his campaign, visit www.jackvillamaino.com.