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HBJ051523UF

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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | | MAY 15, 2023 9 On The Record | Q&A Comptroller Sean Scanlon sits on a couch in his Hartford office at 165 Capitol Ave., for an interview with HBJ. HBJ PHOTO | GREG BORDONARO Scanlon brings retail politics to comptroller's office as he preaches fiscal stability, aims to rein in healthcare costs By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com M ost successful elected leaders are good at retail politics, attending local events and meeting with individual constituents to gain their favor. It's a style of in-person poli- tics that's helped make Sean Scanlon a rising star within the Democratic Party. First elected at age 27, he was a four-term state House of Represen- tatives member before being named executive director of Tweed New Haven Airport in 2019. In January, he was sworn in as state comptroller, after winning his first statewide elected office over GOP challenger Mary Fay. In his new role, Scanlon, now 36, serves as the state's chief fiscal guardian, overseeing various func- tions including state accounting, financial reports and administering health benefits to state employees, among other duties. It's a position that hasn't tradi- tionally lent itself to a highly public- facing role, but Scanlon is trying to change that. Since taking office, he's been on a media blitz, making regular public appearances at businesses, schools, industry events and other places to promote various initiatives from a new state-backed retirement savings program to financial literacy. Monthly, he also shadows a state employee as part of a new "Comp- Time" initiative. He's ridden in a plow at 3 a.m. during a snowstorm, stocked trout in a pond and sat with soon-to-graduate state police cadets. If he writes checks for state employees, he should better under- stand what they do, Scanlon said about the job-shadowing strategy. He also has active social media accounts, including a range of short videos on Facebook. One commemorates his first 100 days in office; another features him making a pizza at Hartford-based Bro's Dough Pizzeria. Scanlon's high visibility thus far might lead some to speculate he has higher political ambitions. Does he want to run for governor one day? "It's not something that I'm making the focus of my life, figuring out whether I do or do not want to run for something else," Scanlon said. "I just got elected. I'm four months into this. I'm loving it so far. It's an incredible honor for somebody who is the first person in my family to go to college to get elected to statewide office. What comes next comes next. I'm just focused on trying to do the best job I can in this job." Scanlon sat down with the Hartford Business Journal for a wide-ranging interview that touched on three major topics: state finances, healthcare costs and the relatively new state retirement savings plan, known as MyCTSavings. The program, which originally faced opposition from the business commu- nity, was approved by the legislature in 2016, but has been slow to get off the ground. Scanlon actually voted in favor of it back when he was a lawmaker. Now he oversees the program, which requires employers that don't offer a qualified retirement plan to register with the new state-run plan. Businesses don't have to contribute money to the program, but they must make sure their employees have access to it. MyCTSavings establishes a Roth IRA for workers, and employee contri- butions are facilitated by employers through automatic payroll deductions. Employers with five to 25 employees were required to register for the program by March 30. Scanlon said he's made it a top priority to promote and raise aware- ness for it, which is why he's been making so many public appearances meeting with small employers across the state. His marketing efforts have had an effect. When he took office, the program had under 900 enrollees; today it has about 4,000. But thou- sands of businesses still haven't signed up, which forced Scanlon to push back the original March 31 deadline to Aug. 31. "(MyCTSavings) was something that I decided to really prioritize because I was raised by a small business owner who had no retirement plan to speak of, and she's now at retirement age but can't retire because she needs to continue working in order to earn the money that she needs to survive," Scanlon said. Scanlon's HBJ interview came a day before the Guilford resident announced a new municipal pension reform plan that is estimated to save 107 participating communities $32.3 million in fiscal year 2024, and $843 million over the next three decades. The reforms, which still need legis- lative approval, come from a working group Scanlon convened earlier this year — something he said is his most important accomplishment so far in office. Here's what else Scanlon had to say. The Q&A was edited for clarity and length. Q. What happens to compa- nies that don't sign up for the MyCTSavings program? Are there penalties? A. Right now, I can technically sue a small business in Superior Court to compel them to sign up. But I said on my first day in this job that I was never going to take a small business owner to court over not participating. There is a bill going through the legislature that would give me the power to levy a small fine on busi- nesses that don't sign up, and that is something I do think is an important tool for us to have in the toolkit. SEAN SCANLON Comptroller State of Connecticut Education: Boston College Age: 36

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