Rutigliano, House & Senate Republicans Call for Transparency in Governor’s CT Sun Purchase Proposal

Raise Concern about State Treasurer as Sole Fiduciary
(Watch the news conference here)

HARTFORD—State Representative David Rutigliano along with his House and Senate Republican colleagues on Thursday demanded Governor Lamont make public the details of his proposal to use the state employee pension fund to purchase a stake in the Connecticut Sun, while also calling for legislative action to prevent the Office of the State Treasurer from wielding sole fiduciary authority over such investment decisions.

The lawmakers said Gov. Lamont and legislative Democrats pushing to keep the WNBA franchise in Connecticut must provide transparency on their proposal to controversially use public pension funds as leverage in the deal that they have so far failed to explain to the public.

“If the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and anyone else pushing the state to get into the basketball business wants this to happen, they need to be totally transparent about what they’ve proposed,” Candelora and Harding said in a joint statement. “Given that they’ve pitched using the state employee pension fund as part of their proposal, it’s shocking how carelessly they’re treating this. They owe taxpayers and state employees more than a simple promise that this is a great investment.”

Harding further explained that Senate Republicans had formally requested detailed information about the proposal from the Governor’s office but have received no response despite the administration’s public references to the plan.

Polletta, House Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, emphasized the stakes for Connecticut’s financial stability: “These are public dollars—and given our state’s well-documented struggles with unfunded liabilities, we must exercise extreme caution. We can’t afford a misstep, particularly for an initiative that appears to be the leading edge of a public relations campaign.”