Ned Lamont, Josh Elliott spar over taxes, utilities in Connecticut governor debate

NEW HAVEN - With less than three weeks before the Aug. 11 Democratic primary, Gov. Ned Lamont and state Rep. Josh Elliott, in their only head-to-head debate, argued about Connecticut's tax structure and electric utility regulation during a rapid-fire, sometimes contentious 44-minute debate Wednesday night on WTNH News 8.

In the end, the two Democrats were even more-combative in five-minute post-debate spin sessions with reporters than they were on TV. Elliott, in his fifth, two-year term, stressed the need for a generational change. Lamont noted that Elliott, unlike most state lawmakers, has never visited the governor's state Capitol office.

"We've gotten a lot done, in the last seven and a half years, working with the legislature," Lamont told several reporters. "I think we've got one of the most-progressive agendas of any governor around the country." He highlighted cuts in the income tax; paid family and medical leave; annual raises in the minimum wage; and an early childhood endowment fund that will provide for free daycare and preschool for families making less than $100,000 by 2028.

"He didn't get anything passed," Lamont said of Elliott's upstart campaign even as he is simultaneously running for reelection to his House seat representing Hamden. "He doesn't have much of a track record to talk about." Lamont recalled being the first governor to directly question President Donald Trump on ICE's use of violence in Minneapolis.

"I can be combative," Elliott told reporters. "If you're afraid to take off your gloves, then this isn't the job for you. You want someone who's going to fight. That's what this moment calls for. All along I will say Gov. Lamont, he is nice and he is stable, but he is not serious and he's not a fighter. The fact is he just doesn't still know how the legislature works. The fact is that also he is out of step with the Democratic Party. The fact is, he is not in line with what the voters have put into place in the legislature, and that's a big problem."

The debate, which limited the candidates to brief one and two-minute answers to questions from Dennis House, News 8 chief political anchor and Mike Cerulli, chief political correspondent, included questions focused on one of the big differences between Lamont and Elliott, who believes that Connecticut's wealthiest should pay higher income taxes.

"The top 4,500 income earners in our state pay less than eight percent of their income to state and local taxes," Elliott said in kicking off the debate. "The neediest in our state, the 1.2 million at the bottom, a third of our state, pay over 20%. This is a system that we've become accustomed to. And it is also deeply unfair. We're the second-most reliant state on the property tax, which is deeply regressive. The only way we can fix this is through a fair tax structure, asking the wealthy to pay a commensurate amount, a fair amount."

Lamont said that he would raise taxes only if forced to.

 "The middle class is getting hammered in this country right now," Lamont said. "They're working harder and harder and harder and having a tough time getting by. Josh has said 'let's raises taxes.' I say let's not go back to where we were 10 or 15 years ago. Ten or 15 years ago they raised taxes three times in a row. It resulted in deficit upon deficit. I inherited $2 billion deficits as far as the eye could see. We're in a different place now. We're getting our fiscal house in order."

"When my opponent says that there was a $2 billion deficit, by the time he got elected we actually already fixed that and we've also seen under the same tenure over the last eight years record market highs," Elliott countered. "It's been a bull market. It's hard to say that he came in and fixed this problem, when we had already put these things in place before he got there, and we've had record highs while he's been here."

"Josh, we've increased funding for education by about $450 million since I've been in place, and we've doubled the amount of money we have for special ed and we're providing free breakfast for students," said Lamont, a Greenwich resident.

The candidates argued over municipalities running their own electric utilities and the burying of electric lines.

Elliott said that about 30 percent of the nation's electric supply is through publicly owned energy, compared to only six municipalities in Connecticut. "Do you know where we have undergrounding of wires?" he asked. "In Greenwich. It's good enough for him and his friends, but not the rest of the state."

Lamont promised to "hold their feet to the fire" when utilities request higher rates. "It's not going to go to high-priced salaries or lobbying fees or advertising and all the other things that go on." He said that the prospect of 169 communities owning their own electric companies "is absolutely insane and would cost tens of billions of dollars to bury all those wires because this is all (rocky) ledge. I think it would add $700 a month to your bill."

"The Ned Lamont campaign," Elliott replied, "is where good ideas go to die. These utility companies have massive amounts of money, so what they do is drag this out in court. So what we do on the back end is write a law to value their infrastructure at book value, not market value."  

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