Connecticut’s candidates for governor made their cases to business leaders in the state Thursday, laying out their competing approaches to lowering costs and strengthening the state’s economy less than seven weeks before Election Day.
Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich) and Gov. Ned Lamont, the incumbent Democrat seeking a third term, appeared separately during the Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s annual The Connecticut Economy event at the Hartford Marriott Downtown, which was attended by more than 400 people.
Both candidates were interviewed by CBIA President and CEO Chris DiPentima, with Fazio appearing first and Lamont serving as the event’s final speaker.
The discussions followed the release of CBIA’s annual Survey of Connecticut Businesses, which found that employers remain profitable but continue to struggle with rising costs and a shrinking labor force.
Both candidates focused heavily on affordability, healthcare, energy and workforce shortages, but offered different prescriptions for addressing those challenges.
Fazio
Fazio argued that Connecticut’s high cost of living is hampering economic growth and making it more difficult for businesses to attract workers. He said his administration would pursue an affordability agenda built around tax cuts, lower energy costs, property-tax relief and deregulation.
Among his key proposals:
- Cut income taxes. Fazio said his top priority is passing what he called the largest middle-class tax cut in state history, saving a family earning about $100,000 roughly $2,000 annually. He said the state could afford about $1 billion in tax cuts by limiting spending growth to roughly the rate of inflation and finding efficiencies elsewhere in government.
- Cut electric bills by 20%. He reiterated his pledge to reduce electric bills by eliminating costs associated with the Renewable Portfolio Standard and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, along with most programs funded through the public benefits charge. He argued those policies significantly contribute to Connecticut’s high electricity costs.
- Cap property taxes and roll back municipal mandates. Fazio said his administration would review roughly 1,400 state mandates imposed on municipalities and seek to eliminate hundreds of them. Reducing those costs, he said, would help municipalities operate under a property-tax cap similar to one adopted in Massachusetts.
- Reduce healthcare costs through greater competition. He called for allowing association health plans, which allow small businesses to pool to buy coverage. He also advocated for reforming the state’s Certificate of Need process and reconsidering some state-mandated health insurance benefits.
- Cut regulations and occupational licensing barriers. Fazio pledged to eliminate two regulations for every new one adopted. He also called for greater recognition of occupational licenses issued by other states and reducing licensing fees for workers.
- Expand apprenticeships and vocational education. Fazio said the state should remove restrictions on the number of apprentices businesses can employ while also expanding vocational and technical education based on workforce needs identified by employers.
- Preserve and modify the fiscal guardrails. Fazio said the state’s spending cap should remain tied to inflation or household income growth. He also said the volatility cap should be recalibrated to provide somewhat more flexibility while the state’s bonding cap should be tightened to reduce borrowing.
Fazio also said he would make greater use of the governor’s line-item veto to restrain spending if faced with budgets passed by a Democratic-controlled legislature.
Lamont
Lamont countered that Connecticut is in a significantly stronger fiscal and economic position than when he took office in 2019, pointing to pension debt payments, budget reserves, population growth and recent economic gains.
He acknowledged, however, that affordability remains a major concern and said healthcare would be his biggest priority during a third term.
Among the priorities he outlined:
- Create a larger healthcare purchasing pool. Lamont said he supports association health plans but wants to go further by developing his “Connecticut Option,” potentially pooling small businesses with state employees, retirees and municipal employees to gain greater negotiating leverage with hospitals and insurers. Private insurers or other entities would bear the insurance risk rather than taxpayers, he said.
- Make healthcare a top third-term priority. Lamont said Connecticut has made significant progress in reducing its pension liabilities, but healthcare costs have become an increasingly significant fiscal challenge. “That’s why that’s the biggest priority I’ve got for the next four years,” he said.
- Increase housing supply. Lamont said the state needs more workforce housing to support economic growth. He favored municipalities taking the lead and pointed to converting underused shopping centers, mills and other commercial properties into housing rather than imposing broad state mandates on towns.
- Expand affordable childcare. Lamont pointed to the state’s roughly $750 million early-childhood endowment and said Connecticut is moving toward free childcare for families earning up to $100,000, beginning with universal pre-K. He said lowering childcare costs would also help employers by making it easier for parents to return to work.
- Build stronger education-to-workforce pathways. Lamont said the state should expand high school internships and apprenticeships and better align community college programs with available jobs. He also floated the possibility of paying employers to provide apprenticeship opportunities, an idea he said is being examined by the state’s Career Pathways Commission.
- Encourage municipalities to share services. Lamont said Connecticut’s 169 municipalities could lower costs by sharing back-office and specialized services such as building inspectors, IT employees, purchasing staff and some school personnel. He said the state’s regional councils of governments could provide a mechanism for expanding those arrangements.
- Maintain the fiscal guardrails while allowing targeted adjustments. Lamont said the state’s improved pension position gives policymakers some room to modify the guardrails, but said he would continue opposing the use of volatile revenues such as capital gains to finance recurring operating expenses.
- Maintain nuclear power and energy-efficiency programs. Lamont argued that shifting nuclear and energy efficiency costs from the public benefits charge on electric bills to the state budget would simply transfer those costs to taxpayers. Connecticut’s nuclear agreements and pending industry changes, he added, could provide leverage to hold down electricity prices.
Asked what he hoped to achieve by the time a third-term ends in 2030, Lamont said Connecticut should focus its economic-development efforts on advanced manufacturing, life sciences, quantum technology, the trades and small businesses, while also encouraging companies to lure more of their supply chain partners to the state.
