This week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley released the urban agenda plan his campaign had been promising. It does not sound like the policy plan of the fiscal conservative he claims to be. While there are no dollar figures attached to any of the plans, there are many programs and they would be expensive.

In fact, it is hard to find any ideological threads running through Mr. Foley's plan, which you can find at his campaign website, www.tomfoleyct.com.

To attack high unemployment in the state's cities, the plan calls for workforce training programs, including utilizing state community and technical colleges to try to better match skills to needed jobs. It does not acknowledge existing training programs or suggest how Mr. Foley might add or alter them.

Mr. Foley vows to "support public transportation" to help urban residents "qualify for jobs farther away from where they live." And a Foley administration would "work to reduce mass-transit times" between cities and to New York. Again, it provides no details on how this would expand or alter existing public transportation in Connecticut's cities.

Mr. Foley says he "will ensure broadband capacity in our cities that meets the needs of employers as well as the needs of individuals." That's a great idea, but missing are the how and how much?

Recognizing a difficult challenge for cities, Mr. Foley states he "will spread low-income housing throughout the community so it isn't concentrated in large public housing projects." This is a great goal, but one that is extremely expensive to implement and typically controversial.

Under a Foley administration, efforts would be made to outfit city police with some great crime-solving gadgets - for example, "mobile biometrics" for facial recognition, DNA evaluation and fingerprinting. Left unsaid is who pays.

And he would "work with municipal governments to make urban centers more livable and attractive by investing in parks, waterfronts, and other public spaces."

Mr. Foley told reporters his plans would cost less than $1 billion. That strikes us as a very low estimate.

In a more traditional Republican initiative, Mr. Foley said he would ask the legislature to cap the tax on cars and other personal property at 30 mills, with the state reimbursing the estimated $30 million in lost revenues to municipalities. This will help city residents and businesses, he said.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's past attempt to eliminate the car tax entirely crashed and burned in the Democratic legislature.

Also sounding a core Republican theme, Mr. Foley said he will push for a "money follows the child" approach that would effectively provide families with vouchers to send children to their schools of choice within the city. This competition, he argues, will award good schools and pressure poor schools to improve performance.

However, given political realities and teacher union opposition, we don't see any chance of it happening in Connecticut. The more realistic approach is the one the current administration is pursuing: using magnet and charter schools to provide school choice and innovative models, without abandoning neighborhood schools.

Exciting to hear were his plans to help those with criminal records reintegrate into the workforce, a major challenge in many of Connecticut's cities. Mr. Foley's ideas include improved training opportunities, making it easier for ex-inmates to gain occupational licenses, and immunizing employers from civil liability for the actions of a former convict they may hire.

The plans were jarring to hear, however, one day after Mr. Foley's lieutenant governor running mate, Heather Somers, condemned a Malloy administration program that provides inmates incentives to obtain education and training while in prison in return for shaving days off their sentences.

The Foley camp faced criticism for lifting sections of the report from other policy documents. It's hardly unusual for campaigns to take ideas from other sources, but someone usually bothers to rework and tailor them to local issues. The campaign later pointed to "sloppy staff work." It certainly undermines the credibility and seriouness of the document.

Yet it is a plan from a campaign that has dodged specifics. Mr. Foley, who recognizes he needs to do better in cities this time around if he hopes to win the rematch with Malloy Election Day, gives voters ideas to consider.

However, on balance, the effort was underwhelming.