Ned Lamont vs. Ryan Fazio Gubernatorial Debate segment #1

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: News and CT Insider a campaign 2026 special presentation the first [00:00:06] Speaker 2: gubernatorial debate good evening and thanks for joining us for the first 20 26 Connecticut gubernatorial debate I'm Erin Connolly I'll be serving as the moderator of tonight's hour-long debate which is hosted by WFSB and CT Insider we are looking forward to a spirited discussion on the issues that matter most to voters here in Connecticut and with that let's introduce the candidates we want to welcome Democratic governor Ned Lamont and his Republican challenger State Senator Ryan Fazio tonight the candidates will be taking questions from our two panelists Channel 3's chief political reporter Susan Rath and CT Insider's columnist and senior editor Dan Haar yesterday we did a coin toss with the campaigns and determined that Senator Fazio will give the first opening statement and the first closing statement governor Lamont will answer our first question and he will have the final closing statement of the night now to the rules which both candidates have agreed to each candidate has one minute to make an opening statement after that they'll be asked a question and will be given 90 seconds to answer the opposing candidate will have one minute to respond rebuttals will be 30 seconds and as the moderator will be granted at my discretion each candidate will be given one minute at the end of the debate to make a closing statement now that we have gone over the rules let's get started senator Fazio we begin tonight with your opening statement and you have one minute thank you and good evening tonight all across [00:01:47] Ryan Fazio: Connecticut families are struggling they're suffering under the weight of the fourth highest energy bills the third highest taxes and the highest unemployment rate in the entire country governor Lamont had eight years to fix it instead he broke his promises and made every single one of those problems worse he raised your taxes by three billion dollars raise the fees in your electric bills by another billion an opportunity continues to leave this state now tonight you can expect governor to blame those failures on washington dc but leadership is about taking accountability i've been willing to criticize the trump administration when i disagree just like democrats in hartford and i'll lead in the exact same way as an independent voice and a bipartisan leader together we can bring people together in this state to cut your taxes reduce your electric bills and make connecticut affordable for all senator fazio thank you very much governor lamont it's now your turn and you also have one minute for your opening statement [00:02:52] Ned Lamont: well erin thank you and sue and dan har i understand it's your birthday so thank you for inviting ryan and me to your birthday really appreciate it i'll just say in connecticut we've been through a lot over the light years you know eight years ago came in office inherited two billion dollar budget deficits as far as the eye can see and then we ran into covet now we have trump's tariffs and the war in iran driving up the cost for everybody but i hope you believe that we've made progress over the last uh eight years eight balanced budgets in a row we've gone from one of the slowest growing economies in the country to one of the fastest growing economies you know what that means that means jobs and opportunity but jobs and opportunity are not enough if you can't afford to get by you're getting squeezed right now we've put in place republicans always talk about it we had the biggest income tax cut in the history of the state we have reduced electric prices compared to a year ago i understand the tough times for the middle class we're fighting back every day for you i hope susan and i can [00:03:50] Speaker 2: earn your support governor lamont thank you so much we appreciate both of your opening statements tonight the first question will go to you governor lamont it will come from channel 3 susan raff and the topic is affordability [00:04:04] Speaker 5: thank you and again i want to thank you both for participating in tonight's debate and this question is for you governor lamont you have been governor for eight years and you did promise to lower electricity property taxes and housing costs so why would another term bring different results [00:04:22] Ned Lamont: look where we are today you know everybody talks about i'm gonna cut the income tax i've heard it every time i've been running only one guy has cut the income tax we cut that for the middle class we eliminated the income tax for most working families eliminated the income tax for most um seniors you talk about electric rates they've gone up all around the country well connectica is one of the very few states that actually reduced electric rates and making a small difference for people every day look there's no question we have a way to go but we're making a difference and by the way when you look at the property tax of course that's led by um mayors and first selectmen but we've done our part we've stepped up we've increased funding for education we've increased funding for municipal aid we've made life a little bit easier for our mayors to get that by we had a big increase in education funding ryan did not uh support it last time around that's too bad but we got to do more than that it's not simply a matter of more subsidies it's also a matter for property tax how we can make you able to deliver your um functions a lot more efficiently we do everything 169 times in this town in this state because we have 169 different towns we're working every way to make it easier for you to deliver the promises you make to your people and hold down property taxes look we brought down income tax we're not in the top 10 anymore we're the lowest in new england except for new hampshire here we come [00:05:43] Speaker 2: new hampshire we're getting you next governor lamont we appreciate it senator fazio you now have one [00:05:48] Ryan Fazio: minute to respond now from the sound of it it's like governor lamont is living in an entirely different state than the people i talked to on the campaign trail just last night in torrington i met a woman who broke down in tears explaining to me that she can no longer afford to pay her bills in this state and had to take a third job just to get by we need to give good people like her better choices eight years ago when governor lamont ran for office he promised to hold the line on taxes but if you add up all the tax changes he's made over that time he's raised your taxes by three billion dollars including on food including on your paychecks including on online purchases governor lamont in his first run for office promised to cut property taxes but the average town and city out there has seen property taxes increase 40 percent we can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results as governor i'll cut your taxes by thousands of dollars we'll cap property taxes by removing unfunded mandates and reduce electric bills by 20 percent by eliminating every hidden tax and fee in those electric [00:06:53] Speaker 2: bills we can do it senator fazio thank you very much right now we do want to move on to the next question this is for senator fazio it'll be asked by ct insiders dan har and it's about energy [00:07:07] Speaker 1: thank you very much uh we do have questions that we got from our from our viewers and readers and we're going to mix them into some of these questions that we're asking tonight and i want to start with energy uh everybody wants to see rate cuts electric rate cuts but the signs point to electric rate increases uh senator fazio in the next few years eversource has not had a regular rate increase since 2018. we owe years of storm cleanup back with the favorable millstone contract is coming out uh is is expiring in a couple of years public benefits are really only a very small fraction when you take away those contracts how do you propose to do it uh maria pachowski asked that question she wants to know and [00:07:48] Ryan Fazio: so do we well maria we can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results connecticut has the fourth highest electric bills in the entire country and something needs to change just a couple of weeks ago the ceo of eversource the largest utility in connecticut was bragging to his investors on a conference call that governor lamont calls him a friend behind closed doors and guarantees that their rate increase that's proposed will go through after the election that's just not acceptable that's the way it's been for the last eight years governor lamont gave eversource a sweetheart deal in 2024 allowing them to sell their water subsidiary to an unregulated entity so they can jack up rates without any independent oversight that means in addition that eversource got billions of dollars extra into their coffers not only that governor lamont championed and signed into law bills in 2020 2021 and 2026 that will increase your public benefits charge and other hidden fees in your electric bill by billions of dollars into the future most of those subsidies go to support the profits of private energy corporations like de shaw one of the largest hedge funds in the united states and orsted a multi-billion dollar international corporation i do not believe it's right that you should pay higher electric bills to the tune of thousands of dollars per year in order to support the profits of private multi-billion dollar energy companies but governor lamont does i would eliminate all those hidden taxes and fees cut electric bills by 20 to make the state affordable your time is up thank you so much [00:09:24] Ned Lamont: governor lamont you have one minute to respond politicians love to make promises uh they can't keep you're not eliminating uh the public benefits charge ryan all you're doing is shifting it over to the backs of the taxpayers that's no way to get it done you want to know how we pay for nuclear power what dan referred to as that favorable millstone deal we do that out of the public benefits charge by the way that was the first deal we had to do when i came into office everybody else was unplugging nuclear power we doubled down that's saving us 400 million dollars this year that is what's temporarily gotten rid of the public benefits charge that's why we're not the third highest we're the second lowest in all of new england we're making progress there on our energy bills and by the way the water company that's pura they are the regulatory group that takes a look at that and i thought if you didn't like ever source so much you wouldn't want them running the water company as well so i'm a little confused it was sold to a not-for-profit maybe you need to do some regulatory oversight on that as well but we are holding ever source accountable we are making sure that every dime goes to the efficiency and upgrade of the grid thank you you have my word on that senator fazia would you like another 30 seconds [00:10:31] Ryan Fazio: yes i think the viewers out there will be very surprised to learn that governor lamont's holding ever source accountable when he has a texting relationship with the ceo and the ceo says don't leave town until we have our billion dollar deal finalized when the ceo of ever source is bragging to his investors that he'll get his rate increase through after the election is done if governor lamont is in office governor lamont is the one that shifted rates to taxpayers by borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars on the backs of taxpayers for electric bills we need to change your time is up [00:11:04] Speaker 2: governor would you like another 30 seconds to respond to that there's no truth to this at all [00:11:09] Ned Lamont: i came into office there was no relationship between state government and the business and labor and others i've mended those relationships i do have a relationship for the business leaders of the state that does not mean i do not hold them accountable look what we did with ever source they we gave them five different decisions under immersive gillette and they sued us five different times they said let's get a new purer board in there we got a new purer board you approved to them as well and they sued us again because they didn't like the result believe me we are holding them accountable governor thank you so [00:11:40] Speaker 2: much we have a lot to get to tonight let's move on to question three that question is about scandals in state government it is for governor lamont and will be asked by dan harr [00:11:52] Speaker 1: governor uh we've seen a sort of unfolding scandal of mismanagement at cscu the state university system involving uh chancellor former chancellor terence cheng uh zoma toro the the ccsu president uh john maduco and others your deputy budget chief was uh indicted and convicted of 21 corruption charges you let the crisis between eversource and i think uh pure melissa gillette go for a couple of years before you took care of it uh how do you respond to the no one is implicating you personally by any means how do you [00:12:28] Ned Lamont: respond though to charges that you're not minding we hold people accountable and i have zero tolerance for any type of malfeasance out there you start out with the csu system let's pull the lens back for just one second dan we have the biggest application pool the biggest freshman class at eastern we've ever had before our csu system is strong our community colleges which are an elevator of opportunity for young people in the state uh have more people today than every time since covid and they're growing all the time these are these are great systems making a difference there were some leadership issues there you know what i do when i see a leadership issue i make a change and we've made a change there was a guy there that um was accused of some things he's gone i don't think they took it up the flagpole and dealt with it in an officious way they're gone as well but i want you to know that compared to where the state was 15 20 years ago with the nickname corrupt a cut connecticut's in a very different place i don't need people bad mouthing this state i need you to know i have zero tolerance to this anytime i see something wrong i go after it and i hit it hard governor thank you senator fazio [00:13:32] Ryan Fazio: your one minute starts now governor lamont did call connecticut corrupt a kit when he first ran for office the problem is that eight years later corruption has flourished on his watch there's been millions and millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars stolen by malfeasance and corruption in this state government and people simply haven't been held accountable the problems in the cscu system are precisely because the governor didn't hold them accountable when terence chang was found to have stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the taxpayer as the leader of cscu governor lamont called it small ball why would you call that small ball so it's no surprise that we've seen scandal after scandal within the cscu system in the years since because the governor set the tone that people do not get held accountable terence chang was given a no-show job for the following two years after he was caught getting paid 440 000 per year if you watching steal tens of thousands of dollars per year will you get a no-show job paying 440 000 per year will that happen on governor lamont's watch senator thank you so much we appreciate [00:14:37] Speaker 2: it governor we'll give you another 30 seconds to respond here [00:14:42] Ned Lamont: terence chang spent too much on his credit card over 45 for a number of steak dinners donald trump has just received a 450 million dollar jet as a gift from the qataris you got to keep some perspective here what we're doing right now we had people on the csu board one of them was named erin stewart who put 450 000 in charges on her card the trick in life is when you see something going wrong go after them hold them accountable and make the change that's what we've done appreciated governor [00:15:13] Ryan Fazio: senator fazio 30 seconds listen i think that when you have leaders in state government stealing tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayers when you have costa diamantes fleeing the country after he got a promotion from governor lamont when you have a sitting state senator who got millions of dollars and stole it and is now being investigated by the fbi and when i introduce reforms that every dollar of state government needs to be claimed and vetted for conflicts of interest governor lamont and the legislature oppose those reforms again the buck stops somewhere that money means something to the [00:15:44] Ned Lamont: taxpayers who are being crushed reforms i supported those reforms i told the legislature i'm going to veto it unless these year mark reforms are real and casta diamantes i didn't hire him but i fired him [00:15:56] Ryan Fazio: the requirement that you vet the board of directors of these organizations for conflicts of interest that did not pass you oppose that the requirement that they give over their financial statements before they get money you did not support that it did not pass we did not go far enough not at all [00:16:14] Speaker 2: all right we're going to move to the next question this will be asked by susan it is for you senator fazio and it's about president trump's foreign policy senator fazio you have said on the campaign trail [00:16:25] Speaker 5: and also in the state legislature that the president's foreign policy has nothing to do with connecticut but the reality a lot of people will disagree with that uh that high tariffs the war in iran and are having a financial impact on the pocketbooks of not only connecticut residents but residents across the country in light of this do you support president trump's foreign policy [00:16:49] Ryan Fazio: i oppose the war in iran i've said it repeatedly i'm more of a non-interventionist i actually respect in 2006 when ned lamont ran for the senate in opposition to the iraq war i think he was right at the time and i've been critical of the decision to go into iran the issue here is that this election is about connecticut and policy decisions made by the leadership of our state government and the leaders of our state government have a responsibility to act and do what they can in order to provide relief when a problem arises when a mistake is made i've called for a gas tax holiday immediately to provide 25 cents per gallon of relief to you at the pump governor lamont supported a gas tax holiday four years ago when gas tax prices were high but he's opposing it now when we have a way to provide relief sometimes hundreds of dollars of relief to you and your family per month it would be paid for because there is an existing surplus in the special transportation fund so my question to governor lamont is what are you going to do about it why haven't you supported a gas tax holiday which several democrats and republicans have shown support for that would save the viewers 25 cents per gallon immediately in connecticut and would be fully financed for six months or more by the existing balances in the special transportation fund you supported it four years ago why don't you [00:18:14] Ned Lamont: support it now we'll leave a hole in the budget i came into office there was nothing in that special transportation fund and the trump department of transportation said you're going to get no support connecticut unless you do it i got no support from the legislature we've got a special transportation fund that's the way to pay for our roads and bridges by the way you can't mumble when it comes to donald trump you seem to think that washington is like las vegas everything that happens in las vegas stays in las vegas everything that happens in washington impacts you every day when the price of gasoline goes up one dollar and seventy five cent a gallon that's costing our families say twenty dollars a week i appreciate 25 cents we'll figure out how to pay for it later that's just the type of political thinking that got this state in the trouble look what they're doing on diesel look what they're doing on home heating oil that's going to double the price for you there we stepped in because we put in place a trump 500 million dollar fund just to make up for some of those losses there you didn't support that but i'm going to make sure you're able to heat your home this winter [00:19:13] Speaker 2: governor appreciate it senator fazio we'll grant you another 30 seconds here governor lamont is right [00:19:19] Ryan Fazio: that families are struggling with high energy costs but what are we going to do about it there is an opportunity right now to cut people's gas prices at the pump by 25 cents per gallon that's potentially hundreds of dollars per month for some families it would be fully financed because the cost of that is just over a hundred million dollars but the existing surplus in the special transportation fund is 600 million dollars so we have a way for to pay for it you supported it four years ago why won't [00:19:47] Speaker 2: you support it now when people are in need senator fazio thank you governor i'll also grant you another 30 [00:19:52] Ned Lamont: seconds politicians have got to look beyond the next election you got to think about what it's going to take to fix our roads and bridges and how you pay for it i've been very clear with the legislature you want to uh cut the gas tax tell me how you're going to pay for it oh i'll borrow the money now i'll take it out of the surplus and we'll figure out how to pay for it tomorrow that's just the type of mentality that got this state into a problem over the last 20 years that's just why we lurch from deficit to deficit and tax increase to tax increase i'm not going to let that happen again okay we do have [00:20:24] Speaker 2: to move on governor thank you the next question is about property taxes here in connecticut this is for governor lamont and will be asked by susan governor lamont property taxes affect pretty much every [00:20:36] Speaker 5: resident and business owner in the state and for years we've been talking about reform and reducing them but nothing seems to happen why is that and what is your plan let me tell you what we've done [00:20:49] Ned Lamont: first of all because plans are easy let's see what you've been able to execute we flat funded municipal aid we flat funded the schools for many years during the 2010s when we were going from deficit to deficit we have not done that we've had the biggest increase in funding for education we doubled the amount of funding for special education the other things we've done for our schools increased municipal aid along with pilot almost doing that doing what we can to help the um mayors and first selectmen get by i didn't get help from ryan on that he would have just left it on the laps of the first selectmen you would have seen their property taxes go up more but as i said before it's going to take more than just more subsidies from the state to help our municipalities get go forward you know i've said you know very clearly um let me help you manage yourselves your back office ways we can save some money um on the back side maybe you don't all need your own purchasing maybe you don't need your own building maybe you don't all need your own town planner maybe there's ways you can share some of those services that could save you a heck of a lot of money and in the meantime we've also taken the property tax credit that's a way that we can help out people immediately we've uh increased that by 50 percent we expanded that the more people especially for seniors especially for folks um disabled veterans ryan was not there for that vote it's a really important vote appreciated governor senator fazio you [00:22:09] Ryan Fazio: have one minute to reply here governor the first time you ran for governor you promised to cut property taxes those are your words not mine fast forward eight years later property taxes are up 40 or more in many towns or cities for many of our residents it feels like a second mortgage and for people who are renters they're eating those costs in their rent from their landlords too governor lamont signed into law over 105 new laws with new unfunded mandates costs being imposed on our towns and cities which drive up their property taxes for the first seven years that governor lamont was in office he flat funded education funding to the point that it declined after adjusting for inflation i proposed an alternative budget this year that increased the education funding by 200 million dollars but more importantly i'll put in place property tax reforms and a property tax cap that cuts the unfunded mandates those costs by hundreds and caps property taxes the future other states have done it including massachusetts and new hampshire thank you do it too [00:23:13] Speaker 2: the next question is for you senator fazio the topic is ice in connecticut dan will be asking this [00:23:19] Speaker 1: one uh senator the state has enacted significant rules on the the activities of the immigrations and custom and customs enforcement in connecticut some of it is being enforced some of it is not no masks as you know no arrests at schools bus stops houses of worship and some other places and no presence in polls on election day ct insider reader mark etry wants to know simply do the candidates support ice yes or no please elaborate we need a common sense policy to public safety and [00:23:52] Ryan Fazio: immigration i think we all can agree democrats and republicans that we should take criminals off the street people who are the most dangerous to society but we also need to stop ice or anyone else when they're overreaching when they're violating people's rights i think that we can protect civil liberties at the same time that we protect public safety the problem is this governor lamont's policies have gone all the way to undermine public safety even far to the left of progressive governors like tim waltz in minnesota a couple of years ago a two-year-old boy in stanford connecticut liam rivera was beaten and killed by person in the state illegally who had been previously arrested and sent to jail for assault because of governor lamont's 2019 trust act that man was let out on the streets instead of transferred to federal authorities to be removed from our state that boy might still be alive today if not for that policy we must use common sense we must protect against abuses against abuses by any authorities or law enforcement including ice and they should be clear and precise in any sort of activity they're doing at the same time we need to prioritize taking dangerous people who have been convicted of class c d or e felonies including manslaughter including sexual abuse off our streets governor lamont's law prevents that i think that is common sense governor lamont you now have one minute we get dangerous people off the [00:25:23] Ned Lamont: street we work with ice and dea and fbi that's one of the reasons we have one of the very safest states in the united states of america great policing community policing work with the feds every time it comes to getting dangerous people off the street i can't believe you're exploiting that one story out of stanford that has nothing to do with immigration the difference between you and me ryan is every time you talk about an immigrant you bring up a criminal alien and a crime i think about the kids i used to teach at harding high school i teach about what we used to call the dreamers and uh they are i think about those parents in danbury just a few weeks ago when i went through and started rounding up their parents these are parents dropping their kids off at school i will do everything i can to keep this state safe but hell if i'm going to victimize you know these poor kids who are just trying to get to school and get by we used to call them the dreamers i still [00:26:18] Speaker 2: call them the dreamers i appreciate it governor senator fazio another 30 seconds listen governor i think [00:26:23] Ryan Fazio: that's disingenuous you just sent a mailer that was talking about the death of a child in order to make your point politically i mean here you have a very clear case of a young boy who was killed by someone who was let back out on the streets because of a law that you passed i simply would say this we need common sense i love legal immigration and our legal immigrants in this state and we have to support them and make the state affordable for them at the same time people who commit crimes thank you so [00:26:53] Ned Lamont: i grant you another 30 seconds you may love them but ice is picking them up you are guilty until proven innocent if you look hispanic you are gone that next day in danbury there are hundreds of fewer kids who could even go to school they were so scared you had students sitting in the classroom with an empty desk to the left empty desk to the right many of the stores on main street shut down because people were scared so you may feel good about the immigrants but right now ice is targeting them they're guilty until proven innocent it's wrong it's un-american and we're going to stand up against it governor we [00:27:24] Speaker 2: appreciate it senator fazia we appreciate it we need both of you to sit tight for just a moment because we're going to take our only commercial break