Last Thursday, the Regional Plan Association (RPA) held its last governor’s candidate forum with State Senator Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich), the Republican candidate for governor. Following the same outline as RPA’s prior forums with incumbent Gov. Ned Lamont and his Democratic challenger, Sen. Josh Elliott (D-Hamden), Peter Harrison, RPA’s Connecticut Director, questioned Fazio on his proposals for housing, transit, and energy.
Harrison started the forum by thanking Fazio for his support of SB 339, dubbed “The Golden Girls” bill, which would have allowed single-family homeowners to lease out up to three bedrooms to long-term renters as-of-right, meaning they would not need to seek approvals from local zoning. The bill, which failed to pass last session, was backed by Pro-Homes CT, formerly known as Desegregate CT, a pro-housing reform group under the umbrella of RPA. Harrison then asked Fazio, an opponent of the Democrat-led HB 8002, the omnibus housing bill passed in last November’s emergency session, how he would “approach implementing it,” or “attempt to change it” if elected governor.
Fazio called the bill “complex” but shared his belief that it was “flawed overall,” and said that despite any disagreements he may have with Democrats or the RPA over how to approach housing, he agreed with Harrison’s premise that housing in Connecticut “is too expensive.”
“We need a vision, a balanced approach for the future to make housing affordable, to make the state affordable, and to allow families to thrive,” said Fazio. “I think housing is one of the areas that is most ripe for grand compromise and a way forward, and I’ve said that, I think, time and time again.”
Fazio said the changes he would make to 8002 would fall into one of three buckets: cost controls, adding housing supply, and respecting local control. On the first point, Fazio supported property tax caps for homeowners and the provision of “mandate relief” to municipalities.
On the second, Fazio emphasized a need to “support the building trades,” calling the state’s shortage of builders a “very important, crucial bottleneck that needs to be alleviated.” He proposed making building trade licenses either cheaper or free and easier to attain. He also proposed changing the apprentices-to-journeyperson hiring ratios and increasing state support for apprentices and vocational education. Fazio supports reforming building codes, such as legalizing single-stairwells and single-elevator layouts for apartments.
Fazio also supported zoning reform, “especially in middle zoning or middle housing,” which he called “the types of areas where I think localities will support that much more housing.” Townhouses, duplexes, or stacked flats are all examples of middle housing.
“I think getting the political buy-in is important,” said Fazio. “So that means more residential development in mixed-use areas, particularly. I think that’s even more important than transit areas. That means more accessory dwelling units.”
Lastly, Fazio supported 8-30g relief for municipalities, a law which he said is “unique, compared to the rest of the country, in how much it requires.”
“I think providing that 8-30g relief, paired with those other pro-housing, pro-building reforms, is the right way forward,” said Fazio. “That will result in lower costs, more housing, and more growth with the political buy-in.”
When Harrison asked how Fazio would ensure “a fast and fair bus network,” Fazio acknowledged that buses are “important to Connecticut’s success,” and said he is “open-minded to investments and strategies to improve the bus system.”
Fazio had significantly more to say when asked how the state could improve its rail services; he said the state currently suffers from “idisoyncratic and inconsistent rail scheduling” which he believed “needs to be addressed,” questioned the kinds of rail cars the state has purchased, calling them “more expensive, kind of more heavy than in other places,” and also questioned whether federal regulations might allow the state to “simply speed up the trains.”
“I think there is room for improvement on rail,” said Fazio. “It’s an area I’d like to prioritize as governor. I’m not a civil engineer, I’m not going to tell you I’m an expert, but it strikes me, from what I’ve read into the industry, that there is major room for improvement for Connecticut, and we need to prioritize that.”
Harrison next asked Fazio to share his plans for the Special Transportation Fund, the state’s transportation infrastructure fund that frequently flirts with insolvency. Historically funded by the state’s gas tax, Fazio said the state should consider ways to increase electric vehicle owners’ share of the fund, and called past proposals for “higher registration fees” on electric vehicles “probably the most logical” way to do so.
“They should be reasonable, but there should be a fair share that’s paid by electric vehicles, especially because they’re heavier and impose more wear and tear on the road,” said Fazio. “So, I think, you know, electric vehicles and those innovations in the economy have generally been positive, but they need to be contributing to the Special Transportation Fund.”
On the topic of energy, Fazio, a ranking member of the Energy and Technology Committee who formerly worked for an ethanol producer, said he is “a firm believer that we can protect our environment while ensuring that Connecticut is affordable,” but said the state is currently “failing horribly on [both of] those fronts.” Fazio said the state “needs to support nuclear energy” and said he’s “been very supportive of reforms, and has authored reforms, to make it easier for new nuclear to be commercialized and deployed in New England.”
Harrison asked Fazio for his view on what the “ideal mix” of energy sources is for the state, to which Fazio replied, “It’s not the ability of any governor, or bureaucrat, or anybody, any individual, to say exactly what it should be.”
“My educated guess is that the future of energy in Connecticut looks not so dissimilar from what the mix is,” said Fazio. “It’s probably going to still be a plurality of natural gas, followed by nuclear, followed by wind, solar, and hydro.”
Fazio believes it’s important for the state to foster market competition between all energy sources and disagrees with blanket subsidies for renewables. He said the state “can have a strategy” to help renewables succeed, but “it’s got to be smart rather than imposing major costs on ratepayers when they’re already paying the second highest energy costs in the country.” He criticized Lamont’s energy approach, which he characterized as “more mandates, more taxes, higher costs,” proposing instead the creation of “a playing field that encourages innovation and improvement” to lower costs.
“I’ve been a vocal supporter of nuclear, but that does not mean I’m for putting new nuclear plants online at any cost,” said Fazio. “I have a responsibility as a senator, or as a governor, to be a fiduciary for our residents to ensure that they’re not paying the highest costs in the country. So the way things have worked best in the past, when we’ve actually driven down our environmental footprint, is when there was competition and innovation, rather than where government tried to dictate it with mandates or higher taxes.”
On the other hand, Fazio also championed stricter oversight of state utilities, touting his support for SB 7 in 2023, which reduced utilities’ ability to recover certain kinds of costs through rates and strengthened the authority of the PURA chair. He also advocated for cutting utility profit on transmission, which he called “a problem,” and noted his vocal opposition to Lamont’s “sweetheart deal” on the 2017 sale of Aquarion to Eversource.
“I think that you need a stable, and fair, and predictable environment for investment,” said Fazio. “You know, we want everyone to succeed here, but there needs to be oversight and a balance that has not been struck under the Lamont administration, and I think I’ve stood up to excesses from utilities over the last five and a half years, and I would do that as governor too.”
To conclude the forum, Harrison asked Fazio how he would intend to “unlock the potential of our urban cities,” as well as what three things Fazio would ideally change to create a “more integrated, innovative and fiscally sustainable” bureaucracy to meet “our conservation and development goals.” Fazio first commended Lamont’s ambition to double the state’s city sizes, but said, “It’s a great disservice to the taxpayer and to the workers of this state that this governor, after eight years, has abandoned the fiscal guardrails.” Fazio argued that the state needs to continue down the path of reducing its debts and liabilities to ensure it has the financial foundation for future investment.
“You can never have state capacity if you’re broke,” said Fazio. “Connecticut getting its fiscal house in order and prioritizing the vital investments is necessary, in order to ensure that we have state capacity, so we can provide the services that are most important, so that we can make the investments that are most important.”
Fazio closed by stressing the importance of making Connecticut “an affordable place” for middle- and working-class families, saying “we have to cut out-of-control costs like energy costs and energy bills.” He emphasized his continued support for cutting the state’s Public Benefits charges, saying it would “reduce energy bills for families by 15-20%.” He also doubled down on the “need” to “protect or renew our budgetary guardrails,” cap property taxes, and lastly, proposed reforming the state tax code to “provide the largest middle class tax cut in state history.”
“Housing can never be affordable as long as we have the third-highest property taxes in the entire country, and reforming and capping those property taxes are vital too,” said Fazio. “Eliminate the hidden taxes on our energy bills to reduce costs, cut middle-class income taxes by $1,500 a year, and cap property taxes while also renewing our budgetary guardrails and discipline.”
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