The Lamont Record · Connecticut 2019–2026
Connecticut has a surplus. Do Connecticut families?
Ned Lamont has been governor since January 2019 and is asking for a third term on November 3, 2026. The state brags about its surplus. Here is where that money came from, and what living here costs now. Every number links to its source.
Data reviewed October 24, 2026. Each figure shows its own period.
- Meals out (sales tax)
- 7.35%
- Payroll deduction (paid leave)
- 0.5%
- Electric, per kWh (2025)
- 29.4¢
- Avg. electric bill (2024)
- $199.66/mo
- Tax burden rank (2022)
- 2nd highest
Thank you for living in Connecticut.
At a glance
The record in six numbers
- $10B+sent to state pension funds on top of the budget since FY2020: money the state collected and didn't need to spend[1]
- +33%state tax collections, FY2019 to FY2025 ($19.9B → $26.5B). Prices rose 26%.[3]
- 2ndhighest state and local tax burden in America (15.4% of income, 2022)[6]
- 29.4¢per kWh for Connecticut homes in 2025, vs 17.3¢ U.S. average[15]
- 5.1%unemployment in September 2026, tied for 2nd-highest of 50 states (U.S.: 4.2%)[20]
- 47thof 50 on the 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index[7]
1 · The Surplus
A surplus is money they took and didn’t need
Hartford calls the surplus proof of good management. A surplus means the state collected more from you than it needed to run the government. That is your money, not the governor’s and not the government’s.
Extra money sent to state pension funds
Surplus and “volatility” revenue above the budget, by fiscal year
Total: more than $10 billion over six fiscal years. Office of the State Treasurer. [1]
Taxes grew faster than prices
Total state tax collections, Department of Revenue Services
Inflation is CPI-U, June 2019 to June 2025 (+25.9%). [3] [4] [5]
- $1.4B more in a single year than inflation alone would explain. FY2025 collections hit $26.5B, up 33% from FY2019, while prices rose 26%. [3] [4] [5]
- Income tax take up 34% ($9.6B → $13.0B). Sales tax take up 37% ($4.7B → $6.5B). [3] [4]
- The rainy day fund is full at $4.1 billion, 18% of the General Fund, the legal maximum. Anything over the cap gets swept to pension debt. [2] [1]
2 · Taxes
Second-highest tax burden in America
Is it getting cheaper or more expensive to pay taxes in Connecticut? Measured as a share of residents’ income, the burden went up every year the Tax Foundation measured under Lamont.
State and local taxes as a share of income
Tax Foundation, 2019–2022 (latest)
Connecticut ranks 49th of 50 (2nd-highest burden), behind only New York. [6]
What Hartford raised, and what it cut
- Jun 2019RaisedFirst budget expands the sales tax
Meals and drinks go to 7.35%. Digital downloads go from 1% to 6.35%. Sales tax added to parking, dry cleaning and interior design. Safety-apparel exemption repealed. New 10¢ plastic bag fee, e-cigarette tax, higher LLC fees and a new 2.25% conveyance tax tier on homes over $2.5M. [8]
- Jun 2019Raised10% corporate surtax extended
The "temporary" surcharge on large companies, due to expire, gets two more years. [8]
- Jan 2021RaisedNew 0.5% payroll deduction
Paid Family and Medical Leave, signed in 2019, starts taking 0.5% of every worker's wages. [9]
- Apr 2022CutGas tax holiday, in an election year
The 25¢ gas tax is suspended April to December 2022, then phased back in. Fully restored May 1, 2023. [14]
- Jan 2023RaisedNew highway use tax on trucks
A per-mile tax on heavy trucks begins. The state projected about $90 million a year, a cost that flows into the price of everything trucked in. [10]
- Jun 2023RaisedCorporate surtax extended again
Three more years, through income year 2025. [12]
- Jan 2024CutIncome tax rate cut
The 3% bracket drops to 2% and the 5% bracket to 4.5%. Value: about $370 million a year by FY2025. [11]
- Jun 2025RaisedCorporate surtax extended a third time
Through 2027, and the $2.5 million cap on combined-group tax is removed. [13]
- 12.5% → 15.4%. Connecticut’s tax burden rose 2.9 points from 2019 to 2022. The U.S. average rose 0.6 points. [6]
- Relief was temporary. The costs stayed. The gas tax holiday ran during the 2022 election year and was fully reversed by May 2023. The 2019 sales tax expansions, the payroll deduction and the truck tax are still in place, and the corporate surtax keeps getting renewed. [8] [14] [13]
- Most private-sector workers pay a new 0.5% of wages for paid leave, since January 2021. [9]
3 · Electric Bills
The gap with the rest of the country got wider
Connecticut power was expensive before 2019. Under Lamont, the price climbed to 29.4¢ per kWh, and the distance from the national average grew.
Residential electricity price, cents per kWh
Annual average, Connecticut vs U.S.
U.S. EIA annual state averages, compiled by RateWatt; the 2024 value matches EIA Table 5A. [15] [16]
Average monthly bill, 2024
Connecticut homes use less power and still pay more
695 kWh/mo
863 kWh/mo
U.S. EIA, Table 5A. [16]
- Gap: 8.9¢ → 12.1¢. In 2019, Connecticut paid 8.9¢ more per kWh than the U.S. average. By 2025 the gap was 12.1¢. [15]
- 4th-most-expensive state for residential power in 2025, behind only Hawaii, California and Massachusetts. [17] [18]
- Relief on a credit card. The 2025 energy law (S.B. 4) cut part of the public benefits charge by borrowing: $155 million in bonds, to be repaid through a charge on customers’ bills. [19]
4 · Jobs
Highest unemployment in the Northeast
Is Connecticut keeping up? In September 2026, Connecticut’s unemployment rate was tied with California for 2nd-highest among the 50 states.
Unemployment rate, September 2026
Seasonally adjusted, preliminary
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. [20]
Slow to come back from COVID
Share of pandemic job losses recovered, as of August 2023
CBIA, from CT Department of Labor data. The nation passed its pre-pandemic job count in 2022. [22]
- 5.1% vs 4.2%. Connecticut’s rate was nearly a full point above the national rate, up from 4.2% a year earlier. [20]
- Higher than every neighbor: Massachusetts and New York 4.3%, New Jersey 4.2%, Rhode Island 3.6%. [20]
- The workforce shrank by about 50,800 people in one year: 1,933,063 in the labor force in September 2025, 1,882,270 in September 2026. [20]
5 · Housing & Local Control
Hartford takes a bigger say in your town’s zoning
Who decides what gets built in your town: your planning and zoning commission, or the state? HB 8002 ties state money to state-approved housing plans and overrides some local rules outright.
How we got here
- 1989Section 8-30g becomes law (before Lamont). Towns where under 10% of housing counts as affordable can have local zoning denials overturned in court.
- Jun 2025Lamont vetoes HB 5002, the first big housing bill, saying he wanted more buy-in from towns.
- Nov 2025A two-day special session passes HB 8002: more than 100 pages and 53 sections, passed largely along party lines with no public hearing, under emergency certification.
- Nov 26, 2025Lamont signs HB 8002 into law.
- Jul 1, 2026Parking rules take effect: towns can no longer require off-street parking for most new apartment buildings under 16 units.
- 2028–2029Every town's housing growth plan is due, with unit goals set by regional councils of government.
What changes for your town
- Housing quotas by region. Regional councils of government set how many units each town must plan and zone for. Towns can write their own plan or join the regional one. [24] [26]
- State money tied to compliance. New state grants require a town to comply with its housing growth plan. Towns that do also get 5 more points of state school-construction reimbursement. [25]
- Parking minimums banned for most new apartment buildings under 16 units, starting July 1, 2026. [24] [25]
- Neighbors lose leverage. A protest petition used to force a two-thirds supermajority vote on zoning changes. Now it takes a simple majority, and neighbors must own 50% of the abutting land instead of 20%. [25]
- No public hearing. The bill was rushed through a special session under emergency certification, according to land-use attorney Tim Hollister. [25]
- Bipartisan local opposition. Greenwich’s whole legislative delegation (two Democrats, two Republicans) opposed it. Local leaders warned that towns that don’t opt in could lose millions in state funding. [26]
- 8-30g stays in place. The 1989 law that lets developers override local denials in towns under the 10% threshold is untouched, and the new law builds on it. [25]
6 · Who’s Leaving
More people leave for other states than move in from them
Connecticut’s population is growing, but not because Americans are choosing it. Growth comes from immigration, while residents keep leaving for other states.
Where Connecticut’s population change came from
July 2024 to July 2025, approximate
U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates, via CTData. [27]
more people moved from Connecticut to Florida than the other way
Florida was the top net destination in the latest IRS migration data (2021–22), when Connecticut lost about 6,500 residents, net, to other states.
IRS Statistics of Income migration data, via Yankee Institute. [28]
7 · Business Climate
47th of 50 for tax competitiveness
Would you start or move a company here? The Tax Foundation’s 2026 index ranks Connecticut’s tax structure near the bottom.
2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index
All 50 states, ranked 1 (best) to 50 (worst)
47th
Tax Foundation. [7]
- The “temporary” corporate surtax keeps getting extended: in 2019, 2023 and 2025, now through 2027. [8] [12] [13]
- The 2025 budget also removed the $2.5 million cap on extra tax for companies filing combined returns. [13]
- Top income tax rate: 6.99%, which hits many small businesses that pay through their owners’ personal returns. [7]
Sources
Check our work
Figures were reviewed October 24, 2026. Numbers in brackets throughout the page link here. Where Snibbit calculated a figure (inflation adjustment, gaps, totals), the inputs are the sources listed. Government data gets revised; if you spot a factual error, tell us at info@snibbit.com.
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- 5U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: CPI-U historical table, U.S. city averageaccessed Oct 24, 2026
- 6Tax Foundation: State and Local Tax Burdens, Calendar Year 2022updated Feb 7, 2025
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- 22CBIA: Connecticut nears full COVID jobs recoverySep 22, 2023
- 23CT Mirror: Lamont signs HB 8002 into lawNov 26, 2025
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- 27CTData Collaborative: Vintage 2025 population estimates (U.S. Census Bureau)accessed Oct 24, 2026
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