Lamont points to record of sound fiscal judgment

By Scott Benjamin

HARTFORD – The satellite campaign headquarters is in the basement of an office building with a door that doesn’t have a knob, so it either is left ajar during working hours or you can knock on the window and someone will promptly let you in with a friendly greeting.

There is a large work space surrounded by cement walls that are decorated with large blue dots and yellow dots.

Ned Lamont lawn signs are on the tables and there are young campaign staffers, volunteers and interns full of smiles and energy as they scroll their lap tops and iPhones to contact voters.

One staffer says that he used to work at the front desk at the Hartford Public Library and patrons mentioned that they appreciated Lamont’s policies.

There is a soft drink waiting on a table in one of the offices when Connecticut’s 89^th governor arrives.

When reference is made to Brookfield Democrat Frist Selectman Steve Dunn, who met with Lamont in April at the State Capitol to discuss the proposed expansion of a compressor station, the governor says, “He seemed like a pragmatic person. I like pragmatism.”

Welcome to Ned’s No New Taxes Only New Taxpayers tour.

Twenty years ago, the late David Broder, the Washington Post political columnist, wrote that Lamont was the favorite in “a complete mismatch” with three-term U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Stamford) in an August primary because Lamont was the “cause” – as a result of his opposition of America’s strategy in Iraq - and Lieberman was the “candidate.”

In the August 11 Democratic gubernatorial primary (early voting commences on Monday, August 3), Lamont of Greenwich is favored, but his challenger – state Rep. Josh Elliott (D-88) of Hamden - apparently is the “cause” – amplifying a message that the top one percent should be taxed more - and Lamont is the “candidate.”

“No one becomes more establishment than a two-term governor in the eyes of others,” said two-time Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill Curry in a phone interview.

“The appeal of Elliott’s campaign is that we’ll get to the big stuff,” remarked Curry, who largely praises Lamont’s record.

Curry explained, “The message is not just that they’re not doing enough to stop Trump. It is that they’re not swinging for the fences.”

Since his 1994 gubernatorial campaign, Curry has swung for the fences more times than Albert Pujols on property tax reform, but without success.

He now says, “They are a burden on working families and small businesses and contributes to some of the worst land-use planning in the country.”

CT Mirror budget reporter Keith Phanuef has stated that only New Jersey and New Hampshire are more reliant on property taxes. The 100-member Citizens’ Assembly is writing a report on property tax reform that will be distributed in September in hopes of getting commitments from the gubernatorial contenders.

Remarked Lamont, “It has come up every four years going back to Bill Curry: Let’s just raise the income tax and that will mitigate the property tax. Rowland raised it 10 percent; Rell raised it 30 percent; Malloy raised it 10 percent. It slowed up our economy and did nothing to reduce property taxes.”

“We have done just the opposite,” he commented. “We have cut taxes and improved state aid to education and aid to municipalities. It has helped, but it hasn’t helped enough.”

“We used to lose population to Massachusetts. now we gain population from Massachusetts,” said Lamont. “Massachusetts raised its income tax a lot. There are a lot of reasons, but that’s one of the reasons

“We’re not gaining population fast, but we’re gaining, and some of that is related to immigration, legal immigration,” he said.

“People say the property tax is high and the state doesn’t subsidize enough, and there’s some truth to that,” remarked Lamont.

“But also, we have more superintendents, deputy superintendents and building inspectors and public health per capita than any state in the country,” he said. "Because we do everything 169 towns. Because I have 169 towns.

Lamont appointed an ad-hoc committee that will be submitting a report within months on education spending.

“My competitors [Elliott and Republican nominee Ryan Fazio, the state senator from Greenwich] want more money for the status quo,” Lamont said. “That’s not my style. We’re going to give more money that will make a difference for the kids and a difference for the municipalities.”

“Maybe the state should take over special education,” he commented. “That’s a really growing piece of your budget and now its 25 percent and next year it is 35 percent of your budget. You’re a small town with three kids with special needs that you didn’t anticipate. You’re sending them an hour and a half to Massachusetts and it is costing you $200,000 a year. Your property taxes explode.”

“This is the type of thinking I’ve got that will reduce property taxes and more important, do the right thing for the kids,” Lamont said.

What is the change in state government over the last 20 years that has provided the most benefit?

“Getting our fiscal house in order in the last seven and a half years” Lamont said. “We were a fiscal train wreck.”

Partly due to fiscal guardrails approved in 2017, more than a year before Lamont took office, the state currently has $4.5 billion in its rainy-day fund.

“At least I don’t have to raise taxes or cut the heck out of services for people,” he exclaimed.

“In the private sector when there is a recession, you pull back a little because you’re not selling as much stuff,” Lamont explained. “In government it is just the opposite. If there is a recession, government’s costs go up because you need government more than ever” for health care, food assistance and unemployment compensation.

Lamont’s allies boast that he reduced income tax rates for the middle and lower class for the first time in almost 30 years.

“Buy now, pay later. I hear that a lot from my two competitors,” Lamont said. “That is exactly what got us into trouble in the 2010s.”

Connecticut’s economy contracted between 2008 and 2016, according to the 2018 report from the state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness.

Fazio, for example, has called for a 100 percent bonus depreciation for corporations on plant, property and equipment investment. In April, Rob Blanchard, a senior advisor on Lamont’s campaign, stated that would risk “blowing a hole” in the state budget with no guarantee of job growth.

State Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding (R-30) of Brookfield said Lamont has “failed to make Connecticut more affordable.”

In health care, Lamont and state Comptroller Sean Scanlon (D-Guilford) are trying to develop CT Option.

Katy Golvala of CT Mirror wrote that the legislation would direct the state Office of Policy and Management to study the feasibility of a plan that “would be designed by the state, but run by private insurers.”

Lamont remarked, “Medicaid costs are going up, small businesses can’t afford health care. They have no purchasing power. It is a big priority for me to bend the curve.”

“Some hospitals cost a heck of a lot more than others,” he said. We’re trying to get state employees, retirees and small businesses to go to places where you get the best value. No co-pays, no out-of-pocket. That would bring down the cost of health care for everybody.”

Lamont launched a Workforce Council during his first year in office to connect corporate employers with educational institutions to train workers for middle skill positions.

He said some workers have become certified through 18-week programs and then after being hired have taken community college classes at night.

“We were losing manufacturing jobs for 50 or 60 years,” Lamont exclaimed. “Now manufacturing is a bigger part of our economy.”

“In the last seven and half years we have gone from one of the slowest growing economies to one of the fastest,” Lamont exclaimed.

Lamont has distributed a campaign flier that states, “When Donald Trump Comes After Connecticut, Ned Fights Back.”

“It is an effective strategy ,” said Sacred Heart University Government professor Gary Rose, who wrote a book on the 2018 gubernatorial campaign in which Lamont was first elected.

“I think there will be a lot of anti-Trump voters participating in the Democratic primary,” Rose explained.

Connecticut is an export-dependent state. Trump has imposed tariffs on foreign goods since Liberation Day more than a year ago, but some of them have been retracted or altered.

“Being so erratic is the worst thing you can do,” Lamont declared. “It is terrible for business. The on, off, on, off has been very disconcerting to everybody I talk to in the business world here.”

He is even more critical of the president’s fiscal policies.

“They haven’t even tried to present a budget that is balanced,” Lamont lamented.

“Donald Trump is raising up deficits to the tune of $2 trillion a year.,” he declared. “What is going to hit the next generation hard is paying off that load.”

Lamont exclaimed, “Look, I’m the guy who is cautious in this state when anybody says raise taxes. I think you should be careful. But I think you should do it at the national level. You can’t support the deficit spending that the administration is addicted to.”

Should the federal government impose the Pay As You Go controls from the George H.W., Bush Administration in which additional programs have to be paid for by new taxes or offsetting reductions elsewhere in the budget?

“I think that makes sense,” Lamont commented.

With new fighting in Operation Epic Fury in Iran, oil prices again escalating.

Should the state have another temporary gas tax suspension as it did during the 2022 inflation surge?

“I’ve got to be careful,” said Lamont. “Coming out of COVID, the price of gasoline spiked up. We did a gas tax holiday then.”

“I’ve also have a special transportation fund,” he explained. “So the candidates that propose a gas tax holiday have to figure out how to pay for it. I can’t do that. I’m a governor. Right now we look and see if there are people in need. But I also have to see if we can pay for our roads and bridges.”

Lamont added, “When I came into office there was nothing in that transportation fund. We fixed that. I am cautious about fooling around with the transportation fund.”

When Lamont took office in January 2019, the state’s minimum wage was $10.10 per hour. It is now $16.94 per hour, the second highest in the country.

He remarked, “We came in, people wanted the $15 million wage. The “Fight to $15’ was sort of campaign rhetoric. We got that done in the first year. The economy is growing even faster.”

“There were Republicans that said it would drag the economy into the ditch,” he recalled. “It has done just the opposite.”

Under Dannel Malloy (D-Essex), Lamont’s immediate predecessor as governor, Connecticut enacted landmark reforms on liquor sales. Liquor could be sold on Sunday, later in the weeknight evenings and the package stores were allowed to sell snack food and compete in that area with the supermarkets.

However, the minimum pricing – which is determined by the wholesaler industry – did not change other than a provision to allow stores to sell one monthly item at 10 percent below acquisition costs.

Critics have said minimum pricing restrictions are anti-consumer.

“I think I do have concerns,” related Lamont. “I like to put the consumer first. I am sort of sympathetic to what Dan tried to do. I understand the concern. Consumers like competition.”

“I haven’t thought that much about it. In my list of priorities, I’m not sure it is in the top 20 right now. I see the need for it,” remarked Lamont. “Maybe someone should look at it. It is a fair point.”

Political Scientist Gautam Mukunda wrote in his 2022 book, “Picking Presidents” that the best government leaders are at least intellectually curious- if not intellectually brilliant – and have managerial skills.

Rose said that Lamont is intellectually curious, noting that he sent him a copy of “Connecticut In Crisis,” his 2019 book, which included chapters on state policies.

Said Rose, “He called me to talk about it. That’s a good indication that he is intellectually curious. I don’t see him as a backslapping politician. I think there is an intellectual dimension to him that is beyond some of the governors we’ve had.”

He said Lamont also has managerial skills.

Rose remarked, “I know people say he inherited a lot of money. But he also formed his own business and it was highly successful. He’s had eight consecutive balanced budgets. I think he has been an effective manager.”

What is so terrific about PEZ candy? Shawn Peterson, who oversees the PEZ Visitors Center in Orange, has said that Lamont has been there multiple times walking past the Ken & Barbie dispensers as he buys multiple bags of PEZ tablets.

“It is true,” Lamont said with a laugh. “I like PEZ. I think it’s got a little personality and character. I like going shopping there.”

So when he is at the movie theater instead of going to the refreshment stand to buy Chuckles you bring along PEZ?

“I’m not that bad,” Lamont said.

In 2024 he recommended PEZ, which has been based in Orange since 1974, as the state candy.

However a third-grade class at the Timothy Dwight Elementary School “blew me out of the water.”

As a civics project they had written a report on the lollipop, which had been invented in 1908 by New Haven confectioner George Smith. That argument convinced legislators to put Lamont’s request into the rejection bin.

Municipalities began installing speed cameras last year. Fifteen towns have received approvals. They are not mandated, but the state will provide assistance in getting them installed.

What has been the reaction among motorists?

“What? Get out of here! Privacy. Then, 90 days later: My streets are a little bit safer,” related Lamont.

“I do it in our construction zones,” he commented. “We have a lot of people being hit by a malicious driver who might be looking at his iPhone. I’ve got a guy trying to rebuild an intersection and he gets hit. We have speed cameras there and we’re going to enforce those.”

The last major reorganization of state government was completed 49 years ago. Does it need to be done again?

“I think so,” said Lamont.

Upon taking office in 2019 he established the position of Chief Operating Officer, who oversees agency commissioners, translates the governor’s agenda into operational goals and builds cross-agency efficiency.

CT Mirror State Capitol Bureau Chief Mark Pazniokas reported that it is a position that is “increasingly common in governors’ offices across the U.S.”

Explained Lamont, “Each of our departments are very independent and strong just like our 169 towns are independent and strong. What I’ve tried to do is better consolidate and make sure that our departments remain independent, that’s just the nature of the beast .just the nature of the beast. Make sure that we better coordinate there.”

Ohio and Virginia are developing 90-credit three-year models instead of the standard 120 credits

Zachary Marschall, editor in chief of the Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform, stated in The Wall Street Journal that, “Universities should streamline general-education requirements, trim unnecessary electives and make students declare their majors by the end of their freshman year.”

Should Connecticut ‘s public colleges take that step?

“Why not look at that,” Lamont said. “It would be shortening the time in the ivory tower.”

He said the state already encourages dual enrollment programs in which high school students can earn a small number of college credits before matriculating to a four-year campus. There also are programs where prospective teachers can earn a salary while teaching under a mentor instructor during their last semester in college.

Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock recently wrote that her school is “moving” toward guaranteeing a “paid internship or comparable experiential opportunity” for any student that requests one.

“I like that direction a lot,” Lamont said when asked if the public colleges in Connecticut should take a similar step.

He said many years ago he taught an accounting class at Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport – a subject area that he had to make “relevant” for the students.

So he had restaurant owners and executives from Bigelow Tea as guest speakers.

Lamont commented, “Those kids that asked a lot of questions got an internship.”

Lamont is a Yankees fan who posted team memorabilia years ago at his digital television business in Greenwich.

Should Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, a Darien resident, be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

“I think the Yankees have put forward a consistently quality produce for a long time,” Lamont remarked. “The world is a lot more competitive. You can’t buy a team the way George Steinbrenner was able to do.”

“ I think the fans get a little bit edgy since we haven’t won a world championship in 17years. I think he’s put together a quality team. I like him. I saw “Moneyball [the 2011 movie].”I know the game is changing with analytics. I’m glad they ‘ve sped it up" with the pitch clock.

Who is the better player: Derek Jeter or Aaron Judge.

“Derek took the team to the championship multiple times<” Lamont remarked. “He was a team leader. From a skills side, they’re both incredibly good in the field and the batters’ box. I think they’re both good leaders. But the jury is still out since Aaron’s career is still in motion.”

Said Lamont, “Getting back to Brian Cashman: He was responsible for getting both of those guys.”

Resources:

Interview with Ned Lamont, Patch.com, on Friday, July 17, 2026.

Phone interview with Stephen Harding, Patch.com, on Tuesday, July 14, 2026.\

Phone interview with Gary Rose, Patch.com, on Wednesday, July 15, 2026.

Phone interview with Bill Curry, Patch.com, on Thursday, July 16, 2026.

Gautam Mukunda, "Picking President," University of California Press, 2022.

https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/fazio-displays-cool-savvy-confidence

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2006/07/30/a-terrible-tug-for-democrats/7c33ecd4-6462-429f-8403-e2391a6fcfc6/

https://ctmirror.org/2026/07/16/ct-citizens-assembly-property-tax-gubernatorial-debate/

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/is-a-four-year-degree-worth-it-6af09e3b

https://ctmirror.org/2018/12/14/lamont-makes-first-organizational-change-government/

https://ctmirror.org/2026/03/02/ct-health-care-plancoverage-option-plan-lamont/