With the 2024 legislative session getting underway on Wednesday, Governor Lamont took to the chamber to address both sides of the General Assembly. His annual State of the State Address highlighted changes in Connecticut since the legislature passed a two-year budget bill last session and highlighted areas where Lamont believes there is room for improvement.
Among the positives for the governor was an increasing Connecticut population, adding to the state’s previously lowered workforce. The governor also touted that Connecticut has seen an increase in small businesses opening in the state, more workers joining labor unions, and more graduates of the state’s colleges and universities choosing to enter the workforce in Connecticut.
That increased population, however, means an increased demand for housing which is forcing costs to skyrocket. In December of 2023, housing prices were 13% higher than they were the same time the year before, and the average cost of a single-family home has steadily risen since at least 2019, though prices have come down slightly since 2023 summer highs.
“Most of our cities were much bigger 50 years ago, and what was once housing became parking lots and crumbling brownstones,” said Lamont, before listing a series of programs aimed at building additional housing units in empty parking lots, office buildings, and remediated properties.
In addition to a need for increased housing, Lamont also pointed to investments in public transportation infrastructure to assist commuters in the state’s most densely populated areas. This focuses, however, on commuter rail between New Haven and New York City, which Lamont says will be 25 minutes faster once the state completes upgrades to rail bridges on the line.
With transportation and population there are also investments in green space – over 11,000 acres preserved so far, says Lamont – and other green energy infrastructure updates with investments in wind, solar, and hydropower. The state’s investment in wind energy has been under scrutiny over the past several years, as construction delays and cost overruns have pushed the State Pier project in New London heavily over budget. During 2023, Eversource, one of the main funding sources behind the offshore wind project sold its interest the sector to its partner Orsted. Revolution Wind, which will provide a small amount of energy to Connecticut, is still on track.
Lamont highlighted the state’s trouble with crippling droughts over the last two years, combined with torrential rainfall that causes flooding along the shores and rivers. More than half of Connecticut’s population lives in an area threatened by flooding, with sea levels expected to rise as much in the next two decades as they have in the last century.
“The cost of dealing with climate change is expensive, the cost of doing nothing is immeasurable,” said Lamont. “Flood insurance in Florida is prohibitive. Arizona’s water crisis is shutting down more development. Wildfires from California to Canada are smoking out many a sunny day in Connecticut.”
Energy infrastructure remained a focus of the speech as the governor turned to the need to upgrade the state’s electrical grid. The grid will need to provide increasing amounts of electrical energy to homes and businesses as green technology forces a switch from fossil fuels. Legislators are expected to take up the issue of an electric vehicle mandate during the forthcoming session, a switch that would require more than $4 million in investments from utility companies. Costs that would likely be passed on to consumers in rate changes.
The governor’s speech was largely positive, focusing more on the things going well than the problems still looming. Warnings of increased extremism were met with promises of increased policing and hardening places of worship. Concerns about rapidly rising childcare costs followed by a list of programs to increase pay for childcare workers and a system to increase the number of at-home daycare centers.
He concluded his speech by discussing the state’s overall financial health, lamenting the costs of a large network of municipal governments over regional ones with lower overhead, and promising to address property tax rates soon. He leaned heavily on the state’s fiscal guardrails, which have allowed Connecticut to pay down $8 billion in pension debt, saving hundreds of millions in payments over the next two and a half decades.
“Paying down our debts and a robust rainy day fund doesn’t short change our programs, it has resulted in six years of consistent increases in our key social programs, rather than the herky jerky boom and bust cycles of yesteryear,” Lamont said.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
