Harding fights government overreach at State Capitol

By Scott Benjamin

MORRIS – In his nominating speech, New Milford Mayor Pete Bass notes that unlike so many of the Millennial generation, the nominee didn’t leave the state after college and law school because Connecticut is an expensive place to live and too often the job opportunities are too few.

The nominee, Stephen Harding, 36, worked on a congressional campaign right after law school, got elected a little more than two years later to the state House and then two years ago to the state Senate. On February 16 he became the Republican leader of the upper chamber.

He wasn’t married when he was first elected to the General Assembly, but now he has a wife who teaches at the Sarah Noble Intermediate School in New Milford and they have a son and daughter.

In accepting the Republican nomination in the 30th District, Harding of Brookfield says that his son, Carter, recently saw a lawn sign for a commercial entity and asked, “When are the Harding for Senate signs coming?”

On Tuesday night, May 14, there is a large sign near the podium at the Morris Community Hall and smaller lawn signs noting support from “Businesses” and “Police.”

Legislators are sometimes caught in the quandary of being in a part-time General Assembly which requires full-time hours even when it is not in session, and also earning a living beyond their base $40,000 annual salary.

Republican former state Sen. Jamie McLaughlin, a former Brookfield resident, once said it is easier to do it in the very early stages of your career or when you're near or at retirement age.

Since February 16, now with leadership responsibilities, has this virtually become a full-time job?

“Yes,” Harding says in an interview with Patch.com. “However, it was generally a full-time job before because every day I was doing something in respect to my job as a state senator.”

“I would say [the work load] has increased,” he added. “I wouldn’t say considerably.”

Harding said the 30th District has benefitted since he has been in the room with other legislative leaders.

“I have been able to get into conversations that I otherwise wouldn’t have been having,” he explained. “It meant getting funding for the Sherman School that was not previously in the school construction budget as we ended the session [May 8].”

Longtime Republican State Central Committee member John Morris of Litchfield seconded Harding’s nomination by noting that he out-foxed the Democratic Senate leadership at the close of the session by stopping their efforts to enact an expensive climate change bill in exchange for providing unemployment benefits for striking workers. Then the day after the session Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) announced that he would veto the unemployment benefits package.

In an e-mail interview with Patch.com, state Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36) of Greenwich stated that Harding has fought against “government overreach” by the Democrats.

These days, if you asked Harding about Juan Soto’s performance for the Yankees, his likely answer is, “Fiscal guard rails.”

He said if the Democrats add to their majorities in the General Assembly – for example, they have a 24-12 advantage in the state Senate – “they’re going to try to remove or significantly alter the volatility cap” that has funneled capital gains money into the rainy-day fund and reducing a pension debt that is 52 percent funded, well below the 80 percent standard of excellence.

“I will oppose any alterations of the fiscal guard rails, particularly the volatility cap,” Harding declared.

The fiscal guard rails also include a spending cap.

The guard rails were enacted in 2017 when the Senate was 18-18 and a bipartisan package was approved nearly four months into a new fiscal year. Some legislators have credited them with boosting a state fiscal profile that had been in contraction just a decade ago.

When asked about Lamont’s performance, Harding said, “I think Gov. Lamont has disagreed with the far left of his party at times, which I support. I think he has tried to abide by the fiscal guard rails.”

“The one thing I will criticize him on is that he says he supports the guard rails but he is ultimately going to sign [a revised 2024] budget package that was passed by the majority party that I would argue is violating the fiscal guard rails that he says he supports. I do truly question how much he supports the spirit of the fiscal guard rails.”

In an e-mail message to his constituents, state Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury, the Deputy Speaker Pro-tempore, countered that, “Connecticut will be leveraging federal funds instead of adjusting the biennium budget.”

Godfrey stated that, among other things, the revised package increases higher education funding by $160 million.

During the current term, legislators from both parties have boasted about supporting a bipartisan budget in 2023 that reduced the income tax rate from five percent to 4.5 percent for the middle class and from three to two percent for the lower income.

Harding said it is too early to have statistics on the fiscal impact of those reductions, but he has received positive anecdotal feedback from constituents in the massive district – geographically the largest in Connecticut – which stretches from Brookfield to North Canaan.

“However, I still hear how unaffordable Connecticut is,” he commented. “I’m also hearing that my electric bill is skyrocketing.”

Some people who move in from out of state say that you are paying for the location.

Harding said he believes the state can be a good location and have a lower tax burden.

“I think we can do more [to lower taxes],” he exclaimed. “We have $4 billion in reserves.”

Harding voted against the recent one-year contract agreement with the collective bargaining units, which provided a 2.5 percent increase in pay with other provisions that could boost it to 4.5 percent.

Lamont has said the increased salaries were needed to help attract quality state employees.

“I firmly believe in that,” said Harding.

But he said it was a one-year pact, which came after the state employees had received an accumulated salary increase of 30 percent over the previous five years.

The money “could have been invested in other areas” to bolster the state, Harding commented.

On another topic, last December he said the state may be in a stronger position than before to ax the car tax, a proposal that didn’t get very far under former Govs. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) and Dannel Malloy (D-Essex).

The General Assembly received a study during the recent session on the car tax, which some residents complain is an unnecessary burden.

Remarked Harding, “I think it is going to be continued to be reviewed. What we need to be conscious of is that if we remove the car tax, in a lot of cases it will force a municipality to raise their property taxes on real property since they will no longer be collecting the car tax.”

He said the best solution might be to “do more to reduce the car tax and municipal property taxes.”

Harding will face Democrat Justin Potter, a native of Washington who now lives in Kent, in the November 5 election. Potter owns a small business and is president of Kent Affordable Housing.

Potter noted in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, the same night as the GOP event, that he already is canvassing unaffiliated voters.

Both candidates have qualified for the Citizens Election Program grants.

Yes, when he entered the convention Harding got the loudest ovation this side of the Good Eggs show at the New York Comedy Club.

Granted, the Republicans in the 30th District have been making first place a full-time occupation. A Democrat has not captured the seat since 1978.

However, Matt Grimes, who ran for the Republican nomination for first selectman in Brookfield last year and was a volunteer on Harding’s 2022 campaign, told Patch.com earlier this year that it has become “a less reliably Republican district.”

The upper Northwest Corner of Litchfield County is now strongly Republican. However, Harding had solid support two years ago in New Milford and Brookfield along the southern corridor of the district, which has about 100,000 residents.

Harding won an open seat in 2022 with 53.8 percent of the vote against Eva Bermudez Zimmerman of New Milford, a labor official and child-care advocate who had made a bid for the 2018 Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.

Grimes has said the Republicans will likely face “considerable head winds” in Connecticut with popular U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford) on the ballot this year. When he ran for a second term in 2018, Murphy assembled an extensive state canvassing operation.

Democratic State Central Committee member Audrey Blondin of Goshen has said that at minimum statewide Democratic President Joe Biden will take at least 60 percent of the vote this fall against Republican former President Donald Trump.

Bass told the delegates that Harding has helped address traffic congestion in New Milford, which has a large vehicle count along Route 7.

“We need him to stay in Hartford,” he declared. “He makes sure our community is safe.”