Ryan Fazio, the Republican candidate in this year’s Connecticut gubernatorial race, is promising voters property tax relief, tighter regulation of utilities, and higher registration fees for electric vehicles.
He made the promises in response to questions about how to make the state more affordable at a candidate’s forum by the Regional Plan Association on Thursday.
“On the cost front, we need to reform the property tax system and get property taxes under control. I’ve proposed a property tax cap,” Fazio said. “Paired with mandate relief to towns and cities.”
He also proposed raising money to replenish the state’s depleted Special Transportation Fund, which currently depends on the gasoline tax, by increasing registration fees on electric vehicles.
“It should be reasonable, but there should be a fair share that’s paid by electric vehicles. Especially because they are heavier and impose more wear and tear on the roads,” he said.
And he wants to bring down energy costs by removing public benefit charges and having stricter state oversight of utilities, Fazio said, who’s currently a state senator from Greenwich.
“There needs to be oversight and a balance that has not been struck under the Lamont administration. And I think I’ve stood up to excesses from the utilities over the last five and a half years and I would do that as governor too,” he said.
Fazio appeared by himself on the forum.
Governor Ned Lamont and his Democratic primary challenger, state Representative Josh Elliot of Hamden, had appeared separately on the forum last week.
