Gov. Ned Lamont’s State of the State address Wednesday sidestepped the coming budget debate, while rattling some constituencies with suggestions that public higher education is bloated, regulations are onerous, and fossil fuels must be tolerated if the electricity is to become less expensive. Lamont identified lowering the high costs of housing, electricity, health care and higher education as goals for 2025 without offering major new policy initiatives or solutions. His goal was to challenge lawmakers to rethink how services are delivered, inviting a conversation, if not yet a debate. “We have an open door at a big table. Come in, give us your constructive suggestions,” Lamont said. He was making a specific reference to a “kitchen cabinet” working on health care costs, but the sentiment applied to the range of issues he highlighted. He complained of rising tuitions at the University of Connecticut and the separate Connecticut State University system. He noted the latter has both falling student enrollment and higher costs. “I have been reaching out to university presidents across the country who receive significantly less state funding per student. They maintain excellence, and yet they hold the line on tuition increases,” Lamont said. He pressed the legislature’s committees to streamline permitting and regulatory decision-making to promote economic growth and housing construction without acknowledging his administration had a role. “Our cities should be 50% bigger, as they were only a few generations ago. Let’s start by getting our workers back in the office,” Lamont said. But he did not say he would try to do the same with state employees. Lamont, 71, a Democrat at the mid-point of his second term, was short on specifics. He deferred speaking about the challenges raised by Connecticut’s limits on spending and the uncertainty regarding President-elect Donald J. Trump’s designs on federal spending, among other issues crucial to the states. “Over the next month or two, we should have more insights into how the changing relationship with the new administration will affect our budget and our people, but for today let’s focus on what we can do to build on the progress we’ve made over the last six years,” Lamont said. House of Representatives Speaker Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) addresses the house during the first day of the legislative session on January 8, 2025. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror In describing the state of the state as financially stable and geared to growth, Lamont reviewed how Connecticut has filled a rainy day fund, paid down debt and an unfunded pension liability, while cutting middle-class taxes and expanding an earned-income tax credit. While he did not mention the spending cap and other so-called fiscal guardrails, Lamont was telegraphing his rationale for maintaining them in the face of objections from members of his own party who complain that the caps are so restrictive they could force cuts to vital services in a time of surpluses. “By paying down these legacy costs, we have made state employee pensions more secure and we have freed up hundreds of millions of dollars in our budget to expand access to affordable child care, affordable health care, and expanded education opportunities,” Lamont said. “And we are just getting started.” The annual State of the State was the seventh delivered by Lamont since taking office in 2019, when he stumbled with a highway tolls proposal that reversed a campaign promise and plunged his approval rating to the bottom rank of U.S. governors. A steady hand during COVID and an improving economy have made him one of the more popular Democratic governors, however, and well-positioned to seek a third term — a decision he says he does not intend to make, or at least share, until the legislative session winds down in June. Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz speaks to Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas and State Treasuer Erick Russell on the first day of the legislative session on January 8, 2025. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror Elements of his televised, 28-minute speech to a joint session of the General Assembly on the first day of the lawmakers’ 2025-2026 term are certain to find their way into a reelection announcement should he make one. In the governor’s view, the state of the state is good with room for improvement. “As always, our north stars will be affordability and opportunity, holding down the cost of energy and education, allowing you to keep more of what you earn, and providing you the tools you need to earn more to buy a home, to start a business,” Lamont said. “Look, we’ve significantly increased the minimum wage over the last six years. And no, that was not a job killer. We have more private sector jobs today than ever before.” Reactions to the speech were mixed. The state’s largest business group, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, applauded the message as echoing the business community’s concerns about fiscal discipline, economic growth and streaming government.  Republican minority leaders, Rep. Vincent J. Candelora of North Branford and Sen. Stephen Harding of Brookfield, complained that Lamont missed an opportunity to underscore his commitment to maintaining the guardrails or challenge lawmakers to adopt specific policies. “”I would have liked to have heard … a little more substance on his issues,” Harding said. “He’s a nice guy. There was a lot of platitudes there, and there was very minimal substance.” Representatives taking the oath of office on the first day of the legislative session on January 8, 2025. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror The silence on the guardrails troubled both Republican leaders. “I think the governor was on the 40-yard line in the Super Bowl, with two minutes left in the game, and he’s decided to punt,” Candelora said. “I think the speech didn’t say a lot. I think he is clearly sending a message that he wants the legislature to do the job, and that concerns me, because there was no mention of fiscal guard rails. Is he punting on those already?” “He has stood by those guardrails time and time again, and the fact that he has now stood up in probably one of the most important [and] forward-looking speech he’s going to make all year and doesn’t even mention it, leads me to believe, or at least leads me to question, that he may not be supporting those guardrails,” Harding said. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said the governor’s position on the guardrails is well established. “The governor has established a pretty strong position on the guardrails,” Rojas said. “I don’t know that he needs to repeat it.” Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said the governor’s deferral of fiscal issues until his budget proposal was understandable. If the Trump administration cuts Medicaid and education funding, Connecticut is looking at increasing its spending just to maintain the status quo, he said. The lack of specifics was not troubling, he said. ”I think we’re going to get a lot more scope and a lot more specifics in February when he gives us his budget message,” Looney said. “I think the themes he hit today were welcome to hear. I think his concern about education, his concern about transportation, concern about dedication to more clean energy, those were all major themes that were welcome to us.” He said he is looking forward to a reasoned argument on revising the spending caps, not eliminating them. Connecticut For All, a progressive coalition of more than 60 faith, labor and civic organizations that wants government to save less and spend more on core services, offered its own “State of the People” address 30 minutes prior to the governor’s remarks. “Parents are losing sleep over rising rents and the fear of eviction,” said Leslie Blatteau, president of a New Haven teachers’ union and chairwoman of the coalition’s steering committee. “Seniors are rationing medications because they can’t afford care. Families struggle to put food on the table. These are not the marks of a thriving state; they are the symptoms of a system that prioritizes the wealthy and leaves everyone else behind,” Blatteau said. Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw claps for Governor Lamont’s mention of speeding up housing processes during his State of the State address on January 8, 2025. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror Environmentalists were alarmed by Lamont’s embrace of relying on natural gas and nuclear power, even as he affirmed the state also procures carbon-free power from off-shore wind, large-scale solar in Maine and hydroelectric in Canada. Nuclear power still is the single largest source of carbon-free electricity, and Lamont said Connecticut is working with the federal government on ways to expand nuclear capacity.  “Before you rule out natural gas, due primarily to methane emissions, that is where most of our power comes from and will for the foreseeable future, especially without more nuclear power,” Lamont said. “We bring in very inexpensive natural gas from Pennsylvania, but that pipeline is at capacity. We bring in LNG by foreign ships, which is much more polluting and more expensive.” Lamont did not say, however, he favors new pipelines, nor are any under consideration, his staff later acknowledged. Still, his comments sparked criticism that his “all of the above” approach was a retreat from a clean-energy future. “Doubling down on the failed energy policy ideas of the past is no way to move Connecticut forward,” said Chris Phelps, director of Environment Connecticut. “Our state’s families and businesses are already burdened by too much pollution and high costs from unsafe and expensive nuclear and gas power plants that pollute our air. We cannot afford more of the same.” Ginny Monk and Keith Phaneuf contributed to this report.