Gov. Ned Lamont Monday at a general Q&A with reporters following an international-trade presser, held at New Haven's DISTRICT NHV offices of Connecticut Innovations.
Ned Lamont would rather cut property taxes than sales taxes. And he’d rather let New Haven’s school district makes its own decision about mask-wearing.
The governor stated those preferences during a general question-and-answer session with reporters Monday held at the James Street offices of Connecticut Innovations, the quasi-public state venture-capital firm. He held the session after a separate event about his recent trade mission to Israel.
Lamont was asked about Republicans’ call to cut sales taxes this legislative session to help people cope with inflation.
He responded that he’d prefer cutting property taxes, including on cars. People in Connecticut pay all those taxes, he pointed out. By contrast, many of the people paying sales tax come from out of state to visit, say, Mystic or Greenwich.
As of this week, the state has lifted its Covid-19 requirement that people wear masks in schools. As of Monday, about “85 to 90 percent” of local districts have followed suit by allowing students and staffers to remain unmasked, Lamont reported. Waterbury, Hartford and New Haven are among the districts keeping masks in place. He rejected the idea of pressuring those districts to lift their mandates. “There are some people who say New Haven should not be allowed to do that,” he said. “You wanna be like [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis? You wanna fine New Haven? You wanna cut off their state funding, like in Florida?”
No, Lamont said, he doesn’t. Local districts should make their own call, he argued.
Lamont was also asked about the unfolding controversies besetting his administration over the granting of no-bid hazardous waste-clean-up contracts and alleged pressure on municipalities to grant no-bid school reconstruction contracts to favored companies.
He noted that his administration took swift action on proven allegations about the hiring of daughter of the official at the center of the controversy, Konstantino Diamantis, by another official who was lobbying Diamantis for staff pay raises. “We reacted to that quickly. We have to let the rest of that play out,” Lamont stated. He cautioned the press to remember that “you’re innocent until proven guilty. There are a lot of allegations out there. We’re doing everything we can to make sure no stone is unturned to get this right.”
Lamont was pressed on the decision to move oversight of the school construction program from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) when Diamantis moved from DAS to serve as deputy of OPM. Did Lamont have concerns about that move when others expressed concerns about it last year?
“I didn’t have a strong feeling about OMP versus DAS,” Lamont responded. “Melissa [McCaw] was running OPM. She felt [Diamantis] was the guy who help guide them through a yawning deficit,” and Diamantis was already doing the school construction oversight. “I think the bigger problem is the guy overseeing school construction.”
Watch the full press conference, during which he also addressed state reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the above video.
Lamont is wrong on letting New Haven continue its irrational and non-scientific mask mandate. There is not a scientist or a health expert on the school board; there's a fake one attached to City Hall who has spent her time fomenting fear while ignoring study after study on the harm being done to children - and the lack of studies that show masking on kids does anything beneficial. Here's what we really know: As good as vaccination is, it doesn't keep you from getting covid; it doesn't keep you from spreading covid; children are highly unlikely to get seriously sick and wearing a mask at school protects neither their family or other kids; now know that the Pfizer vaccine for kids is far less effective than projected - and the masks are far less effective than sold as has been this entire shameful exercise by Mayor Muffles. Remember "we're going to be the next Italy?" - Good grief. End this charade.