Future Of COVID-19, Need For Affordable Housing Detailed By Gov. Ned Lamont

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont fielded questions about Covid-19 mandates, affordable housing, businesses and pandemic essential worker bonuses during an interview on Connecticut Public Radio’s Where We Live program.

Lamont's opponent, Bob Stefanowski, appeared on the program earlier in the week.

Here are some of the main discussions that came up during the interview:

Future Covid-19 mask mandates unlikely

Lamont said it’s unlikely the state would institute new mask mandates.

“People have the ability to keep themselves safe. I don't see any need for mandates,” he said, adding that people have access to testing and vaccines.

He also touted his administration’s move to open schools faster than states in the region.

“We got our schools open faster than just about any state or certainly any state in the region. And a lot of people noticed, we had tens of thousands of families, young families moving into the state of Connecticut.”

Businesses struggling to get workers

Connecticut companies are struggling to find workers. Lamont touted some of the state’s job training programs, and the recent announcement of additional funding for accelerated nursing and social work education programs.

“Every business I talked to is looking for employees, trained employees, and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to lift people up, and I'm going to make sure we don't miss that opportunity,” he said.

Schools

Lamont urged people not to try and pit teachers against parents, and that the two groups work well with each other already.

“I think our teachers have the right judgement, what’s age appropriate, and I don’t think our kids are snowflakes, I think they can learn from history just like all of us can,” Lamont said.

Affordable housing

Lamont wants towns to come up with their own plans to make 10 percent of their housing stock affordable.

“We are desperately short of housing across the board,” he said.

He suggested towns look into developing downtown areas with affordable housing instead of changing zoning rules across the board. He didn’t think litigation, like the recent lawsuit against the Town of Woodbridge, was a solution.

“If you show us this is a place we’ll allow our downtown to grow and expand a little bit, and you don’t have to sit around subdividing one acre lots, I don’t think that’s the future.

Essential worker bonus program

Connecticut launched a $30 million pandemic bonus program for essential workers who worked during the Covid-19 pandemic. The target amount was $1,000 for 30,000 workers, but more than 255,000 people have applied, according to the CT Mirror. Democratic legislators have called for more funding.

Lamont said he tried to strike the right balance between funding the bonus program, other state investments and paying down the state’s debt. He said he tried to lead by example by signing off on bonuses and raises for state employees.

State legislators approved bonuses largely along party lines for state employees in an effort to stem a large retirement wave. State employees got a $2,500 bonus in mid-May, $1,000 bonus in mid-July, plus a 2.5 percent wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2021. They also got a 2.5 percent raise on July 1, 2022, and another is scheduled for July 1, 2023.

Republicans legislators criticized the deal and said it was too generous. The whole deal was estimated to cost $1.87 billion over four years.

School construction grant and New London pier controversies

Stefanowski has been critical of Lamont’s administration’s handling of the school construction grant program and the New London pier project.

The federal government launched an investigation into Connecticut’s school construction grant program, and Lamont’s administration hired an outside agency to audit the auditing of the program after some discrepancies were discovered.

Former head of the Office of School Construction Grants & Review Kostantinos Diamantis was fired from his position as a deputy secretary with the Office of Policy and Management and retired from his construction grant project, according to the CT Mirror.

Lamont said his administration acted quickly and transparently when allegations surfaced.

“This investigation has been going on for what, six, eight months? I haven't heard any more about it,” Lamont said during the interview. “But keep looking. I want to make people confident that we're doing the right thing here.”

“I worry a lot less about corruption than I do about stupid things we do as a state over the last 30 years. That’s where the real cost is,” he said.

The New London pier project, which is overseen by the quasi-public Connecticut Port Authority, started with a $93 million cost estimate in 2019, but it has since ballooned to at least $235 million, according to The Day. The site will be used to construct wind turbines that will eventually power thousands of homes.

“There were a variety of things that impacted the cost of the pier. Mainly, we're having to reorient it slightly to accommodate the ferries,” Lamont said. “But I want to give people confidence, it's money well invested, and it's going to make a big difference for the state.”