This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/17/2018 08:45 AMState Representative Sean Scanlon (D-98), representing southern Guilford and part of Branford in the Connecticut General Assembly, is looking at another easy Election Day. When voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 6, they’ll find Scanlon is unopposed.
Scanlon was first elected in 2014, taking over the seat from longtime Democratic representative Pat Widlitz. As one of the younger members of the General Assembly, Scanlon made the opioid crisis an early focus, becoming known as a leader on the issue and passing a bill every year addressing the epidemic. Scanlon said this work opened a lot of doors to look at other healthcare issues.
“This year I spent a lot of time on prescription drugs,” he said. “I learned a lot about them on the opioid side, but what I learned is they are very expensive and people didn’t really understand why and I was really proud to author this major bill this year that will bring transparency to drug prices for the very first time in Connecticut.”
This year Scanlon was named chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, an appointment he called a great honor. Locally Scanlon said he is proud of his efforts to stop the multi-million state aid cuts to Guilford.
“That saved people a property tax increase and not every other community was able to be spared,” he said. “I am proud of what I was able to do on a bipartisan basis to stop them and protect my town from these tax increase.”
Looking Ahead
When the legislature is back in session, Scanlon said he wants to continue work on drug prices. Now that there is legislation in place that brings transparency to drug pricing, he wants to see what can be done to actually lower the cost of prescription drugs.
“That is something I hear about every day from people—that the cost of their insurance keeps going up and up and I want to make a big dent next session on trying to lower people’s healthcare costs in addition to lowering their prescription drug costs,” he said.
Crumbling infrastructure and a lack of dedicated funds for transportation projects needs to be one of the first issues put on the table after the elections, according to Scanlon. Tolls are a popular talking point at the moment to try to boost dedicated transportation revenue and Scanlon said conceptually he is in favor of tolls, but wouldn’t commit to vote on the issue until he could thoroughly review any proposal.
On the ballot this November is a question asking if voters support the creation of a transportation lockbox, which would, in theory, protect any potential toll revenue if tolls are implemented. Scanlon said he supports the lockbox because it can reassure voters and help guide legislators.
“I think that the next governor has a responsibility to put forward a plan to improve our infrastructure and keep Connecticut safe,” he said. “…That will be easier for them if voters approve this lockbox because that is one way folks can be assured that whatever tough decision we have to make with transportation—because there is no easy one, the easy decisions are over—at least we can look voters in the eye and say we are not going to be able to do something bad with this money.”
Another big issue on the table is pensions. The pension accounts for both teachers and state workers are underfunded, a product of legislators deciding not to put money aside for 40 years after the pensions were first created.
Throughout this election season, candidates have thrown out various ideas to fix the issue, but Scanlon said he hasn’t seen any convincing proposals that wouldn’t land the state in court, or deprive those teachers and state workers of the pensions they have been contractually promised.
“My belief has always been that if there is a way legally that we can make this better for the state, then yes, we should take a look at that, but I think that there is not really a good magic solution and the only solution that we would then have is to grow our economy,” he said. “When we are spending billions of dollars every year on making these pension payments, the reason that we have budget deficits is because that pension payment debt is growing and the overall economy is not growing. So in theory if we were to grow the economy more, it would not be as big of a problem that we have this big pension spike for the next 10 years.”
Ultimately Scanlon said he is running again because he loves the job and representing his home community, but also because he wants to be a part of the decisions to come. Regardless of what happens on Election Day, the state will have a new governor. Scanlon said that individual and all of the members of the General Assembly will have a lot of challenges ahead of them and everyone, regardless of the letter that comes after their name, will have to work together.
“I still really believe in our capacity to work together and get things done and to get big things done,” he said. “…I think going forward it really is not about the Democratic answer or the Republican answer, it has to be about what is the right answer for Connecticut and I look forward to finding that right answer in my third term.”