Lamont and Fazio clash over taxes, energy and the cost of living in final debate

UNCASVILLE – Behind in the polls with a week left until Election Day, state Sen. Ryan Fazio on Tuesday night aggressively criticized Gov. Ned Lamont during the final of the campaign’s two debates.

Fazio, the Republican challenger, said he would reform the state’s property taxes and eliminate so-called unfunded state mandates that require towns and cities to foot the bill for laws passed by the General Assembly.

Lamont, a Democrat, defended his eight years as governor and stressed that President Donald Trump’s war with Iran is inflating the price of gasoline and home heating oil on the cusp of the winter heating season.

“If we have to do more, we’ll do more,” Lamont said, pointing to the state’s recent multimillion-dollar state infusion into heating relief. “No one is getting cold this winter.”

During the debate before a crowd of about 300 at the Expo Center of the Mohegan Sun, Fazio said the state needs a 25-cent reduction in the gasoline and diesel taxes. But Lamont said that proposal was similar to previous efforts at relief that ultimately drastically cut the state’s fund for transportation projects to the point it was nearly insolvent.

At another point in the debate, Fazio recalled meeting a woman in Eastern Connecticut who was nearing retirement and was worried that she would have to sell her home because of high costs on property taxes, utilities and insurance.

“I’ve met people all across our state with similar stories,” said Fazio, who in recent polls trails Lamont by 20 percentage points or more. “This election, this campaign, is about them. After eight years, Gov. Lamont had his chance. He promised to hold the line on taxes, but he increased your taxes. He promised to cut your property taxes, but property taxes have risen 30% on his watch. Now it’s time for a change.”

But Lamont pointed to improvements made in the state since his early days in office.

“Eight years ago we were lurching from deficit to deficit,” Lamont said, noting that fiscal uncertainty in the State Capitol trickled down to massive funding questions in local budgets.

“We had three tax increases in a row. Your mayors and first selectmen remember they couldn’t even get a budget done in 2017 until three or four months late. So I do disagree that we’re not in a better place today that we were before,” Lamont said. “We’ve gone from one of the slowest-growing economies in the country to one of the fastest-growing. But we have more work to do because the middle class is getting screwed, and I think that war in Iran, I think, tariffs, are driving up the cost of everything.”

During much of the televised debate, Fazio kept Lamont on the defensive on a variety of issues, from municipal control of development to the cost of energy as they traded one-minute answers and 30-second rebuttals.

“We’re the only state in the country that has been able to reduce electric prices compared to a year ago,” Lamont said. “So we’re doing better than we were before, but that’s not good enough because it’s still very expensive.”

He called Fazio’s proposal to shift the portion of electric bills called “public benefits” into the state budget, as unacceptable. “That’s not going to save anybody any money,” Lamont said.

Lamont said he was amenable to pursuing new sources of energy generation, including wind power, solar, nuclear and natural gas.

Fazio was asked how he would persuade a likely Democratic majority in the General Assembly to accept his proposal on electric bills, which in recent years included subsidies for defunct businesses during the COVID pandemic as well as keeping open the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford.

“Over the last year I’ve been going all across our state and not one single person has come up to me and shared the type of vision and reaction that Gov. Lamont just characterized energy prices with,” Fazio said. “I’ve proposed to eliminate every single hidden tax and fee, including the public benefits charge for good and cut our electric bills by 20% in the long run.”

Fazio also said a tax cut is crucial. “We not only want a tax cut in this state, we must deliver a tax cut for this state,” he said.

Lamont replied that his previous election campaigns featured GOP opponents who promised to eliminate the personal income tax. “I think you’re heard that for about 30 years. We’re the ones that have stepped forward, kept our promise and cut the income tax,” Lamont said.

“When he first ran for office, Gov. Lamont promised ‘I will cut your property taxes,'” Fazio said. “Those are his words, not anybody else’s. Talk about unrealistic promises. Over the last eight years that he’s been in office, because of his policies, property taxes have gone up by 30% or more in most of our municipalities.”

Fazio also charged that Lamont has not solved the state’s soaring costs of special education. “Eventually, the buck has to stop somewhere,” Fazio said. “All of those costs that the state is imposing on local governments, including over 104 bills that Gov. Lamont signed into law since 2020 alone, increased those costs even more.”

“We have almost doubled the amount of funding the state is providing for special education, and we’re having a hard time keeping up,” Lamont said. “Autism and other needs are growing fast. It could be 30% of our budgets right now. I want to see how the state can make a real difference. Make it easier for you to take care of these kids locally.”

Fazio and Lamont agreed that they oppose bringing back highway tolls to the state.

“You may have heard I actually tried something like that a while back,” Lamont said. “When I came into office, we had a Special Transportation Fund that had nothing in it. Zero. It was on fumes. Now here we are seven-and-a-half-years later and we’ve got a Special Transportation Fund that’s afloat. Again, the Republicans, they don’t want the tolls, they certainly want to cut the gas tax. Somebody else can figure out how to pay for roads and bridges.”

The hourlong debate was sponsored by WTNH News Channel 8, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and AARP Connecticut. The panel included reporter Kathryn Hauser, anchor Dennis House and Joe DeLong, executive director of the CCM.

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This article originally published at Lamont and Fazio clash over taxes, energy and the cost of living in final debate.