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Elected official: Bridgeport veteran and wife need handicapped-accessible housing

Power & Politics: Gov. Lamont doubles down on top utility regulator

Gov. Lamont signs aggressive new emissions targets. But can CT meet them?

Gov. Lamont reappoints top utility regulator despite lawsuits

Power & Politics: What’s next after Gov. Lamont’s housing, labor vetoes?

connecticut

News 12 Staff

ctpp921part2_2024-09-21-17-53-25

And welcome back. We're gonna continue our conversation now with the governor and uh let's get right to it. You signed 100 and 73 bills into law this year, one of them was related to the election scandal in Bridgeport requiring uh cameras outside some of the ballot boxes making uh things hopefully a little bit better. How else can we improve our election process here in the state? We do have cameras up at all the ballot boxes. Um So what you saw some really ungainly photo, uh video of people stuffing up ballot boxes, we caught that those people have been indicted gonna be held accountable. Imagine what was going on before we had the cameras there. Um So I think that's a really good start. I could tell you, Stephanie Thomas, our Secretary of State as a whole group there. That's gonna be there monitoring the election, making sure they have an extra set of eyes. These are generally volunteer lawyers from all over the region who will be there just to make sure everything's going above board. And I think this is interesting state rep. Uh Matt Blumenthal came in and was on the show here recently to talk about absentee voting and it's gonna be a question on the November ballot, uh, that he wants people to say yes to give me your thoughts on absentee of voting. And is that gonna make the process even better? I think. So. Look, there's some states that do only absentee voting we've got on the ballot. No excuses, absentee voting. If you wanna do it, you can uh take care of it. We did it during COVID. Remember when it didn't want everybody lining up and that seemed to work pretty well. So it's on the ballot now. We'll get that. Uh see if it passes. Probably good not to introduce it during this very contested presidential year. We'll get it going soon thereafter. I hope. Well, that's good. Interesting. Uh Talk to me about the plans to make childcare more affordable for working families. That's a big deal. Um I found during COVID, for example, um when everything was shut down, the nurses and docs said I'm not gonna be able to get into the hospital unless there's a place for my kid, my toddler to be. And we set up daycare centers all next to all the major hospitals. Thanks to a guy named Ray and Barbara Dalio. Um It just reminded me with Beth by how important daycare is we've added on about 1000 slots in the last year or two, making it more affordable, more accessible. I've got to deal with the companies say, look, you put up a third and we'll put up a third and the usual pay a third. So we get, it's called Tri Share EB electric boats. The first to take advantage of that, we'll have a nice new facility right near them. So all their employees, you know, take a lunch break and go see your kid for briefly. That's great. Uh, our schools have gotten higher grades and most certainly in America traditionally is, has been the case as well. Where do we stand on education here in Connecticut? I think we're best in the country or one of the five best in the country. People come to the state of Connecticut because of the quality of our schools, you know, our K through 12 education and our higher ed people from around the world come to Connecticut to enjoy um, higher ed. We have, you know, the best in the world. My trick is to do everything they can to make more of these folks stay in Connecticut when they graduate. You know, one thing we've done, Mark is we've said, look, you graduate with debt and you take a job with the Connecticut company. I'm gonna pay that Connecticut Company to pay down your student debt. So say over four or five years, they eliminate your debt and I'll give a credit to that company. Reason for you to stay, reason for them to hire locally. I know you push for kids to have limited use of cell phones in schools to, obviously to avoid distractions. How is that being received so far? I think pretty good. You know, we're a local control state, especially when it comes to education. They don't want mandates from the guy up in Hartford. But we strongly encouraged our superintendents to take this into account. I'd say, um, the majority, even the vast majority of our schools, certainly, Cai Roy are getting the phones out of the classroom. They say it makes a real difference with the kids. They interact with each other now they interact with the teacher. It's uh lowers the temperature in many ways and a lot less of a distraction. So we'll see what we want to do next year. Maybe we want phone free schools, not just in the classroom. Hm. Interesting. Uh, affordable housing certainly has been an issue in our state now for a long time, are we kind of closing the gap on this? I don't know about that. Uh We got a way to go there to tell you the truth. Um You know, the good news is, as I said, our population is growing slowly, people coming in. Uh, we need more housing. The one thing that would slow our growth is if they not enough housing. So, uh most of that housing is gonna be in our cities, our cities were bigger, you know, 4050 years ago, turning those old parking lots back into housing. But even some of our suburban towns are really taking the lead on transit oriented development just driving by Jerry. And the other day you see a lot of housing going on downtown there, obviously in Norwalk, you see a lot of housing in and around their rail stations. A big plus for the state. Um Now the cost of health care certainly is rising. Is there any relief for people besides the bill that you signed, prohibiting health care providers from reporting medical debt to credit reporting agencies? Any other help there? For folks, we've got something called covered Connecticut. Uh Thanks to the Biden Harris administration, which is free health care for everybody above Medicaid up to families earning about $60,000 if they don't get insurance through their company. Uh That's a very important program. But your bigger point mark is how do we hold down the dramatic increases in the cost of health care? A lot of that's related to hospitalizations and Medicaid is going up over $200 million above what we had budgeted for. So we're looking at that carefully, see what we can do, working with the hospital, seeing what we do, working with the PB MS and the Pharma to limit those increases and make a little more affordable for people. Ev cars may be uh good for the environment. But uh are they safe and will everybody be able to afford them? Well, I I think they're safe. We've had them now for 10 plus years with a great deal of success. The price is coming down. That's really important. It's very competitive with the tax credit with the internal combustion engine. But I think, um, maybe the Feds and, uh, the States were moving a little too fast. They wanted to see more ev charging stations out there. So we're gonna get there. Norway is the first country in the world to say we have more EVs than a gas powered cars. So it's all hydro power there. It's easy for them. All right. We have a few final thoughts with the governor that's coming up.

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ctpp921part3_2024-09-21-17-53-42

Welcome back to Connecticut Power and Politics. We're about to finish up our conversation with Governor Ned Lamont again. Thank you for being with us this week. Uh You just announced the state's first ever sustainably uh sustainability and resiliency week. Tell us all about that. I think it's two fold one. You see the incredibly severe flooding all in Naugatuck Valley we talked about, we wiped out a number of crops again in the Connecticut river, flooding is severe. So we are doing a lot in terms of sustainability, making sure that these places are a little more flood proof than they were before redirect the culverts open up some of the uh waterways there and also um efficiency. What I can do to bring down the price of your electric bill by uh putting in insulation, maybe um heat pumps, uh other things in your home that would bring down the price of electricity. That's part of uh resiliency and sustainability. And that puts less pressure on the grid, the power you don't need to use. Uh Now you just nominated Raheem Mullins as chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. Why is he the right pick? Chief Robinson is great. He, he decided it was time for him to retire. Loved what he did for this state comes out of Stanford, Connecticut, by the way, and Rahim is amazing. He's been on, uh, the court, I think for seven years right now, a whole breadth of experience. Uh I love what the stories he tells it himself. He says, gov, you wouldn't believe it when I was 37 years old on the court. I was the youngest person on the court and the only one who was a grandfather, what a story. And, uh, he brings that wealth of experience, not to mention the legal chops that will make him a great chief justice. Now, I think this is interesting. Recently, you had, uh, highway signs put up around the state, uh, talking about, uh, Connecticut is the basketball capital of the world of, uh, the country as well as the pizza capital. Uh, and that pizza capital sign really struck a chord with Governor Phil Murphy in New Jersey and, and really got people talking, talk about that. We had a little fun. At least they're talking and they're all talking about Connecticut. I love it when you would drive, uh, in, from New York, you'll Connecticut, the pizza capital of the world. Uh, my friend Phil Murphy did, um, have a little fun with it as well, but I went to the Rolling Stones with Phil about, uh, four months ago before all this you have pizza and, um, he and I were having the Pizza Wars and Mick Jagger goes, hello, New York. We were in New Jersey and New Jersey and Connecticut with a great pizza. So I love Mick Jagger and I had some fun with Phil on that one. Well, governor, it looks like our time has run out, but I thank you so much for taking the time. My pleasure. Thanks, Mark. All right. That's all our time. Thanks for watching.

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The governor spent time discussing the important issues affecting Connecticut residents. 

Power & Politics: 1:1 with Gov. Ned Lamont – rising electric rates and other issues

The governor spent time discussing the important issues affecting Connecticut residents.

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