Sean Scanlon talks CT budget, fiscal guardrails at 'In the Room'

Ahead of a legislative session in which Connecticut’s so-called “fiscal guardrails” are expected to generate fierce debate, Comptroller Sean Scanlon is presenting another argument: Rather than focusing solely on the merits of the state’s savings program, lawmakers should change the way they create the budget itself.

Scanlon opined on state budgeting during his appearance at The Connecticut Mirror’s “In the Room” event series, where he told Events Host John Dankosky that the legislature should examine whether the state’s various expenditures are generating adequate returns.

He described the current budgeting process as a system in which legislators review existing spending levels, account for inflation, then “tinker on the margins and add a few other things.” That approach, Scanlon argued, needs to change. 

“I believe that the best thing we can do is blow up the way we do our budget, start from zero, figure out whether the things that we’re spending money on are actually getting the ROI that we think they are, and as a result of that, free up tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars to actually meet the needs,” Scanlon said. “There’s a way to meet in the middle. Nobody is addressing it from that perspective. They’re just saying, ‘Well, let’s just get rid of the guardrails, and then we’ll be able to solve all our problems.’ I think that that’s a little short-sighted.”

The “guardrails” the comptroller is referring to are the result of a bipartisan 2017 agreement in which the state set up spending caps, limits on state borrowing and measures that forced lawmakers to save a significant portion of its revenues.

In recent years, those guardrails have helped Connecticut generate annual surpluses, expand its budget reserve and pay down more than $8.5 billion in pension debt.

But a growing number of Democrats in the legislature are calling for the guardrails to be overturned or revised, arguing that they are too aggressive and are drawing needed money away from education, health care, social services and other core areas at a time when many state residents are struggling to afford basic necessities.

In making his argument, Scanlon referenced Southbury Training School, which currently serves around 100 residents with developmental disabilities. 

He pointed to the institution’s internal fire department, hundreds of staff members and upkeep costs as an example of a potential misuse of state funds — particularly as many other residents with intellectual disabilities sit on decades-long wait lists for care. 

“Is it hard to have that conversation about Southbury Training School? Yes,” Scanlon said. “But you could replicate that in each and every agency in our state and look at what we’re actually spending money on, and if it’s not helping the most people, we should seriously evaluate whether or not there’s a better way to do this.”

Scanlon has previously urged lawmakers to proceed cautiously if they revisit the guardrails, given that Connecticut entered last fiscal year with more than $37 billion in unfunded pension obligations and still spends more on pensions for state employees and teachers than most other states.

Scanlon’s story

A Guilford native who previously represented his hometown in the state House for nearly a decade, Scanlon credits his interest in politics to a high school book report on Bobby Kennedy. He wanted to be an actor, Scanlon said, until he “was just taken with this idea that you could have a job where you go to work every day and try to help people out.”

After graduating from Boston College, Scanlon worked for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy before winning a race to represent Connecticut’s 98th District in 2014 — a position he held until he was elected comptroller in 2022.

Now, he’s in a role that he describes as the “chief financial officer of the state” and “fiscal watchdog of the state.” The comptroller’s office is responsible for auditing state finances, administering state employee payroll and retiree benefits, and overseeing the state’s health insurance plan.

Scanlon is trying to take a new approach to the role, he said, by explaining its dense responsibilities to the public via posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) or 60-second videos.

“It can seem very distant, but everything that I do, and everything that my office does, is really important to the people of Connecticut, because it’s their money that’s flowing through our office, and every single thing we buy as a state comes to the comptroller’s office,” Scanlon said.

Though he is now a constitutional officer, Scanlon says he will “never, probably, love a job more” than representing Guilford in the state legislature. And he has his sights set on the future — when Dankosky asked Scanlon if he would like to run for governor one day, he said yes.

“The reason for that is not because I’m power-hungry, or because I’ve had this diabolical plan to do this,” Scanlon said. “It’s because I’ve always ran for public office because I genuinely want to help people. And there is no job that you can do more good and help more people than that job.”