🔒5 to Watch 2022: Gearing up for reelection, Lamont says tackling labor shortage, shoring up state economy key focus areas

Gov. Ned Lamont may be one of the few politicians in the country to have seen his standing among constituents improve during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lamont received generally high marks from Connecticut residents for his decision to implement strict lockdown measures in the early half of 2020, during the first coronavirus wave, and for his move about one year later to ease restrictions and reopen the economy, ahead of most other blue states.

His philosophy — which might be described as taking the health crisis seriously, but not swinging toward overly onerous measures — has played well in a state that tends toward political moderation, and where many people have been willing, at least in the near-term, to get vaccinated and follow basic health recommendations.

However, his handling of the pandemic is being put to the test as the omicron variant and holiday season have sent the state's infection rate soaring. He also got some egg on his face with a promise to procure millions of at-home COVID-19 tests that didn't pan out after the supplier allegedly backed out of the deal.

What lays ahead over the next year for Lamont will likely be trying to beat back the virus in a more permanent way, something he can't fully control, and hopefully a pivot away from the emergency footing of the pandemic. That will include continuing efforts to strengthen the state’s economy, still hampered by a labor shortage, and marshaling the federal resources disbursed by the Trump and Biden administrations to address long-standing roadblocks to future growth, including transportation bottlenecks and uneven workforce development.

Most importantly, all eyes will be on Lamont as he campaigns for reelection in 2022 versus a still-undetermined Republican field.

“We have a lot of unfinished business,” the governor said during a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. “We’re off to what I think is a strong start. This is — let’s face it — a state that was dead in the water economically for a long time. I think people are taking a new look at the state now, and I want to keep that momentum going.”

Lamont said he has the experience and know-how needed to steer billions of dollars in federal stimulus and infrastructure cash into efforts that will make a difference in the lives of residents and businesses, including plans to accelerate rail service, smooth out choke points on major highways, expand broadband internet and set up more electric vehicle charging stations.

“In particular with the federal resources coming our way, you want an executive who can make that happen,” he said. “How you make sure that money makes a difference is an enormous priority for the next three years.”

The governor also noted that while every state is guaranteed some funding, there’s even more money to be had in competitive grants, and Connecticut will need an advocate to capture as much as it can.

“We’re not always at the front of the line when it comes to competitive grants,” he said. “We’ll be in the front of the line this time if I have anything to say about it.”

Recruitment efforts

When asked to assess the general state of Connecticut’s economy, Lamont thought back to the beginning of his term as a point of comparison.

“I think everyone was pretty down on the state 30 months ago,” he said. “GE had just left, and the conversation was that Connecticut can’t balance its books. I’d like to think we’ve turned the corner on that.”

Connecticut’s business recruitment efforts, as Lamont pointed out, have borne fruit, especially over the last year. State officials in recent months have boasted about firms such as IT giant HCL, fintech TOMO and Philip Morris International setting up new offices in the state, with pledges to bring on hundreds of new jobs.

But the state continues to contend with high taxes and costs, including the highest electricity prices in the mainland U.S., aging and congested transportation infrastructure and, perhaps most notably, a scarcity of workers, which, while not unique to Connecticut, is all the more concerning here considering how many jobs (over 70,000, according to one estimate) are currently left unfilled.

Lamont acknowledged that the labor issue is complex, and said the usual rhetoric about a “skills gap” — in which employers can’t find workers with the appropriate education, training and experience — doesn’t fully explain the problem.

“I’ve got to get people back to work,” the governor said. “We can talk about the skills gap until we’re blue in the face, but it’s not a skills gap when it comes to our restaurants and retail stores. There’s just a little bit of inertia from people not going in [to work] every day. And now we have [the omicron] variant, so I’m not positive people are going to want to go pouring back into serving in a restaurant [short term]. It was hard enough when we had the lowest infection rate in the country.”

For too long, Lamont said, good-paying jobs that form the basis of a stable career could only be accessed by those with considerable education and existing means. He said he hopes new certificate programs, which could get people trained for certain technical jobs in weeks or months rather than years, will be one potential remedy.

“It should be a time of real opportunity if we can give folks who were left behind that chance,” he said.

On the whole, Lamont said he believes the Connecticut economy is well-positioned for 2022 and beyond, because even when the effects of massive federal spending gradually wear off, Connecticut can fall back on the strength of three critical sectors — aerospace and defense, the biotechnology and life sciences industry coalescing around New Haven and Yale University, and fintech, as illustrated by the growth of TOMO and DCG, an investor in bitcoin and blockchain technologies that is moving its headquarters from New York City to Stamford.

Policy priorities

Heading into 2022, Lamont has a few policy goals he’d like to advance, but his overriding message, he said, is “do no harm” — or, don’t raise taxes when you don’t have to.

He’d like to reintroduce a property tax relief plan, calling the current system “regressive” and overly burdensome for homeowners. Similar efforts have stalled in the legislature before, but with the state now enjoying a surplus, political calculations could be different this time around.

“It’s something I promised to do and I’m going to try again,” he said.

Lamont also voiced support for doing away with, or at least reducing, licensing fees or other small taxes on businesses that he said send the wrong message to companies that might be looking to relocate to the state.

In the business recruitment realm, the governor said he wants to continue in the direction forged by David Lehman, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

“Before, they gave incentives to companies that didn’t have a compelling reason to be here,” he said. “Lehman has turned that on its head. He’s talking about why companies should want to come to Connecticut, what we offer.”

Lamont said he isn’t under any illusions about the kind of businesses he can bring to Connecticut, but he is hopeful that growing the density of experienced IT workers in cities such as Hartford, through the presence of companies like HCL and Infosys, could have a knock-on effect.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an elephant coming in,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to get the Amazon headquarters here to Hartford. But I do think you’re going to see a hundred really exciting startups and a couple dozen of them will create something meaningful.”