Reducing Property Taxes for the Middle Class
From Middlebury to Middletown and Norwalk to Norwich, people in Connecticut feel squeezed. Our state has become one of the most expensive places to raise a family or start a business. And in the face of stagnant wages and weak job growth, Hartford politicians have hit middle class families with tax increase after tax increase. Even worse, there’s barely anything to show for it: after three decades of mismanagement by governors of both parties, our budget hole remains deep and Connecticut’s working families are being asked to pick up more of the tab. It’s unfair, it’s unproductive, and it needs to change. Connecticut’s middle class needs and deserves a break.

Businesses won’t come to a state where their employees can’t afford to live. Young people won’t consider building a future in a state where they can’t afford to own a home. And long-time residents won’t retire where they can’t afford to remain.

That’s why I’m proposing a plan to give Connecticut families a property tax cut. Decades of fiscal mismanagement mean we can’t afford pie-in-the-sky promises, so I’m proposing a smart, achievable commitment to responsibly give middle class families the tax relief they deserve. It’s not only the right thing to do for working families; property tax relief is key to making Connecticut a better place to start or grow a business and create jobs.

Connecticut’s property tax system is broken. We rely far too much on taxing people’s homes and cars to fund essential local services. And towns and cities with the greatest local needs also have the greatest difficulty raising local revenues, with less local wealth to draw on and much of their local property exempt from taxation. Municipalities must become more efficient and reduce costs – but our state must also provide immediate relief to hard-pressed middle class families.

High-need towns and cities have schools to fund, roads to repair, and police and firefighters to keep on the job. With flat or declining local wealth, they are backed into ever-higher property tax rates – making it harder to attract residents and businesses and keep long-time locals in their homes. Development is distorted, too, creating incentives for towns to limit access to families with school-aged children and making it less attractive to develop affordable housing in our cities. Worse still, the burden of high property taxes is unfairly distributed: lower- and middle-income families and seniors are hit the hardest. And this is a problem that isn’t unique to homeowners: 20 percent or more of the cost of rent in Connecticut is due to local property taxes.

Reforming this broken system is imperative, but it will take time to turn around – and working families in Connecticut can’t afford to wait. Recently, the middle class lost one of the last breaks it got. Governor Malloy rolled back the property tax credit, effectively raising taxes on the middle class.

In my first biennial budget as governor, I will restore and expand the property tax credit for working families. Starting in the second year of my first budget, I will reverse Malloy's tax hike by raising the property tax credit for existing beneficiaries by 50 percent. And I'll expand eligibility, allowing any taxpayer with property tax liability to participate and growing the number of Connecticut residents who can get a break. If your household earns up to $160,500 a year, you’ll qualify for relief from property taxes paid on your home or your car. 900,000 taxpayers in homes with more than 2 million Connecticut residents would see a benefit. About half of these residents will be getting much-needed property tax relief for the first time in four years. That is meaningful relief, and it’s delivered responsibly at a cost of around just 1 percent of the most recent annual state budget.

Looking ahead, we need to do more. It’s no secret that Connecticut’s budget is as broken as our property tax system. Decades of fiscal mismanagement by Hartford politicians in both parties have put real limits on how much of a tax break we can reasonably afford – constraints that the Republicans willfully ignore in the hopes that no one will call them out on their fantasy math. Impossible promises won’t ever put money back in the pockets of working families in Connecticut, but responsible planning will.

That’s why in my second biennial budget, I’ll propose additional property tax relief targeted at the low- and middle-income taxpayers who are hit the hardest by this broken system. We’ll use the first two years to begin to get our state’s finances back on track, so that we can afford critical tax relief aimed at the families struggling hardest in Connecticut to make ends meet. For a relatively modest cost, we can provide up to a $1,200 credit to working families owning or renting a home and paying more than 6.5 percent of their income in property taxes. There are nearly 350,000 taxpayers in Connecticut, in homes with 915,000 people, who would stand to benefit. And the average beneficiary will receive a nearly $700 tax cut.

In the longer term, we need fundamental structural reform of Connecticut’s broken property tax system. That means having every stakeholder at the table – from municipal and nonprofit leaders who must do more with less, to teachers and first responders who make our communities run, to homeowners and renters who have to be able to afford a place to live. Structural reform starts with identifying inefficiencies within our fragmented system of 169 towns and cities, but it also means critically reexamining whether regional services make more sense than leaving every locality to fend for itself. These are tough choices, and only one candidate is telling the truth about them. I won’t be afraid to lead on structural reform – and to stand up right away for working families and the middle class who need a break and cannot wait.

First Biennial Budget

• In the second year, reversing Malloy’s tax hike by increasing the property tax credit by 50 percent and expanding access to more middle-class taxpayers. Singles earning up to $116,500, heads of households earning up to $138,500, and joint filers earning up to $160,500, will get relief of up to $300 from property taxes paid on a residence or car.

• That’s $165 million in new property tax relief for 900,000 taxpayers in households with more than 2 million Connecticut residents.
• Roughly half of those 900,000 taxpayers will see property tax relief for the first time since 2015.

Second Biennial Budget

• After beginning to stabilize Connecticut’s finances in our first biennial budget, we’ll deliver targeted relief for the hardest-hit working families in our second biennial budget.
• There are nearly 350,000 taxpayers across the state who pay an enormous percentage of their household income in property taxes and who would qualify for much-needed targeted relief. More than 900,000 people and their families in Connecticut who spend at least 6.5 percent of their income on property taxes –and many who spend as much as 12 percent –would benefit.

• That’s $185 million in long-overdue relief to working families who pay a disproportionate percentage of their household income on property taxes, providing them with up to a $1,200 credit.

• To shore up property tax relief for Connecticut’s seniors, we’ll also restore state funding cut during the Malloy administration for the municipal property tax credit program – and add new funding to cover 25,000 senior renters under the same program.

Finding Savings for the Tax Plan
Republicans want you to believe they can eliminate the income tax and punch a $20 billion hole in the biennial budget without offering a single way to pay for it. That isn’t a serious plan. My proposal is different. It relies on practical and responsible ways to pay for the targeted relief that so many Connecticut families desperately need.

Here are some of the cost-saving measures over the next four years that will make a meaningful and responsible middle-class tax cut possible:

• Reducing costs at the Department of Correction. We currently spend over $1.3 billion a year on prisons and corrections – more than two and a half times what the state budget allocates to higher education. Thanks in large part to smart and sensible criminal justice reforms, Connecticut’s prison population continues to fall – as does the state’s crime rate. Keeping pace on these reforms will drive down these costs by $125 million a year.
• Improving tax enforcement and leveling the playing field for Connecticut businesses. By using technology, modern analytics, and rapid response, the Department of Revenue Services can improve tax collections, audit, and enforcement and close the “tax gap” (the amount of taxes that are owed but not collected). These reforms will generate savings and additional revenues from $150 million to $200 million.
• People have long participated in under-the-table sports gambling; a recent Supreme Court decision makes it possible for Connecticut to regulate this activity, after negotiation with our tribes, and draw between $30 million and $50 million in annual revenues from it for the first time.

These cost savings range from $305 million to $375 million and will responsibly fund meaningful property tax relief for the middle class.

Building a Fair Economy
When Annie and I made the decision to start our family, Connecticut was where everyone wanted to be. The right mix of cities, close to Boston and New York, good schools, great neighborhoods, but most importantly Connecticut was full of opportunity. That’s what a strong and vibrant economy is: opportunity. Today, a strong economy is a fair economy. An economy that pays a living wage, supports women and people of color in the workplace, and provides everyone with a second chance.

Why I support equal pay for equal work
I have spent most of my career starting up and running small businesses. I know that paying workers fairly is important to the culture of a company. When someone is treated unfairly that impacts morale across the workplace and reduces productivity.

Equal pay for equal work can contribute to ending Connecticut’s fiscal woes. Annually, women who are employed full time in Connecticut lose a combined total of $15 billion to the wage gap.

This is why I support passing legislation that will prevent employers from salary questions, including the legislation currently raised before the Connecticut legislature.

Why I support Paid Family and Medical Leave
I know how important it is to a workplace that you do not lose a great member of the team because they are faced with a personal crisis. Her leaving the workplace is bad for her, and it's bad for business. Paid family and medical leave is the right thing to do, and the smart thing to do. Workers in Connecticut should not have to choose between spending the first days with their child, the last days with their parent, or paying their mortgage.

We need to increase the number of workers in our state who will have access to paid family and medical leave. This will make us a more attractive state to modern workers. According to a study done by the Connecticut Campaign for Paid Family Leave “more than 38% of millennial workers said that they would not only move state’s but move to another country for better parental benefits.”

We need to protect against harassment in the workplace
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “It may true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless.” The power of the #MeToo movement and the courage of women everywhere who have stood up and spoken out about sexual harassment has begun to change hearts, it is our responsibility to make sure that we restrain the heartless.

A second chance
Connecticut is leading the Nation on Criminal Justice reform. I am so proud to live in a state that is working to fight back against the impacts of institutionalized racism. Making sure that all of our returning citizens have access to a second chance and a good career is an essential part of the fair economy. Expanding partnerships with Labor and with our community colleges and four year universities, like the ones that I have seen at Asnuntuck and Goodwin College, will be a priority for my administration.

A strong labor movement
The Republicans here in Connecticut and Nationally are working to dismantle the key protections that labor movement helped our country put in place to build the middle class. Pushing for a fair wage, advocating for safe and dignified working conditions, and building a path to a secure retirement are things that all American workers have a right to. That’s what labor fights for, and that’s why I will fight for labor. The outcome of Janus vs. AFSCME will have profound impacts on labor and working families across the nation. As Governor I will protect workers rights and keep labor at the table.

Why I support a $15 minimum wage
Creating a $15 minimum wage is an important step in improving the quality of life for working families across Connecticut, and I believe it will boost wages across the board. In this modern economy, workers have never been more productive, yet wages are stagnant. As cost of living rises and our economy continues to transition, I believe a $15 minimum wage will ensure that working families can thrive in our state. Building up our middle class is good for our families and good for our economy.

Increasing the minimum wage to $15 is also a tool that will help close the wage gap between men and women in our state. More than 60% of minimum wage workers in Connecticut are women, and a significant population of those women are women of color. In our state Latinas and black women make 47¢ and 58¢ respectively for every $1.00 paid to white, non-Hispanic men. This disparity is even more troubling when coupled with the reminder that more than 170,000 households in Connecticut are headed by women. Median annual income for single female-headed households in Connecticut with children under eighteen is $30,795, while the same for single male-headed households with children under eighteen is $45,986. That’s a difference that puts single mothers behind single fathers in their ability to pay for child care, cover tuition fees, put food on the table, pay the mortgage or cover their rent.

Fixing the DMV
Let’s be honest – nobody likes going to the DMV. Wait times regularly turn what should be a quick visit into a daylong ordeal. Residents who should be treated as well as customers at any private business are subjected to extended delays, confusing requirements, and poor service. Errands that require 10 minutes in other states require a day off work in Connecticut. Even efforts to upgrade the system become mired in delay and disappointment.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The DMV touches almost all Connecticut residents. It’s one of the most common interactions between Connecticut families and their government – and our DMV is stuck in the past.

I will take it into the 21st century. Cloud-based technologies customers expect in other states and other sectors could transform the DMV. Like New Yorkers, our residents should be able to renew a license from the comfort of their homes. Like Californians, they should be able to schedule all DMV appointments over their phones. And like customers at other crowded businesses such as airline check-in counters and popular restaurants, those who visit DMV service centers should be greeted by modern and efficient technologies: kiosks that allow them to bypass long lines for simple services and the option of receiving a text message when a window is ready.

Many of those transformative technologies can be rolled out from day one. Others require we finally get serious about updating and integrating the DMV’s three principal computer systems. Those systems – a 40-year-old licensing mainframe, a distributed registration platform, and an online payment and scheduling tool for learners permits and road tests – have different code bases, and don’t talk to each other well. For too long, the DMV has focused on patchwork solutions rather than on creating a unified architecture. If we don’t act now, we’ll continue to fall further and further behind.

We all watched as the DMV botched its initial effort to unify those computer systems. Residents grew frustrated. Wait times skyrocketed to as long as eight hours. The images of lines out the doors of the branches were startling. Connecticut watched as the DMV went back and forth with its vendor, and as the agency struggled to adapt to a new system. Even today, years after that partial roll-out, wait times at the DMV routinely exceed two hours.

It has to change.

I will implement a common-sense plan to make the DMV more efficient. By limiting how often people have to visit the DMV, reducing the amount of time each visit takes, and thinking strategically about how to move its computer systems into the future, I will bring efficiency and change to an agency that has frustrated people and defied politicians for decades – saving Connecticut money and saving our residents time. I have an eight-step plan to improve our system:

Less Time at the DMV

• Extend Licenses and Registrations

The simplest and most cost-effective way to improve your interactions with the DMV is to reduce your interactions with the DMV. Although many states allow their residents to go eight years between new licenses, our legislature recently refused to extend Connecticut licenses beyond six years. I’ll extend the length of your license by a third. I’ll also extend the length of your registration by half, to three years –the length of most car leases –instead of two. Those changes will decrease visits and improve wait times for everyone.

• Transform Customer-Facing Processes

We’ve all been there – you wait in line for an hour only to be placed in a second one to fill out another form, and then another. You get in line, take a number, sit-down, only to stand back up, show your paperwork, and sit down again to wait for another window. There are simply too many steps in the process for customers – and the sheer number of steps within a branch to complete a single transaction results in a poor customer experience full of confusion and frustration. It’s driving up wait times. I will charge the commissioner with cutting out unnecessary bureaucratic steps, revamping processes so that they’re simple and straightforward, and making sure staff are trained to use any new software up front, rather than having to learn it on the fly.

• Open New DMV Express Centers

Connecticut residents shouldn’t have to go to a DMV location for simple services. Until recently, they didn’t have to: AAA offices in eight municipalities processed 150,000 annual renewals. Since those offices closed, wait times have spiked. One proven solution is making better use of an existing resource: our 169 town halls. By opening DMV Express Centers staffed by experienced DMV employees in twenty of those halls and by deploying kiosks to additional businesses, we’ll be able to provide simple, effective services to residents across the state and reduce lines inside agency branches at a relatively low cost.

• Create New Regional DMV Supercenters

As we open local centers across the state, we also need to tear apart service-as-usual and completely reinvent, rethink, and revamp the way the DMV flagship branches do business. Right now, there are 8 hub offices, 5 limited service locations, three appointment-only offices, and one “other service” location. That means we have 17 locations with varying and limited degrees of service. Instead, we need to modernize our hub offices into new supercenters, well served by public transportation, that are thoughtfully designed, equipped, and staffed to offer a best-in-class customer experience – during business hours convenient for those customers. That will streamline service provision and save money down the line.

Bring the DMV into the 21st Century

• Introduce Modern, Customer-Facing Technology

Modern conveniences perfected in other states, and by banks and other private companies, need to be introduced across the Connecticut DMV. That begins with everyday expectations like remote renewals so that residents will rarely need to visit a branch in person. It includes more pioneering customer-centered technologies, like a recent Louisiana program that allows residents of that state to carry a validated digital copy of their license on their phones and tablets. And it ends with a better experience for every DMV customer in the state. We also need to publicize which services are currently available online, because one in every three DMV visitors is there to accomplish an errand that can already be done remotely.

• Overhaul Software Platforms

It’s not just our customer-facing software that’s fallen behind the times. DMV computers rely on a decades-old mainframe and a patchwork of other systems that cause glitches, create inefficiencies, and waste time. We need to modernize and integrate those systems to provide a seamless customer experience and 21st-century services to Connecticut residents. That’s why I will complete the long-standing project to overhaul the DMV’s software.

Accountability

• Strengthen Outside Contracts

The last time the DMV tried to modernize its systems, Connecticut residents spent $26 million on a lemon. 3M, the company hired to do the job, didn’t live up to its end of the bargain. As a result, wait times spiked, registrations were cancelled, and confusion ensued. We need stronger claw back standards on the books and in our contracts so that taxpayers know their money is being well-spent on quality services – and that their money will be returned if companies don’t follow through on their promises. In the middle of a fiscal crisis, we cannot let vendors get away with doing a poor job or find ourselves in prolonged legal battles over shoddy service. Instead, we need to be clear that if you want to do business with the State of Connecticut, we expect best-in-class service – and our money back if we don’t get it. We also need to ensure we have full and instant access to the code written by the vendors we hire.

• A Top-To-Bottom Review Aimed at Cutting Fees and Saving Dollars

The DMV should not make Connecticut residents stand in line all day, and then make them pay some of the country’s highest fees for driver’s licenses, road testing, and other services. I commit to a thorough review of the fees at the DMV and to making sure that fees for non-commercial services like driver’s licenses are no more than the regional average. Non-driver photo IDs, which are required to unlock so many public and private services, should be free to all our residents. And we should incentivize improved performance by allowing anyone forced to wait an undue amount of time for a straightforward service to get what they came for without paying a dime.

Fixing the DMV is about more than respecting our residents’ time. It’s about restoring their confidence in government. I will do both – and then I will take the lessons we learn streamlining the DMV and roll them out to other state service providers that also subject residents to undue delays.

Investing in Education
I believe that access to high-quality public education must be a right for all, not just the privileged few.

I have visited educational institutions all over the state hearing from driven students and passionate educators, and I am proud of the hard work that Connecticut has done to improve our educational system over the past few decades. Our teachers and educators are incredibly hard-working and I thank them for their dedication to the well-being of our children and adult-learners alike.

Critically, some of the ideas below represent tangible solutions that have little or no additional cost to the state, such as encouraging partnerships similar to the one between Goodwin College, Pratt and Whitney and local technology companies to grow our students’ skillsets.

A strong and vibrant education system designed for the needs of individuals of all ages and aligned with employers’ needs will help drive our state’s economic recovery, as employers will be able to hire Connecticut residents for Connecticut jobs, and be confident in growing in Connecticut.

That’s why I will strengthen our education system by focusing on:

Child Care & Early Education
Studies show that investing in early education is a good investment for the economic future of Connecticut. At All Our Kin, a non-profit supporter of sustainable family child care programs, I learned that every dollar they spent returned $15 or more to the regional economy. Given this fact, and increasingly strong research on brain development, we can no longer afford to view child care as a convenience, but an educational and economic necessity, especially for low-income families.

In additional to the developmental and educational benefits for children and increased income for child care providers, having quality and consistent child care means parents can reenter the workforce or better retain their jobs.

As governor, I will prioritize:

• Expanding nurse-family partnerships, child care, and early education programs. Nobel Prize-winning social science research has shown that each dollar invested in early childhood education results in $15 of future benefits.
• Protecting and fully funding the Care4Kids program, which helps low to moderate income families in Connecticut pay for child care costs.

K-12 Education & Vo-Tech
In the past 20 years, the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula has been fully funded only twice and legislators in Hartford continually tweak the formula to gain political favor instead of thinking about the needs of our children, the needs of our schools or the needs of our state. Education is the best investment we can make in our future, and funding it should not be a political question.

For example, in fiscal year 2019, Waterbury’s Education Cost Sharing Grant will be underfunded by more than $60 million, according to the Connecticut School Finance Project. During fiscal year 2019, Waterbury is slated to receive $136.6 million in Education Cost Sharing funding – $22.5 million is in the form of an Alliance Grant. Waterbury is not alone: many rural, suburban and urban communities now have different student populations and different needs than they did in decades past, but state funding has not been adjusted to support these communities, and the lack of transparency with how funding is dispersed further impedes fair distribution of funding.

By implementing the education funding formula as it was written – based on need – we can begin to address the disparities that are present in our educational system.

The education achievement gaps between our districts is heartbreaking, because it means that some of our children are being left behind. The increasing segregation of our classrooms is distressing. And we must do more to make sure that we don’t slip further behind Massachusetts or other states in K-12 education quality.

As we continue to address the education achievement gap that is present across the state, we need to look at what public school systems like Macdonough Elementary School in Middletown are doing to foster a better teaching and learning environment.

During the 2017-18 academic year, Macdonough Elementary School faced the possibility of closure to offset a cut in state and municipal aid. As one of 33 Alliance Districts in the state, the Middletown public school system has taken critical steps to close its achievement gap by focusing on improving test scores, increasing instructional time and creating a more diverse staff that is reflective of the student body.

Macdonough has also worked to prepare our students for a 21st-century economy by teaching them problem-solving skills and how to think critically through the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program. Macdonough’s STEM program targets students in grades four and five with a hands-on, inquiry-based approach to learning.

STEM-related careers are among the fastest-growing jobs in Connecticut. We need to encourage all students – regardless of their race or gender – to pursue a STEM education so we can create a more diverse talent pool.

As governor, I will work tirelessly on my first day and every day to improve educational access, equity and outcomes in the state. I am proud to support a comprehensive education reform platform to expand access to childcare and early childhood education; to improve K-12 education; to expand workforce development programs; and to make college accessible to all.

That’s why as governor, I will prioritize:

• Fixing and fully-funding the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula so that our school districts have the resources to educate our children.
• Boosting academic achievement of all students by encouraging more diversity among our teachers. Research shows that teachers of color significantly improve the learning of all students, especially for students of color. Hiring and retaining qualified teachers is so important to closing our achievement gap.
• Promoting STEAM education in our K-12 schools. Specifically, I strongly support incorporating computer science and statistics into our K-12 curriculum, similarly to what our neighbors have done in Rhode Island.
• Reducing class sizes and student-to-counselor ratios, and incorporating more social workers in our schools.
• Promoting restorative justice and social and emotional learning in schools, and making our schools trauma-sensitive.
• Continuing to improve reading, math, and executive function skills in our early grades. One step is to continue to reduce chronic absenteeism in our schools.
• Promoting high school-private sector engagements to teach fundamental professional skills.
• Creating incentives in state funding that promote cost-efficiencies through regional collaboration on everything from back room functions, to curriculum development, to administrative personnel, and even to school districts themselves facing declining enrollments.

Affordable Higher Education
I’m lucky to have experienced first hand how incredible, inspired students become driven members of society during my time lecturing at Central Connecticut State University, and during this campaign I’ve heard from students, educators and administrators about how our state has one of the best public and private higher education systems in the country.

But to make sure graduates are competitive for jobs, we’ve got to make sure our wonderful institutions are aligned with the needs of employers, and students are not weighed down by mountains of debt, putting them at a significant disadvantage when they graduate and begin working.

It’s no secret that Connecticut faces serious fiscal constraints, but a lack of money shouldn’t keep driven, qualified students from going to college.

Studies show the incredible benefits that students gain by earning a college degree. From higher competitiveness for jobs to better lifelong earning potential, the benefits of a degree cannot be overstated. We know too that benefits extend beyond better financial prospects: Those with postsecondary degrees are healthier, and have lower unemployment rates and lower poverty rates than those without college degrees.

That said, I am committed to also supporting programs that are the best fit for Connecticut residents, including apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, career schools and two-year community colleges. All of this adds up to a better educated, diversely skilled, and more competitive workforce that will attract and retain employers to Connecticut.

That’s why as governor, I will prioritize:

• Expanding access to higher education – including to older individuals – by making Connecticut community colleges tuition-free to in-state students who commit to living and working in Connecticut for a period of time after they graduate.
• Working to improve the partnership between our world class community colleges, state universities and private colleges to ensure students have the resources they need to continue their education.
• Prioritizing expansion of public-private partnerships between our major employers and our community colleges. The partnership between Pratt and Whitney and Goodwin College to support their manufacturing classes is a model that can be replicated across the state. The IBM P-Tech school in Norwalk is another good example of a public private partnership.

Vo-Tech, Job Training & Workforce Development
I collaborated with the Yale School of Management and brought people together to produce the CT Workforce Assessment, a study about the strengths and weaknesses of Connecticut's workforce. As part of the assessment, we met with Connecticut’s largest employers from the state’s key industries: manufacturing, insurance and finance, healthcare and bioscience, green technology, tourism and digital media. We also included the state’s core economic and industry boards and research organizations.

In our interviews with thought leaders -- academics, labor leaders & CEOs -- we asked about future skill needs of their industries, strategies to address current and future gaps, and the role of the government, business and labor in moving our state forward.

On the campaign trail, I’ve seen many examples of educational programs aligning to meet future skill needs of Connecticut industries, ensuring their graduates get good Connecticut jobs, but we must do more and need a coherent strategy.

Six years ago, the city of Waterbury built the Waterbury Career Academy to meet the needs of the community. The vocational technical high school focuses on the health, human services and manufacturing fields, preparing students to go on to pursue a higher education at top-tier colleges and universities, apprenticeship programs or launch their careers. This year, the Vo-Tech high school is graduating its second class and has a 98.5 percent graduation rate.

Like I saw in Waterbury and like I did with the CT Workforce Assessment, I’ll keep bringing our employers together with our educational institutions to make sure we understand what employers want, and in turn understand how to keep Connecticut residents competitive for well-paying Connecticut jobs.

That means creating an environment where our people can succeed. That means empowering people with the skills they need to be competitive for the jobs of today and tomorrow. And that’s one reason that I was proud to convene the group of business leaders from Travelers, the head of Aetna, the head of Hartford HealthCare, the head of Stanley Black and Decker, and together we helped convince Infosys to build their new training and innovation hub right here in Hartford.

That was the best day I’ve had in Connecticut in a long time because it means we’re investing in our people.

I plan to continue this type of partnership as governor, and I will:

• Open coding academies and training bootcamps in the state so that our workers can learn in-demand skills in short, high-intensity, high-quality programs.
• Bring our education and business communities together to dramatically expand apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. I look to South Carolina, Colorado, Tennessee, and Maryland as models, and I believe that the apprenticeship model can work well in a variety of industries as well as in the building trades. State government will take the lead by developing apprenticeship programs for our own state workforce.
• Keep encouraging regular discussion among our business community, educational institutions of all levels and organized labor to make sure we understand the needs of the 21st century workforce, and Connecticut residents are competitive for Connecticut jobs.
• Investing in and expanding our vocational and agricultural technology high school systems. We should build on the success of places like Massachusetts, where Vo-Tech schools are integrated into the local economy, are in high demand by students, and have high academic outcomes with high college attendance rates.
• Promoting private sector engagements in our schools and training programs to teach fundamental professional skills relevant to current job markets.

Access to Quality Healthcare
As a business owner, I knew that one of the most important things for the success of my business was providing the conditions for people to thrive and grow. Health insurance was a large expense for my business, but it was vital because it helped attract good employees and kept them and their families healthy – and also because it was simply the right thing to do. That’s what we need to do in Connecticut – we need to provide the best possible conditions for people to succeed by increasing access to affordable, quality healthcare.

For Connecticut, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has meant increased access to healthcare, lower cost and better-quality care for residents. The ACA has expanded health access to hundreds of thousands in Connecticut, including to more than 110,000 residents through Access Health CT. The ACA has been directly responsible for reducing Connecticut’s uninsured rate by 45 percent statewide, with even greater progress in some communities. Without the ACA, there would be nearly twice as many uninsured residents under the age of 65 in New Haven and Waterbury. Similarly, but for the ACA, Bridgeport would have 50 percent more uninsured nonelderly residents while Hartford’s uninsured rate would be 60 percent higher.

Despite this progress, President Trump continues to seek to dismantle the ACA. Here in Connecticut, we must resist these attacks and meet the demand for quality and affordable healthcare by building on the progress of the ACA.

I am proud of the work Connecticut has done to protect access to healthcare. This year, we enacted a law to protect the ACA’s 10 essential health benefits and access to birth control with no out-of-pocket costs. Protecting essential health benefits requires insurers to cover maternity and newborn care; mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; and preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management.

I am also proud that the General Assembly took steps to help lower healthcare costs for patients by requiring health insurance policies to cover 12-month supplies of contraceptives and holding the pharmaceutical industry and insurance carriers accountable for escalating prescription drug costs.

As governor, I will build on these efforts to ensure that healthcare becomes a fundamental right for all Connecticut residents, not a privilege for a select few.

This starts with:

Fortifying the continuum of care options for those suffering from mental health conditions and substance use disorders and supporting mental health parity laws.

Advocating for early intervention and treatment to save lives and help the state contain rising healthcare costs.

Taking strong and multipronged action to reduce drug prices. I will hold pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy drug managers accountable by supporting initiatives that require they disclose drug prices, discounts and rebates. I will require drug companies to make their wholesale prices clear in advertising and detailing. I will limit the anticompetitive “coupons” for privately insured patients that Medicaid and Medicare have already done away with.

• Capping out-of-pocket pharmaceutical costs so that consumers pay no more than $275 on drugs per month ($75 on generics and $200 on brand name drugs).

• Implementing a sustainable solution to fund the Medicare Savings Program and protect the state’s Medicaid program (HUSKY).

• Strengthening our state’s Access Health CT exchange by instituting a Medicaid buy-in option which would lower costs by adding younger participants to the pool and ensure quality and affordable coverage for all.

• Implementing a reinsurance program on the Access Health CT exchange, which will meaningfully lower premiums as it has in other states.

• Supporting strong, common sense measures on public health to reduce smoking, improve vaccination rates, reduce childhood obesity, and reduce infant and maternal mortality – particularly in our communities of color.

• Capping out-of-network prices and fees at emergency rooms and hospitals. Further, no one should be hit with a surprise bill from an ER or hospital that was in-network because one of the doctors was out-of-network. The in-network rate must apply to all staff who work at the hospital.

• Mandating that medical records be fully, costlessly, and digitally portable by 2021. We live in the 21st-century, and fax machines are no longer an appropriate way to share medical records.

Addressing Climate Change & Expanding Renewable Energy
The facts are clear and the evidence incontrovertible: our earth is getting warmer, ice caps and glaciers are melting, the sea level is rising, and an array of other related events are underway from storm surges to droughts. I strongly believe that human-induced climate change is an urgent threat that must be tackled immediately, and as governor I will rebuild the political conversation on climate change and what we must do to prepare for a new future.

I applaud the steps that Connecticut has already taken to transition to a sustainable energy future and counter the adverse effects of climate change. Our state has committed to the Paris Agreement even as the Trump administration has pulled out, and Connecticut along with 175 other governments has pledged to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

However, I know that we can and must do more, which is why I will commit Connecticut to a further reduction in carbon emissions from current levels of 35 percent by 2030, 70 percent by 2040, and carbon neutral by 2050. These targets are tougher than required under the Paris Agreement but are achievable, measurable goals that will guide our state’s energy and environmental policy.

Further, our transition to a sustainable energy future will create thousands of new jobs in the green economy – not destroy jobs as the Trump administration alleges. We know this because across our country the states with the least carbon-intensive economies, like Washington state and Massachusetts, have had some of the highest economic growth rates. We have already seen good-paying jobs created in the fuel cell, solar installation, and home weatherization industries, and I am proud that New London will become a new manufacturing and assembling base for offshore wind turbines. As the sustainable energy transition continues, I believe our state’s growth in jobs in fuel cells, solar power, and resiliency construction will pave the way for even greater growth in this area. I will make sure that many more green jobs are created. This will require bringing multiple stakeholders to the table, including industry, labor, and our fine academic institutions, and promoting innovative solutions such as the state’s recent long-term contracting in order to promote the the offshore wind project out of New London.

I have spoken to many families throughout this campaign and have heard so much about how difficult it is for families to afford their energy needs, particularly during the winter. I will work diligently to bring energy costs down through a variety of steps, including investments in energy efficiency, peak shaving, more competitive bidding, and smart metering. I am a strong proponent of shifting homes away from home heating oil to much cleaner alternatives like natural gas, even better such advanced technologies efficient electric heat pumps and thermal loops. And as more renewable energy comes online in our state, we will reduce our dependence on the spot-price of natural gas which so often drives up our cost of electricity.

Lastly, I pledge to seek out and be sure that science, facts, and transparency are inherent in our decision-making. I will have the state work in closer partnership with all our cities and towns to ensure sea-level rise and resiliency are more deeply imbedded in our planning and zoning processes. I myself will be, and will have all state agencies remain, open to new ideas, and be more receptive to how best to conceptualize and implement new policies and regulations with respect to climate change.

I will never support a budget that diverts money from our Energy Efficiency Fund, the Green Bank, and other dedicated funding sources. These programs are funded by ratepayers and make important investments in energy efficiency, conservation, and the development of new renewable energy markets. It is simply short-sighted to shortchange these programs since they are crucial to our state’s response to climate change, and to our development of a renewable energy platform essential for the energy independence of our citizens.

In order to continue Connecticut’s transition toward sustainable energy sources, to increase employment in the green economy, and to lower energy costs, I will:

Resiliency Against Rising Sea Levels
I will have the state work in closer partnership with all our cities and towns to ensure sea-level rise and resiliency are more deeply embedded in our planning and zoning processes. I will be, and will have all state agencies remain, open to new ideas, and be more receptive to how best to conceptualize and implement new policies and regulations with respect to climate change.

Our coastline is one of our most important drivers of economic growth, particularly because several of our key cities are located along our shore. Furthermore, our beautiful shoreline is one of many reasons people are attracted to live and work in Connecticut. Protecting our coastline by hardening our communities against the impacts of climate change like sea-level rise will be an important component of my resiliency strategy.

Invest in Sustainable Transportation
Forty percent of our state’s emissions are from transportation. We cannot achieve our clean air goals and emission goals without reducing vehicle emissions.

I support tolls on large tractor trailers to reduce highway congestion and to reduce dirty diesel emissions. I support the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, zero emission vehicles, and stronger emission standards in the state, and I will protect the CHEAPR tax credits for electric vehicles. I will not allow the Trump administration to weaken our vehicular emissions laws, and I strongly oppose the recent loosening of regulations on dirty glider trucks. I will put Connecticut at the forefront of the electric car revolution by working closely with manufacturers and utilities to build out the nation’s leading electric car charging infrastructure. Connecticut’s participation in the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative is important to helping meet our clean air goals and emission goals regarding transportation.

Pursue Energy Conservation
Over the past 10 years, the New England states have dramatically increased investments in energy efficiency resources. Massachusetts, for example, has increased energy efficiency spending by 150 percent between the years 2009 and 2012, and today ranks first among the 50 states in energy efficiency spending. While we will continue to seek to reduce our kilowatt costs, energy efficiency is an equally good way to reduce energy bills for everyone in the state.

Energy conservation will reduce homeowners’ bills and spare us from having to fund large infrastructure projects like pipelines and transmission lines that crisscross the state.

• I support our state’s Energy Efficiency Fund and Green Bank and pledge to never support a budget that raids these programs. In 2016, the design, installation and manufacture of energy efficiency products and services in Connecticut accounted for nearly 34,000 jobs, with approximately 12,000 of those jobs generated directly from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund. Further, the investments in energy efficiency made in 2016 will save Connecticut consumers approximately $961.8 million in lifetime bill savings, meaning every $1 invested in energy efficiency will save another $3.89 on utility bills.

• I support continued investment in weatherization and peak shaving so that we can reduce demand for carbon-intensive energy, particularly in the early evenings when natural gas-based electricity is in high demand and when prices are highest. In particular, I support programs to help homeowners shift away from home heating oil to new, efficient alternatives like electric heat pumps and thermal loops.

• I support continued improvements in energy efficiency standards for new homes and buildings, and I believe that all new homes and buildings should be zero carbon from 2035.

• CT state government facilities account for 15 percent of the energy consumed by the state’s commercial and industrial sector, and energy costs the state $150-$200 million annually. But a potential 40 percent reduction in energy use could save $60 million to $80 million every year. I support legislation to expand and accelerate the existing Lead by Example program to foster in-state job creation and economic development while reducing the state’s substantial energy costs.

• I also believe that our state and local governments can do more. I support legislation that requires the state and all local governments to participate in internal carbon pricing by 2021. Yale University successfully launched internal carbon pricing, which has proven to be effective at lowering emissions. Internal carbon pricing has no budgetary impact but promotes energy conservation and efficiency. This internal carbon pricing program will be opened to businesses on a voluntary basis.

Modernize Our Grid
As we move toward a more sustainable energy model, we will need to leverage new technologies and improve our current transmission and distribution systems. Such grid modernization will require the state to support a grid that integrates distributed generation, has storage capacity, and is capable of bringing in sustainable energy from distant locations. It will require substation upgrades that allow for distribution voltage optimization, enabling time-varying electricity rates and improved system operation and awareness. In addition, with rising sea-levels and increased intensity of storms we must make the grid more resilient to extreme weather, geomagnetic disturbances, and cyber-related threats.

Expand Renewable Energy

• I support the recent toughening of the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), yet I believe that we must go further in order to achieve our carbon reduction goals by 2050. The RPS sets standards for electricity production in Connecticut. I support strengthening the state’s RPS to at least 35 percent Class I renewable energy sources by 2025; at least 50 percent by 2030; at least 80 percent by 2040; and 100 percent by 2050.

• I will support growth of distributed generation. Distributed generation resources, such as solar photovoltaic and wind generation, can provide economic, environmental, and energy security benefits to electricity customers.

• I will review the recently-passed SB 9 to ensure that net metering fairly compensates homeowners who produce solar power and reflects the value of the carbon they are offsetting. However, I am opposed to any cost-shifting to other ratepayers.

• I will streamline our state’s community solar permitting process and virtual net metering rules to speed construction of medium-to-large solar installations over brownfields, parking lots, and warehouses. My goal is to create standards that drive clean energy development to sites that lack other good uses while keeping the door open to owners of productive lands who want to integrate clean energy into their mix of uses. I would prefer to see more solar arrays on urban rooftops than over our farmlands.

Pursue Regional Solutions
We must continue to update and strengthen existing state programs and work collaboratively with other state governments to pursue regional solutions. This collaboration will be modeled on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI).

• The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a multi-state initiative requiring power plants to purchase emission allowances at an auction, and the money is reinvested in energy efficiency programs and the Connecticut Green Bank. RGGI investments have saved the state millions in energy costs, saved lives, and created thousands of jobs. I strongly support RGGI and support reforms including instituting a minimum price for carbon.

• The financing mechanism known as property-assessed clean energy (PACE) helps customers afford energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements located on private properties. PACE programs help finance the initial cost of improvements and are paid back over time by the property owners on their property tax bills. The C-PACE (for commercial properties) program has been updated and it is now very successful, but the R-PACE (for residential properties) statutes need to be revised to provide private homeowners in Connecticut access to such a program.

• I support extension and improvement of Connecticut’s Zero Emissions Renewable Energy Credit (ZREC) program. The ZREC program is widely supported by the business community and is an important tool in promoting new renewable energy capacity.

Creating Jobs
It’s no secret that Connecticut is losing businesses -- we’ve suffered body blows with the loss of General Electric, MassMutual, and the threat of Aetna packing up and leaving Hartford. Between 2015 and 2016, the state saw a net loss of nearly 40,000 people, nearly 8,000 of them millennials. People make decisions about where they are going to live, and start their families based on the jobs and opportunities that are available to them. When jobs leave, so do the workers.

We cannot afford to have our 160,000 manufacturing jobs — nearly 10% of our workforce — look for work in other states. Connecticut’s 4,000 manufacturers will need to hire more than 13,000 workers by the end of 2018. We can’t afford to have employers looking for those 13,000 workers in other states.

Experience in Small Business
As someone who has spent a career starting and running small businesses, I know what it means to balance a budget, introduce creative solutions to difficult problems, and invest for the future, all while treating employees fairly. In small business, titles are for paperwork: at the beginning of the day and the end of the day, we are a team. I built credibility within the business community and with our labor leaders who know I am willing to bring everyone to the table, ask the tough questions and work to map out real, collaborative solutions.

Fighting for CT Jobs
When GE left I was frustrated and I wanted to know why a long-time Connecticut employer decided to pull up stakes, so I asked.

While I was working as a professor at Central Connecticut State University, I worked with the Yale School of Management as an alum and led the CT Workforce Assessment -- a project that met with 17 of the Connecticut’s largest employers from the state’s key industries: manufacturing, insurance and finance, healthcare and bioscience, green technology, tourism and digital media. We also included the state’s core economic and industry boards and research organizations.

CT Workforce Assessment
In our primary interviews with thought leaders - academics, labor leaders & CEOs - we asked about future skill needs of their industries, strategies to address current and future gaps, and the role of the government, business and labor in moving our state forward.

Here are the problems we face, and the solutions I believe in:

• We can’t keep going through budget crises every two years or less: state government must deliver an on time budget and present a public vision and strategic plan with detailed expansion of revenue streams that employers and employees alike can count on.

• Fix our roads and bridges and expand public transportation. Connecticut motorists lose $6.1 billion (in the form of vehicle operating costs, congestion-related delays and crashes) per year. Furthermore, 338 of our bridges are rated as structurally deficient, and proposed cuts to public transportation do not represent a sustainable path forward. We can’t have a 21st century economy with a deficient 20th century transportation system: We must repair and modernize our infrastructure to improve and repair roads and services that employers and employees count on to get to work on time and move goods throughout the state.

• Create and expand sustainable, vocational and apprenticeship programs between businesses and our high schools, as well as our vocational and technical colleges and universities. Training programs designed in direct partnership between our employers like Pratt & Whitney and Electric Boat, and Goodwin College and Three Rivers Community College, should be studied and emulated. For instance, Pratt has donated funds to purchase state-of-the-art machinery for training in Goodwin College’s new manufacturing buildings; Goodwin had no manufacturing classes until recently, and its partnership with Pratt and other local technology companies help ensure there are Connecticut workers to fill Connecticut jobs. And it’s not just the Pratts, Sikorskys or Electric Boats who need to hire: they count on hundreds of Connecticut companies for their supplies. We must make sure Connecticut residents are getting the job training that will match them to the opportunities available today and prepare them for acquiring the skills of tomorrow. This also includes job retraining to update the skills of the existing workforce. Technical literacy, data science, analytics and proficiency in STEM fields in general will be crucial for Connecticut graduates seeking employment in Connecticut’s key industries as they grow to stay competitive.

• Future jobs will demand new skills of our state’s workforce from data analytics to sharper interpersonal skills, so government must engage with the business community early and often in discussions about any economic development planning. Businesses have indicated they want to be a voice that helps Connecticut out of the current crisis, so they should have a meaningful seat at the table along with everyone else involved.

• Timely and objective information in one location will improve decision-making across the board. There are many separate efforts in Connecticut to understand the skills gap: We must create a partnership between our state’s Office of Policy Management and our state’s academic institutions to build a single unified platform for data aggregation, analysis and sharing.

Investing in Infrastructure
A key to revitalizing Connecticut’s economy is to have a 21st-century transportation system that connects us to major markets and to one another. We need to be able to move people and goods as fast as in other states to attract jobs and improve our quality of life.

From riding the Hartford Line between New Haven and our capital city on its opening weekend to discussing commutes with CT Transit riders and visiting Tweed Airport, I know we can overcome our infrastructure challenges and achieve faster, more reliable, better connected air, train and bus service and safer, less congested roads. Better connected cities and towns will create jobs and grow our economy because employers will be better able to hire and retain our talented workforce.

But we can’t have a 21st century economy with a deficient 20th century transportation system: we must repair and modernize our infrastructure to improve and repair roads and services that employers and employees count on to get to work on time and move goods throughout the state. Moving Connecticut forward and growing our economy depends on strong cities and vibrant towns, and this cannot happen without sustainable investments inbetter infrastructure that reliably connect Connecticut’s communities to each other, the region and the world.

The challenges before us are great. The situation today is that:

• Nearly 4 out of 5 miles on Connecticut’s major roads are in either poor or mediocre condition.

• Connecticut motorists lose a total of $6.1 billion annually in the form of additional vehicle operating costs, congestion-related delays and traffic crashes by driving on deficient roads.

• Traffic congestion in the state’s largest urban areas is worsening, causing as much as 49 annual hours of delay for some motorists and costs Connecticut motorists a total of $2.4 billion each year in lost time and wasted fuel.

• Every $1 of deferred maintenance on roads and bridges has been found to cost an additional $4 or $5 on future repairs, and the state just suspended projects worth $4.3 billion over the next five years because of inadequate funding.

It’s time to take on these problems head on and we’ve got the solutions ready to make a difference. As Governor, I will focus on the areas below.

Proposing these changes gets us nowhere unless we have a reliable source of revenue to keep the Special Transportation Fund solvent, and dedicate the Special Transportation Fund (STF) to infrastructure repair and development alone. I will not accept any budget that takes from the STF to pay for non-infrastructure related projects, and I strongly support the transportation lockbox amendment.

I have been disappointed by the many Republican candidates for governor in this race, who in their zeal to emulate Donald Trump at every turn have proposed a variety of pie-in-the-sky tax cuts but have been cryptically silent on how they would pay for infrastructure investments.

I know that improvements to roads, bridges, trains, airports, public transit, and broadband will help catalyze our state’s economic growth, so I recognize that the people of our state cannot not afford to make these investments. That is why I support electronic tolling on heavy trucksthat are coming in from out of state, which useour roads tollfree and createsignificant wear-and-tear. So next time you hear a Republican candidate promise tax cuts and new infrastructure spending, make sure you ask: where’s the money?

Creating a Strategic Plan to Promote TOD
We must develop and implement a statewide strategic plan for a balanced transportation system, coordinated with a statewide plan for economic development and other statewide plans. For instance, we must identify where we are having success and build on the progress made by bodies like the Connecticut Port Authority, incorporating their vision for moving Connecticut forward into our overall strategic plan. Moreover, I strongly support transit-oriented development and densification in our urban centers around transit. I will propose changes to zoning regulations, such as reducing or abolishing minimum parking ratios, to promote TOD.

Investing in Universal Broadband Access
I will invest in broadband infrastructure that puts Connecticut on a path to universal broadband access. We must also make sure that all families and businesses in Connecticut have access to high-quality, affordable broadband by investing in 5G small-cell networks that will help transform local economies. I will launch a program to expand broadband connectivity across the state and to bring gigabit internet to our major cities.

Improving Air, Rail, and Bus Service
As governor, I will:

• Expand service at Bradley, Tweed, and Sikorsky Airports. As we know, GE didn’t leave the state just because of taxes but in part because of poor infrastructure including limited air connectivity. I support extending Tweed New Haven’s main runway to accommodate larger passenger aircraft, and I will work to grow service at Connecticut’s main airports. Service to Washington, Atlanta, and Chicago from Tweed and Sikorsky will greatly improve the business climate in our two largest cities.

• Improve the New Haven line. The Metro North line connects the people of Connecticut to one another and to one of the great economic engines of the world. This line, which completes over 40 million passenger trips every year, supports significant economic development in our state and particularly in our largest cities, removes cars from I-95 thereby easing congestion and pollution, and is in ever-increasing demand. Given this history of success, it is a travesty that the line has been underinvested in. I am saddened that this line has seen loss of life, and I am angered that delayed repairs have caused trains to have to slow down, meaning that trains today run slower than 10 years ago. We must invest in a comprehensive overhaul of the New Haven line including accelerated installation of positive train control and repairs to bridges and tracks. We can bring travel time from New Haven to New York down to one hour and 15 minutes through improvements to our current line. I also support investment in high speed rail that will bring travel times to under one hour.
• Build on the progress of the newly opened Hartford Line by exploring other rail options to connect our communities and encourage regional economic growth. Expansion in rail and dedicated bus rapid transit like CTfastrak will reduce congestion on highways while supporting development in our urban centers. I support an extension of the Waterbury line to Hartford, and I support new regional train service between Hartford and Providence that also services Storrs and brings development to northeastern Connecticut.

• Improve CTTransit. I support regionalizing control of CTTransit so that routes can best reflect the needs of our regions. We must make common sense investments in technology such as smart traffic lights that turn green when buses approach (now that’s a benefit that commuters would pay for!). I envision CTTransit being a major part of our plans to improve economic growth while reducing congestion on our highways.

Funding Transportation Projects
I will establish a state infrastructure bank and fully fund the Special Transportation Fund by introducing electronic tolling on heavy trucks. We’ve got to be honest about how we pay for rebuilding our infrastructure to get this state moving again. Electronic tolling on heavy trucks will capture much-needed revenue for investment in our roads and infrastructure. It will also ensure Connecticut remains competitive with our neighboring states, including New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where maintenance and repair are supported by tolling. Second, Connecticut is one of the few states not to have an infrastructure bank, and this will help lower borrowing costs for infrastructure projects and support public-private partnerships that will drive investment.

Combatting the Opioid Epidemic
More people in our state die from drug overdoses than car accidents, homicides and suicides combined. Last year, Connecticut saw 1,038 drug overdose deaths, and drug overdose deaths have increased over the last five years. In 2012, Connecticut ranked 50th in the nation for opioid deaths, but by 2015 ranked number 12.

New London has made addressing the opioid crisis a top priority. At a visit to New London’s Homeless Hospitality Center, I met with first responders, treatment providers, non-profit leaders involved with certifying and operating sober homes, “recovery navigators,” and people themselves in recovery from opioid use disorder. Everybody in that room was part of a group effort to help those suffering from opioid use disorder. This interdisciplinary “Opioid Action Team” brings together the diverse areas of expertise needed to combat the opioid crisis in a collaborative way.

To address the opioid crisis that has touched all of our communities, we not only need a coordinated and collaborative approach involving families, first responders and health professionals, but we also need to increase funding for and expand access to treatment facilities.

It’s crucial that the state adopt a comprehensive approach like New London’s that focuses on prevention, treatment and harm reduction. New London’s Opioid Action Team has developed one of the only action plans in Connecticut, working to increase best practice treatment services, reduce stigma and implement support services for families and communities.

As governor, I would recognize that addiction is an illness and not a moral failing, and the only way to address the opioid epidemic is to treat it as what it is: a true public health emergency.

In addition to studying and expanding on New London’s success, I will take the following steps to combat the opioid epidemic:

• Increasing access to and distribution of naloxone in our communities, particularly by requiring that insurers cover naloxone without out-of-pocket costs.

• Expanding patient access to and insurance coverage for facilities that provide evidence-based addiction treatment like medication-assisted therapy (MAT). Further, we must significantly increase the number of practitioners across Connecticut who can prescribe buprenorphine.

• Increasing funding for proven treatment and recovery facilities, like certified sober homes.

• Working to improve insurance coverage for addiction treatment.

• Treating inmates for addiction to prevent unnecessary deaths and further reduce our crime rates upon reentry, as has proven successful in Rhode Island.

• Focusing on the homelessness, incarceration and poverty that prevent people from achieving a lifelong recovery.

• Improving continuity of care, particularly when individuals are released from jails or when individuals are treated at emergency rooms and are referred to treatment.

• Implementing diversion programs to make sure that those suffering from an addiction disorder receive treatment, not prison.

• Working closely with the medical community to reduce the prescribing of opioids and to promote non-opioid alternatives for pain treatment.

• Working with our attorney general to crack down on pharmaceutical manufacturers’ and distributors’ misleading opioid marketing practices. I strongly support lawsuits brought by many of Connecticut’s municipalities, including Wallingford, New Haven, Waterbury, Bridgeport, New London and New Britain, to hold pharmaceutical manufacturers liable for causing this crisis.

Preventing Gun Violence
It’s been six years since a gunman walked into Sandy Hook and killed twenty children and six educators, but the mass shootings across the United States continue from Las Vegas to Parkland, and gun violence in Connecticut towns and cities persists.

We have learned first hand the cost of unregulated gun ownership. As Governor, and as a parent and educator, I will make sure that we continue to lead the nation in gun safety, and I won’t let Republicans and the NRA push us backwards.

Connecticut is a leader on...

• Requiring background checks for all firearm sales

• Expanding the existing ban on assault weapons, prohibiting the possession of assault weapons including the AR-15 and Bushmaster assault rifle, which was used in the Sandy Hook shooting

• Mandating registration of all existing assault rifles and high-capacity magazines

• Reporting requirements of individuals prohibited from possessing firearms to the database used for firearm purchase background checks

• Prohibiting the sale of higher-capacity magazines, those with more than 10 rounds

• Prohibiting the purchase or possession of firearms for convicted abusers and those subject to domestic violence restraining/protective orders

But, I will ensure we do more: Every other day someone dies as a result of gun violence in Connecticut. We must build strong partnerships between our police and first responders and our communities to be proactive in preventing the conditions that lead to violence before it occurs.

As governor, I will tighten our existing gun laws and close existing loopholes. This includes mandating that guns always be stored safely and limiting the number of firearms that may be purchased at once. I also support banning “bump stocks” and tightening the loopholes that allow for weapons to be upgraded to rapid fire.

As governor, I will expand gun buyback programs like the one that has had success in New Haven. In 2017, students in New Haven helped connect national nonprofit Gun by Gun with the New Haven police department and the Yale New Haven Hospital to organize a gun buyback exchange. It yielded 141 weapons this past December, and I plan on actively supporting any future buyback programs shown to reduce the number of weapons in our communities.

As governor, I will preserve and seek to expand funding for efforts like Project Longevity, a program launched in 2012 operating in New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport that has helped reduce rates of gun violence by intervening before violence occurs. A formal impact evaluation in New Haven of the first 18 months Project Longevity, published by a researchers from Yale University, showed a 21% decrease in total shootings per month. The researchers found a decrease of 53% in gang or group-related shootings per month “directly attributable to” the project.

As governor, I will review and support implementation of policies that have had success in Connecticut and neighboring states, including Trauma-Informed Community Response in which communities, mental and social services and other health services and law enforcement work together to help communities heal from gun violence and understand how to prevent future gun violence. Violence takes its toll on a community in so many ways, we need to focus on healing the whole community and providing the supports that prevent future violence.

As governor, I will be a continuous and vocal advocate for smart, common sense legislation; work with our federal delegation, regional leaders and state-based advocates to be on the right side of history putting the safety of our communities first, and be a consistent, strong voice demanding national change such as ending the federal ban on gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Investing in Arts and Culture
The arts are an invaluable part of who we are as a state and as a society. The arts are critical in supporting the high quality of life that we are so rightly proud of as a state. The arts serve as an important tool for economic development. And access to the arts – particularly in our schools – is critical for our children’s educational progress. As governor I will protect the current level of state funding to the arts, and I will fight to return funding levels to their pre-recession levels. Further, I will champion the arts throughout my time in office and will work closely with major donors and foundations to increase charitable support for the arts and encourage private sector partnerships.

I was horrified when Donald Trump proposed to cut all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities last year. Unlike the President, I have a profound respect for the foundational role of the arts in our state’s civil society. I will work closely with our state’s Congressional representation to block any further Republican attempts to defund the arts, and I will categorically prevent defunding here at the state level. Further, I will work closely with local and legislative leaders to protect and grow dedicated funding streams for arts and culture.

Investing in our Children
When I was in 9th grade I was the keyboardist (read: rock & roll pianist) for a band called Flower Pot (my mom’s idea). Though my band didn’t shoot me off to a lifetime of rock & roll stardom, it did give me the confidence that I needed at that age, and a chance to express myself. I still love music and will play the piano when I have the opportunity.

I believe that all children in the state should have the opportunities to explore the arts – just as I did. I support integrating arts education at all levels of our K-12 educational system. I also strongly support nonprofits like Music Haven and the New London Youth Talent Show that empower youth through the arts and reduce the opportunity gap in urban areas.

Diversity and Inclusion
I am so proud that Connecticut has pioneered initiatives to make arts and culture more accessible to disadvantaged communities and communities of color. When assessing grantmaking, the state now requests that projects be READI – that is, relevant, equitable, accessible, diverse and inclusive. This policy has led to marked improvements in engagements with the arts in our state, and I would like to make sure that Connecticut remains at the vanguard of the READI movement.

Did you know that Connecticut has a state troubadour? (Yes, really!) Because of READI, our state was able to reach and attract non-traditional artists, and for the first time awarded the “troubadourship” to a soul singer. I can’t wait to invite Nekita Waller to perform at my inauguration.

I also strongly support efforts to reduce or eliminate entrance fees for low-income families at our state’s cultural institutions. For example, many states and communities including Massachusetts, Colorado, and Philadelphia provide free or discounted entry for SNAP recipients and their families to address income inequality and increase access to the arts. Similarly, I support programs like Blue Star Museums that increase access to the arts for our military families. However, because these free and discounted access programs are costly to our cultural institutions, I will work closely with them to make these programs more financially sustainable.

Revitalizing Cities and Towns
The arts are an important part of what makes our cities and towns such vibrant places to live. For example, new arts institutions have improved the vitality of Torrington’s downtown. And a recent survey of Electric Boat employees, including newly-hired employees, found that access to and opportunities for arts and cultural activities affects their decision to stay or leave. Investing in the arts, then, is critical to revitalize our cities and towns and attract new families to our state.

For instance, I would study the impact of UNLOAD, a nonprofit which linked a gun buyback program in Hartford with artists to get guns off the streets, or ConnCAT in New Haven, which trains and educates youth and adults with afterschool arts programming and job training programming.

I am heartened by the following example, which took place in a small town in Minnesota, after the state made a commitment to dedicate and sustain funding for the arts:

"When [Mayor] Gossman took office in 2008 “everything was going down the toilet,” he said. The recession had weakened a local economy in flux with the consolidation of family farms. The grocery store had closed, and the hardware store was about to. For-sale signs hung in Main Street windows."

"Today, not a single empty storefront remains. Galleries and gift stores line the compact downtown. On a recent Sunday, a sign outside Goat Ridge Brewing Co. advertised brews and “pickin.’” Inside, a handful of musicians sitting in a circle played a Tom Petty tune on banjo and guitar."

“There’s a rising awareness of the benefits of investing in the arts and culture, even in the smallest towns,” said Sheila Smith, executive director of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts. “People want … amenities to draw young people, especially in places where they’re losing people to the big cities."

“Having a vibrant arts and culture community contributes to the life of a town.”

Support Economic Development and Tourism
The arts are an important tool in my approach to bring sustained economic growth back to Connecticut. The arts attract tourism dollars, support thousands of jobs and account for 3.5 percent of the state’s GDP. In spite of our success, I believe that our state can do more. For example, I am keenly interested in emulating Massachusetts’ Cultural Facilities Fund. The CFF supports construction projects at cultural facilities and is highly effective at leveraging private dollars. The CFF’s impact has been impressive over the last 10 years:

• CFF projects have hired 25,513 architects, designers, engineers and construction workers

• 101 million tourists have visited these organizations since 2007

• 2,168 new full-time permanent jobs have been created as a result of the new construction or renovation of these facilities

• $91 million has been raised privately to directly match CFF grants^[32]

Connecticut is in absolute crisis.

High Taxes – We have the highest tax burden in the nation. We in Connecticut have to work four weeks longer than the average American just to cover our tax bills! We need to work until May 21 – vs. April 23 on average (as reported by the Tax Foundation)

Out of Control Spending – Despite five tax increases since 1992, we have a growing, $3.5 billion budget deficit and a pension plan which is underfunded by $74 billion.

Job Losses – Since introducing a state income tax in 1991, we have had the slowest job growth in the entire nation – with 6,600 jobs lost in October 2017 alone.

Decline Population – More people are leaving Connecticut than any other state (except West Virginia). In the last 10 years, we have lost $6 billion in adjusted gross income from people moving to Florida alone!

A Dysfunctional Government – the current fiscal year budget was 117 days past due, and it included $881 million in “unidentified savings” and was already more than $200 million out of balance only a month after it was signed into law.

Connecticut Democrats have followed a policy of “Tax & Spend”. Bob’s Five-Step Plan to Rebuild Connecticut Step 1: Phase out corporate income tax and business entity tax over 2 years

• Eliminating the Corporate and Business Use taxes, reducing regulatory interference will provide stimulus for companies to rediscover everything our state has to offer.
• Our corporate tax raises less than 5.0% of the state’s total tax revenues, but Connecticut is uncompetitive with its neighbors and rivals. Repeal is an affordable and important way to carve a competitive niche relative to economic development marketing.
• In recent months, the headquarters of GE, Alexion, and Aetna left. Bristol-Myers and Konica Minolta have also announced plans to depart.
• Since 1991, we have seen the slowest job growth in the entire nation. We lost 6,600 jobs in October 2017 alone.
• Our labor force participation continues to decline – only 66% of the adult population is working or looking for work – 1/3 are on the sidelines.

We need a bold statement – a bona fide competitive advantage – to get businesses to start here, expand here, and relocate to Connecticut – and quickly – so that the number of jobs, number of businesses, and labor force participation all start moving in the right direction again.

Step 2: Phase out state income tax over 8 years

• Introduce an across-the-board income tax cut over eight years tied to the attainment of revenue targets.
• Our income tax destroys growth! For the 15 years preceding the Connecticut State Income Tax (1976 to 1991), our state economy grew faster than any other state. For the 25 years after the tax (1991-2016), our growth is 46th in the nation.
• Since 1960 only 11 states have introduced a state income tax. In each of those 11 states, every economic metric is down – population, gross state product, and total tax revenues. Adding an income tax reduced gross tax revenues – in every instance!
• A study by the Cato Institute showed that over 5 years: the 5 states that increased taxes the most had zero job growth and the 5 states that decreased taxes had the most job growth at 10.8%.

Massachusetts did it! They lowered the tax rate to 5.1% and since then, population, employment, personal income and tax revenues have all gone up!

Step 3: Eliminate the gift and estate taxes immediately

• The majority of states have already done away with both the gift and estate taxes as they drive residents to other tax-free states!
• We are the only state with both an estate and a gift tax!
• They raise only about 1 percent of the state’s total tax revenues each year – but cost so much more than that in the slowing of our economy.
• These taxes are causing more people to leave Connecticut than any other state (except West Virginia).
• An astounding $6 billion of adjusted gross income has left for Florida alone in the past 10 years.

We want our retirees to stay here! They create jobs, pay taxes, donate to charities, buy goods and services and sustain our state’s economy.

Step 4: Embrace zero-based budgeting to reduce spending

• Zero-based budgeting starts with a “blank piece of paper” not an already bloated budget with special interests and sacred cows baked in.
• You add back in only the services absolutely needed while finding creative ways to do things cheaper.
• Even with “fixed” costs like debt service and SEBAC, 20 to 25% of CT’s budget is “discretionary.”
• With a two-year budget exceeding $40 billion, there are plenty of opportunities to identify savings and efficiencies.
• Steps:
  • Review every department and agency for waste, fraud, and abuse
  • Reward, with whistleblower protection, employees with cost savings ideas.
  • Contract out public services to the private sector, starting with the DMV
  • Consider more public-private partnerships to share the cost of aging infrastructure
  • Reduce SEBAC – lower staff via attrition, defined contribution plan for non-vested employees, “revisit” overall contract extension.

Step 5: Enact a Taxpayer Bill of Rights

• Impose term limits for state legislators (5 terms/10 years) and the governor (2 terms/8 years).
• Allow for a recall of state officials who are not living up to campaign promises, getting the job done or representing their constituents properly.
• Impose a constitutional amendment to require a supermajority to enact any tax or fee increase.
• Allow citizens the rights of referendum and recall.
• Require more transparency around private interests receiving tax payer dollars.

Our constitution never intended for political office to be a “job for life.” We need better accountability around the actions of our representatives and a mechanism to force fresh thinking on how to solve problems.

It Can Work
Lower corporate taxes will bring companies and jobs back to Connecticut.

Lower individual taxes will increase disposable income, resulting in more consumer demand and businesses will expand to meet that demand.

Eliminating the gift and the estate tax will stop the exodus of high tax paying residents to Florida and other low tax states.

Zero-based budgeting will force a fresh perspective on what costs are truly needed and what can be eliminated.

A Taxpayer Bill of Rights will ensure accountability around government officials to best represent their constituents or be removed from office.

Help Small Businesses
Connecticut used to be a beacon for business. For nearly twenty years, from 1976 through 1992, our state had the highest rate of job creation in the entire country. But after that, job creation slowed and came to a halt due to the passage of a state income tax.

We can lead the nation again in job growth, but only if we lower our taxes, and reduce our regulatory burden to make people and businesses WANT to move here.

Bob has formed an Economic Advisory Council of small and medium-sized business owners to ensure his plan will work to grow jobs in Connecticut.

Modernize Our Infrastructure
In a recent US News study, only 14.6% of Connecticut residents said they were satisfied with the status of our infrastructure. Bob has been working with dozens of small business owners, private citizens and economic experts like Dr. Arthur Laffer to come up with a detailed plan on how to fix our economy as well as our crumbling roads and bridges. Some elements of this plan include:

Streamlining the approval process for major construction programs
We need to ensure the integrity of our beautiful towns, rural areas and open spaces in Connecticut. But once decided, the administrative process for rebuilding and enhancing our roads, bridges, airports and tunnels needs to be faster. We need to cut the “red tape” that often delays critical infrastructure projects by 50% or more.

Spend money where it counts!
We need to cut the wasteful spending habits of Dan Malloy and the career politicians and reinvest money in our infrastructure to the benefit of everyone in this state. That is money that could re-directed to improve our crumbling infrastructure and benefit everyone in this state, rather than a select, few, privileged politicians.

Encourage Connecticut financial institutions to be part of the solution
We should encourage our local banks to consider financing more economic development in our state. Various programs such as the Community Investment Act and low-cost loans from the Federal Small Business Loan Program could provide an incentive for Connecticut based banks to support projects to improve our infrastructure. It will allow them to increase their business activity, create more local jobs for construction projects and improve the quality of life for all residents.

Investigate using public-private partnerships to help rebuild our crumbling infrastructure
In a PPP, a government agency contracts with the private sector to rebuild an airport, transportation system or other critical assets. The private sector partner brings the technology, expertise and actual experience running a business that our career politicians desperately lack. The private partner funds part of the cost of construction, allowing us to improve the state’s transportation system without adding to our already massive budget deficit.

Other states have used this model to improve the quality of their infrastructure – faster, cheaper and better than the state government has any chance of doing. With the proper supervision and a business person experienced in negotiating these partnerships, PPP’s can be a very efficient way to rebuild our state. Bob has successfully worked on a wide variety of projects around the world and can bring that expertise to the governor’s office.

It will take all the tools at our disposal to repair years and years of neglect to our roads and bridges. But we have many assets to draw on and with the proper leadership, we can begin the process of rebuilding our state now!

Keep Retirees
Connecticut’s onerous income, sales, gift, and inheritance taxes are driving retirees out of our state at alarming rates. In fact, in the 2015 tax year, Connecticut lost more adjusted gross income from residents deciding to leave than any other state in the country except one.

We lost $1.3 billion in reported adjusted gross income in Connecticut for 2015 alone!

Connecticut is the ONLY state in the country to have BOTH a gift and estate tax.

Under Bob’s leadership, the “death tax” will be removed day one, stemming the outflows of people, jobs and tax revenues from our state.

We will reduce the burden of Connecticut’s state income tax over time making it easier for our retirees to afford to stay in the state they love with their family and friends.

As the articles below show, Connecticut retirees are feeling the pain.

We need to provide a better economic environment for all of our residents:

• “Why I fled Connecticut — and how much money I saved” – CT Viewpoints
• “Census: Thousands Of Connecticut Residents Moving To Other States, Fewer Moving In” – Hartford Courant
• “WHY ARE PEOPLE MOVING OUT OF CONNECTICUT AT AN ALARMING RATE?” – i95 Rock

Retain Our Graduates
Even with Connecticut graduates topping the national charts of the highest-earning graduates, our state is still facing a crisis with most graduates moving away (Source:”5 Connecticut Census Numbers That Should Scare Your Socks Off” – Hartford Courant). We are losing jobs and losing our well educated young adults to other states and nearby cities like Boston and New York.

The business climate in Connecticut is not attractive for young workers. Bob wants to build businesses, grow our economy, and bring in new workers. Starting with a welcoming business climate, he wants to bring innovative and startup jobs to Connecticut.

Keeping more of our graduates will help ensure a bright future for Connecticut.^[32]