Excerpt of Governor Lamont’s State of the State Address

Unlike many other states, which are facing federal cuts or a deficit of their own, Connecticut is stepping up to protect our most vulnerable, and we are trying to make life a little less expensive for working families and the middle class, who are getting slammed by higher costs.

The Connecticut economy is strong, for now. We have faster economic growth (fourth highest in the country last quarter), more new business startups, and lower unemployment than most of the nation — all of which contributes to higher state income, and that allows our 2027 budget to increase investments in education, housing, and nonprofits — not to mention our emergency reserve.

How can we help folks who are suffering through one of the coldest winters in decades, facing enormous heating bills, not to mention inflationary food and housing? Thanks largely to seven very volatile artificial intelligence stocks, the so-called “Magnificent Seven,” our streaky capital gains revenue is strong for this year, and I propose sending you an energy rebate, about $400 per family, to help you and your family manage through these trying times.

Remember cheering on the essential workers during COVID? Many of them were earning the minimum wage, which today is almost $17 an hour, up from about $10 since we took office. After receiving no increase for several years, our state employees have received a wage increase every year we’ve been in office.

Many of our essential workers receive an expanded money back earned income tax credit — about $1,000. And the middle class received a $400 million income tax cut, which we did on a bipartisan and sustainable basis.

Getting our fiscal house in order has also allowed us to save young and growing families tens of thousands of dollars per year in childcare costs. Our budget is still in surplus, allowing us to make another sizeable deposit in our childcare endowment, well on our way to making universal early childhood education a reality.

And then your kid is on to some of the best K-12 schools in the country. Connecticut was a leader in getting phones out of the classroom. Let’s go one step further — no phones bell to bell in any of our schools, and let’s work with our neighboring states in requiring that no child under the age of 18 has access to dangerous apps without parental permission.

Connecticut has one of the best school systems in the country, but that is not true of all of our schools. In the coming days I will sign an executive order to create the Blue Ribbon Commission on K-12 Education.

Making life a little less expensive means more housing in a state where more and more people want to be — as long as they can find a place to call home. Our housing market is very tight, which means that your home is worth 40% more than it was five years ago. That’s good, you are building wealth, but if you don’t already own a home it is also more expensive to rent or buy a home.

We are building more housing in Connecticut, mostly in our larger towns and cities, and thanks to leaders like Jason Rojas and Bob Duff, we are trying to make it easier and faster and less expensive to build new housing.

Resources have doubled over the last seven years, but the long-term answer is economic growth and real reform.

Let’s take energy. The answer isn’t just more subsidies or moving costs from ratepayers to taxpayers. Our electricity prices have been among the highest in the country for the last generation or two. We do not have ready access to more energy sources. And demand is picking up as our economy accelerates.

We extended our Millstone nuclear agreement and said slow down new data centers, unless they add more generation as well. The Millstone contract is returning over $100 million to ratepayers this year as the price of natural gas skyrockets.

Our energy regulatory authority, PURA, requires a constructive relationship with our utilities, but PURA should never be afraid to hold the utilities accountable. We will continue to scrutinize rates and ensure ratepayers are only covering infrastructure and energy use. They’re no longer paying charitable, legal, advertising, and lobbying expenses. Your shareholders — not ratepayers — are now paying these bills.

Supply and demand — more housing reduces the cost of housing, more generation reduces the cost of electricity, more economic growth reduces taxes. We are making progress, but we have a long way to go.

Accelerating healthcare costs are the looming iceberg on our radar systems. Just as we are getting our pensions under control, healthcare costs are eating up more and more of our budget, especially Medicaid and retiree healthcare costs, and your local businesses or school budgets are equally impacted. We can’t wait for innovations from the feds … so any increase is born by the states.

All the while, our population is getting older, hospitalizations are booming. We have not been waiting. Comptroller Sean Scanlon has been on this for years. His healthcare guy, Josh Wojcik, is now our interim OPM secretary, and getting control of our healthcare spending is a big reason why.

Let’s work together on the Connecticut Option. This plan will encourage state employees, retirees, and small businesses to go to hospitals where you get the best value, because some hospitals charge 50% more than others for the same outcome.

We will be able to offer you healthcare with no co-pays or deductibles if you sign up to the Connecticut Option, saving you money, saving the state money, and making sure our top-line healthcare is affordable for you.

I want to give a shout out to the Connecticut State Police and their municipal police brothers and sisters. We have perhaps the best trained police force in the world, making Connecticut one of the very safest states.

God bless America and the great State of Connecticut.