The GMW Interview: The First Interview with First-Term State Rep. Savet Constantine

Wednesday morning, Jan. 8, Savet Constantine was sworn in as state representative for the 42nd House District, representing Wilton and parts of Ridgefield and New Canaan. She spoke to GOOD Morning Wilton just a few minutes after being sworn in. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

GOOD Morning Wilton: What did it feel like to take the oath and to be sworn in?

State Rep. Savet Constantine: It’s a moment that just connects with you, because you see it on TV or in a movie, but then when you’re actually in the chamber taking the oath — when you’re asked to pledge your allegiance to uphold our U.S. Constitution and the State Constitution — this is a responsibility I take seriously, it’s very momentous, a profound moment that just makes you think, This is why I was out there for six months before Election Day, getting out to meet people and earning their trust, that they can talk to me, that I share their values, that I want to listen to them, hear what they have to say, and be the voice for the 24,000 constituents and voters in our area, up to Hartford.

I’m going to be in Wilton and I’m going to be going back and forth [to Hartford] a lot. And I definitely want to hear from people. All the social media is going up, but people can always reach me by [my] legislative email, which is the best way to get in touch with me, whether they have a concern or a question or want to meet. It’s coffee — we have plenty of coffee shops in Wilton, and people see me at plenty of them. I would love to see them. If they see me at a coffee shop, come up and say hello. I always want to keep those lines of communication open.

GMW: What have you been doing between Election Day and today to prepare for the job?

Constantine: We had a couple orientations in early December. First, there was a national organization that did how to best work as a legislator. Then we had just Connecticut House orientation as to how things work. That was Democrats and Republican incoming state representatives — we got our computers, how to log in, how to find information, things like that. Then we had our own caucus meetings — meeting people, how the whole caucus works and who are the key team players, so we know who to rely on or who to go to for information. And figure out who’s your CEC — your congressional engagement coordinator, a.k.a. the legislative aide — meeting the press person who’ll help get the word out about the work that we’re doing here, and being the coordinator to help me reach out to people and set up meetings and do the work of state legislators.

It’s been like being a small business entrepreneur, from the ground up. You have this idea that you want to work for the community. You want to do some good. Building the team, meeting people, finding out what’s important to them, and taking that message out there and seeing how it resonates with people.

GMW: Since the election, what have you been hearing from Wilton constituents that they expect to see you hit the ground running on? What have they told you they really want you to address?

Constantine: It’s the same stuff that I talked about on the [campaign], knocking on doors. It’s promoting that message that that I feel like we all live by, one of fiscal responsibility. And that care for the community, particularly when it comes to supporting a strong education for our kids, and how do we do that? And a strong community, it’s not just our kids, it’s our seniors. It’s attracting people into town.

A lot of people talked about energy. And the shock that came in July and August[‘s utility bills], it kind of waned a little bit, but it’s back there again now. These are the same things that Gov. [Ned] Lamont spoke about in his address [to the legislature] this afternoon. Really making sure that we make Connecticut a place where people can afford to live and have a job and and make Connecticut a great place to live.

GMW: Which committees have you been assigned to?

Constantine: I think they really reflect the concerns of the people of Wilton and our values. I will be vice chair of Finance, Revenue and Bonding, which I think speaks to kind of that fiscal responsibility message of making sure that we are cognizant that people need to be able to afford to live in Connecticut, and that depends on how we allocate money and how we spend it.

And obviously, my big one, the big issue for Wilton, New Canaan and Ridgefield is the importance of our education. I’m going to be a member of the Education Committee, which I’m very proud of. That should start meeting on Monday, [Jan. 13]. The governor spoke about that importance of looking at this — I think he called it the bipartisan support for working on the ECS [Education Cost Sharing] funding, which is huge. It’s critical for all of our districts.

The last one is Energy and Technology, and that meeting actually starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow [Thursday, Jan. 9]. I’m sitting at an empty desk right now, no paper, no pens, but I’ll bring in my office supplies and start getting to work! So I’m very excited about all this.

GMW: What about legislation? Do you have anything on your agenda already in the works or top of mind that you’re going to try and bring forward?

Constantine: I have some ideas. I’m going to take the next week. We have until next Friday, [Jan. 17] to submit ideas for bills. There’s a few that freshmen are working on, and I want to take a look at those. Now that the whirlwind of getting situated, computers, all the logistics is done, and really think, What can we accomplish this term? They say there’s about 3,000 bills going to be submitted by next Friday, a whole legislative inundation of bills. So I want to make sure, if I’m going to put something forward, that it has meaning and make sure we can work it through the process.

[House] Speaker [Matt] Ritter mentioned that we all have works in progress, and we really need to focus on making progress in the work. So I just want to make sure that the key legislative points that the governor reiterated, that Matt Ritter reiterated, that we can get those through: that we can be true to the people of Connecticut, making sure that Connecticut stays affordable, make sure they’re not overburdened with taxes, try to help ease the regulatory burden, [focus on] energy, just these kitchen table issues to make a difference in people’s lives, and make sure we’re making things better for people.

GMW: What are your thoughts on the [Right to Read] reading legislation. Especially that you’ll be on the Education Committee, what are your thoughts about trying to get some changes made, or does it even need to be changed? And what do you thank about how Wilton approached it?

Constantine: We attended CABE [Connecticut Association of Boards of Education]. I’ll be speaking with our [Wilton] Board of Education members and Superintendent Kevin Smith. I know they’ve made some changes [in Wilton’s reading curriculum]. And if we’re meeting the needs of (I forget the percentage) of students that are reading at grade level, we need to make sure that we’re reaching the other students also. So if our reading programs weren’t as effective for them, I think it behooves us all to make sure that we provide programs that assist more students to bring up the whole reading level.

But again, there’s some issues with the programs that were chosen [by the state], and how much the programs [that] were chosen [cost], the whole timeline. So whatever input we get back from schools, from districts, between cost and implementation, … A lot of legislation might not be perfect the first time, but that’s what the next session is for — how can we make it better? How can we make it more effective, more cost effective, more effective on [reading] scores. Because we definitely want to educate our kids. We spend a lot of money educating our kids, and we want to make sure that we are getting really good results. So, we meet on Monday, and I’m really looking forward to hearing what our [Education] Committee chair has in mind.

GMW: You mentioned energy, one of the things I’ve been hearing a lot about, of course, is rising energy costs, that what’s getting passed down to the consumer is exorbitant. People were shocked by their electric bills. You may be getting the same emails that I am, but there’s a question about the public benefits charge. Talk about that and what your approach is going to be on that this session.

Constantine: I don’t think anyone should be surprised by their energy bills. And we were all surprised in July, I hadn’t checked for a few months until we saw the bill [payment] coming out of the my checking account, and I was like, Oh! Let’s see what’s actually going on. I think transparency is key. People should know what their bills are. People should have an expectation of what rates are going to be. This huge jump in rates was unfair to to the residents and businesses of Connecticut.

We were supposed to meet with Eversource last week [but] they had to reschedule the meeting due to conflicts from other representatives. But I’m looking forward to meeting with them to hear what they have to say. Meeting with the Energy and Technology committee to hear what people who’ve been here have to say. And listen to experts — even in Wilton, there were plenty of people I spoke to that spent [their] career in energy, and I’m said, ‘We need to stay in touch.’ It’s really important to get people’s views. But yeah, the general view was that no one wants to be surprised by a bill like that. We all want stable rates because it affects affordability for residents but also high energy costs affect attracting businesses back to Connecticut. We think our bills were big, well, business or manufacturing has an even bigger bill for their energy [use].

Gov. Lamont spoke about this too this afternoon, talking about how we need to increase supply, hopefully some green [energy] supply. We have huge burgeoning energy demands. And with AI, with heavy tech, we’ll be seeing more demand for energy. And if we don’t have competitive energy costs, that hinders businesses from moving here. So it’s definitely something we need to address — both the residential and the business/economic side.

GMW: Anything specific to that public benefits charge and any of the other added fees?

Constantine: Not to get specific, but I believe 77% of [the public benefits charge] was due to the the nuclear energy that we had an agreement [about] from 2017 but we’re locked into that break for another couple years… which was a bipartisan Republican-led bill from seven or eight years ago. [Editor’s note: Constantine refers to an agreement requiring Eversoure and UI to buy a significant portion of Dominion Millstone nuclear power’s energy each year, which locked in the agreement until 2029.] At the time, it was thought to save jobs, and for a while, nuclear energy was actually priced below other energy that we were buying, so it worked out. Now, as we saw in our July bills, nuclear was quite a bit more expensive. So, [energy] diversification is also a good thing, it’s good to have multiple different ways of energy sourcing.

Listen, we are an oil economy. We’re still going to be using natural gas. But we definitely need to be expanding and diversifying. People want it. People want cheap rights, but we also want green energy.

The other 23% of that bill… You know, could ARPA funds have been better allocated early on regarding people who weren’t paying their [electric] bills? I really shouldn’t say just people, because it wasn’t just households, you had a lot of businesses that went out during COVID who also ended up not paying their bills. So given that a lot of this was COVID related why funds weren’t used? Okay, noted. We need to make sure in the future that this doesn’t happen again. So that’s something energy and tech can work on. People want stability in pricing. And then there’s some of the electric conversion benefits in there too.

But 77% was nuclear power, and we’re locked into those rates. We need to make sure, when these deals are made, that we get input from people who really know the energy business too, to make sure that the deal that we cut for 10 years, or for however long, is a good, smart move. That it’s not too one-way or the other, that we also protect the citizens of Connecticut from huge vagaries and energy cost spikes.

By the way, I just got [the] Energy and Technology [committee appointment] last week, so… [laughs]

GMW: Well, you seem pretty articulate on the topic, it seems like a good fit for you.

Constantine: I’m definitely interested in the things that affect how we live in Connecticut. Affordability, from your house, your mortgage, your property taxes, your energy costs, health care — these are key components, over 75% of our cost of living. This is something we all need to be cognizant of, even at the town level. The Board of Finance always talks about, [when the Town says], ‘We want to do this. We want to do this,’ and the Board of Finance says, ‘Yes, but we need to keep our taxes at a certain rate that is acceptable to the majority of people in Wilton.’

It’s at the local level, and it’s at the state level, and then obviously the federal level. But just talking local and state now, we just need to be smart. We need to plan things. There’s all these [programs] that people want to do, but we need to prioritize and figure out how we can sustainably support them and then just move forward.

GMW: Speaking of moving forward, the country is going to move forward in a couple weeks into a different presidential administration. There’s already been conflict between Gov. Lamont and President-Elect Trump. What are your thoughts about that?

Constantine: We have to see what actually comes out of Congress. It’s a Republican-controlled Congress. We have to see what they will actually do, what cuts they will actually make, what budgets they are going to present, what their priorities are, and how it’s going to come down and affect us, whether it’s on the funding side — funding Medicare and Medicaid — or what legal changes they might make on women’s reproductive rights. We can speculate, but we can just know our values here, know what our priorities are.

I know Trump did a whole kind of talk on the ‘beauty of oil and natural gas’ yesterday. He went all over the place, but we also have to keep our eye on the future. Green energy is good. There might be an affordability issue, but between wind and solar, we just need the technology to capture it and keeps on lowering the cost for these energy sources. Green and clean energy, the youth want it because they see their future, they see the climate future.

GMW: Any last thoughts that you have for your constituents?

Constantine: I’m very honored that they put their trust in me, that they sent me up here to Hartford to represent them. And I do want to hear from them, and I will also do my best to keep them informed of what’s going on up here. I definitely want to make sure that I’m reaching people either on social media, posting on Facebook and my State Representative webpage. Starting soon, you can subscribe to my emails. I want to make sure that they know what’s going on up here, particularly when we have issues that might be of concern to them. I will definitely make sure that they know, like if public hearings are coming up that we need to hear from people pro or con. It’s important that people come up here, either in person or you can give your testimony via zoom, [and] you can email to make your opinion known, Because it’s really important that people have a voice up here, and I will do my best to represent them.