November 10, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon, talks about his office, caregiving and the sandwich generation, and other family friendly policies in the state. November happens to be National Family Caregiver Month.
Comptroller Scanlon, talked about his role in improving state finances. Sean explains his role as the Comptroller, comparing it to a Chief Financial Officer, and details his responsibilities, including managing state finances, healthcare plans, and various programs like the flood program for Hartford residents and the MyCTSavings retirement plan for employees. He discusses the importance of caregiving and why policies like paid leave can help ease the burden on residents. Sean discusses his efforts to reform the MERS pension system. He highlights the importance of mental health parity and the Array RX drug discount card, giving discounts for medications. Sean emphasizes the need for fiscal responsibility to fund future programs and improve state affordability, aiming to make Connecticut a more attractive place to live and work, and how CT Paid Leave can help with that vision. Sean recounts how a book report on Bobby Kennedy inspired him to pursue a career in politics.
For more information about the Comptroller's Office please go to Connecticut Office of the State Comptroller.
For more information or to apply for benefits please go to CT Paid Leave.
https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nancy Barrow (00:01):
Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave
Podcast. The title basicallysays it all. I'm Nancy Barrow,
and I will be delving into thisnew state program and how it can
help you and your family. Thispodcast will give you
information you should knowabout Connecticut Paid Leave and
maybe just a little bit more.
Connecticut Paid Leave bringspeace of mind to your home,
(00:22):
family and workplace. Welcome toThe Paid Leave Podcast. November
is National Family CaregiversMonth and National Family Health
History Day is November 28th.
My guest is Sean Scanlon hebegan his term as Comptroller
for the State of Connecticut in2023. And before that he worked
(00:44):
as a state representative in the98th district. And in the House,
Sean became a champion forhealth care reform, a passion
rooted in his own lifeexperiences coming from a family
that was often uninsured orunderinsured. As chairman of
the legislature’s InsuranceCommittee, Sean wrote and passed
legislation protecting peoplewith pre-existing conditions
from insurancediscrimination,and prevented
(01:06):
insurance companies fromcovering mental health
differently than physicalhealth. Sean served as Chair of
the Finance, Revenue and BondingCommittee where he led the fight
to create tax relief for workingfamilies like the one he grew up
in, and worked with GovernorLamont to pass the largest tax
cut in state history. And wethank you for that Sean!
Sean Scanlon (01:27):
You're Welcome!
Nancy Barrow (01:28):
Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast.
Sean Scanlon (01:30):
Great to be on, thanks for having me!
Nancy Barrow (01:32):
I don’t know you personally Sean but we have 2
things in common before westart. I’ve had your wife Meghan
on this podcast talking aboutdomestic violence with the
Connecticut Coalition AgainstDomestic Violence, (CCADV) she
is brilliant, and also happybelated anniversary!
Sean Scanlon (01:45):
Thank you. So I am now the second Scanlan on this
podcast, which is cool. Yeah.
Thank you for the niceanniversary shout out. We just
celebrated our eighth weddinganniversary!
Nancy Barrow (01:56):
Well, that is something, isn't it. And I had
the pleasure also of havingSenator Chris Murphy on talking
about isolation and loneliness,and he said that he was most
proud of the gun control lawsthat he passed from the Sandy
Hook tragedy, and that'ssomething that you worked with
him on when you worked for ChrisMurphy.
Sean Scanlon (02:12):
I did. I worked for Chris in a very difficult
period when he was in betweenbeing a Congressman for the
fifth district, which includedthe town of Newtown, and then
becoming a US Senator. And inbetween that weird period was
when the tragedy in Sandy Hookhappened, and so I was working
in his office. I was actuallysupposed to be with him that
(02:35):
day, which I'm eternallythankful that I wasn't, because
the person who ended up beingwith him has had a lot of PTSD
around being with him at theschool and being there when the
parents were told that theirkids were no longer alive. But
it really did fuel Chris to dothe work that he did, and it was
(02:55):
really, really impactful to workwith him, and more importantly,
those families who I got to knowquite well during that period to
try to do something about this,this terrible epidemic that we
have in this country. So yeah,lots of lots of preceding guests
on this podcast.
Nancy Barrow (03:12):
Yeah. Well, those are the things that we have in
common. But let's talk about youand the Office of Comptroller.
What do you do? I know youhandle finances for the state,
but you do a lot in this officethat maybe people don't know
about.
Sean Scanlon (03:24):
Yeah, so in some ways, people may say, I'm sort
of like the CO chief financialofficer along with the
treasurer, and he's all themoney coming in and I'm all the
money going out. So we pay allthe state's bills. We keep the
state's books. We do all of thebenefit negotiation. So, for
example, I run the largesthealthcare plan in the state of
(03:45):
Connecticut, besides Medicaid,250,000 people get their health
insurance through our office.
And in some ways, we become sortof like the catch all agency. So
I run a flood program for theresidents of Hartford. I run a
retirement plan for smallbusinesses called my CD savings.
I run a drug discount card forthe people of Connecticut called
(04:06):
array RX. In some ways, we do alot of different things, but at
the end of the day, according toWikipedia, at least, I have a
chief fiscal watchdog ofConnecticut, and I take that
role really seriously. And everyday, we just try to help people
of Connecticut in some way, evenif it's not the ways that
typically lead the news.
Nancy Barrow (04:26):
And how are our finances looking for the state
as we go into 2026?
Sean Scanlon (04:31):
Well, you mentioned I was a state
representative before this, andI got elected 10 years ago to
that job, and when I took officein that job, we were in the
midst of A really bad fiscalcrisis in Connecticut, we had
record number of people leavingthe state, businesses leaving
the state, huge, huge budgetdeficits that were being closed
by big tax increases on people,big spending cuts on people, and
(04:55):
it was really not great for me,because I showed up in Hartford
in the only suit that I. Ownedvery idealistic, wanting to
change the world and wanting todo all these things to help
people that I had met during mycampaign, and all those things
were almost put on hold becausewe had no ability to do anything
but deal with this deficit. Wepassed a bipartisan budget in
(05:16):
2017 to make a long story short,that changed the way how we
budget as a state, and as aresult of that bipartisan
budget, in the last eight years,we've had eight consecutive
years of budget surpluses. We'veput aside $4 billion in our
rainy day fund. We've paid offabout $10 billion of our massive
unfunded pension liability. Andso by all these different
(05:40):
milestones, we are in a muchbetter place than we have been
in a long time. And in my mind,we ended that fiscal crisis that
we had experienced for the lastdecade or so, and we're on much,
much better financial footingtoday, which I think is
something to be proud of, but westill have a lot of work left to
do, and nobody is declaringvictory.
Nancy Barrow (06:02):
Yeah, but having that kind of surplus is pretty
impressive.
Sean Scanlon (06:06):
Yeah I mean, look, because of the pension debt that
we're paying down, which isalmost like if you start paying
down more on your credit card,you have a lesser payment. We
now freed up in the last fiscalyear alone, $750 million that
otherwise would have went topaying off debt that can now go
to do things like cut taxes orinvest in different programs
(06:29):
that help people. And so itsounds crazy when I say this,
but to my friends in theDemocratic Party who you know
maybe want to spend more or domore, I always say the most
progressive thing I think, thatwe can do is to continue to be
fiscally responsible. And thatkind of makes heads explode
because people don't reallyunderstand what that means. But
(06:49):
what it means is, if we getthrough this difficult period,
and we get this sort ofmillstone off of our neck, that
is this debt, we'll be able todo much, much more down the road
for the people of Connecticut,for my kids generation, for my
kids kids generation, if we stopthe things that built up over
(07:10):
time because of people kickingthe can down the road, and we
could actually get out of thisand then turn the corner on
creating a state that all of uswant to see.
Nancy Barrow (07:18):
Well, you were raised by a single mom after
your parents divorced, and yourdad was a police officer, your
grandfather was a firefighter,who was your biggest influence
in your decision to help peopleand then serve in politics for
the capacity of the residents ofConnecticut?
Sean Scanlon (07:35):
So, you know, growing up, you know, my dad and
my grandfather were like myheroes, right? And I thought
that I wanted to be a cop or afirefighter. It was sort of in
the blood. But a funny thinghappened when I was a teenager.
When I was 16, I got assigned todo a book report about Bobby
Kennedy, and I had never had anyinterest in politics. I honestly
(07:56):
don't remember my parents evervoting or even talking about
politics. It just wasn'tsomething that I grew up knowing
about. And for whatever reason,it sounds corny now when I tell
like students the story, butthis story of Bobby Kennedy just
really, really captured me in away that was unexpected. And
(08:18):
this idea that you could have ajob where you go and help people
that are often ignored or notseen or sort of in the shadows,
was so inspiring to me, and itsort of resonated me, because
when my parents split up, youknow, my dad moved back to New
York, where he was from, and Iwas raised here by my mom, who
(08:38):
had grown up here, and She had alot of struggles. She had no
job, she had no education beyonda high school degree, and she
decided to start a business inorder to try to, you know, keep
the rent paid in our apartmentand keep the lights on. And I
saw her struggle a lot in thatin that decade plus after my
(09:00):
parents got divorced, before Iwent off to college, and I just
was really interested in thisidea that I could have a job
where I could help people likemy mom, and did that book of
work and then sponged upeverything I could about other
people that had done this anddecided to get involved locally
in politics and the rest, Iguess, is history.
Nancy Barrow (09:22):
Shout out to that teacher that made you do that
book report!
Sean Scanlon (09:26):
Side note about him is, what's funny is, his
name is Jim Powers. He's retiredfrom Guilford High School. But a
few years ago, I've told thisstory so much that CEA, which is
the main teachers union inConnecticut, they asked me to
film this special with himcalled, Because of a Teacher.
And I talked to him on cameraabout this crazy experience, and
(09:47):
it was cool to see his reaction.
Because, you know, teachers do alot of great work every day, but
sometimes I think it can feellike, you know, do these kids
really care about RobertKennedy, right? And I obviously
really cared about RobertKennedy, and I think it was a
cool, full circle moment for himso.
Nancy Barrow (10:04):
That's amazing.
Speaking of single moms andstruggles, let's talk about
MyCTSavings. You mentioned thatearlier. When I'm doing outreach
at events around the state, I'vemet a lot of people from
MyCTSavings tabling there too,and we've become friends. But
how does this program helppeople in Connecticut with
retirement?
Sean Scanlon (10:20):
Well, I go back to my mom, right? My mom, every
dollar she ever earned when shehad her business went to the
bare necessities, right? And shecould never afford to either
save for her own retirement, andshe could certainly not afford
to pay for a retirement plan forher employees even though she
wanted to desperately.That's thecase for most small businesses
(10:40):
in the state. It's not that theydon't want to offer good
benefits, it's that they can'tafford to. And what my
MyCTSavings does is it allowssmall businesses to offer their
employees retirement at no costto them. And this program has
been around for a number ofyears, but it really just got
going almost by fate to time tome be getting this job. I voted
(11:03):
for this program back in 2016when it first passed the
legislature, but then it wasstalled for five or six years in
some controversy, but it finallygot transferred over to my
office before I was theComptroller, and so when I
started this job in January of2023 we had 700 companies
enrolled in this plan. I havemade it my personal mission to
(11:25):
expand this thing. We now have7500 enrolled in just the last
couple of years. And so I loveto do business walks. I've been
to half the main streets inConnecticut with mayors and
first Selectmen, just knockingon doors, handing out flyers
telling people about this. And Ithink, through word of mouth and
through the things that you seeour team at, we're making real
(11:47):
progress making sure thateverybody in Connecticut has
access to a retirement account.
And sometimes the criticism ofthis plan is, you know, I'll go
speak to like a chamber ofcommerce or something, and
somebody says, Well, my father,on my 18th birthday, took me
down to Charles Schwab andcreated an account. If that's
the case for you, that'sawesome. I love that. That's
that's great that your fatherhad that financial literacy. God
(12:10):
bless both my parents. Theydidn't have that, their parents
didn't have that. I am breakingthe cycle for my children, for
two families, two lines of afamily, because I'm the first
person in my family to have aretirement account, right? And
that's the case for many of thepeople that we're helping. They
are breaking the stigma offinancial illiteracy, and
(12:33):
they're breaking that barrierthat then is such a difference
maker for the next generation ofthat family, and so I don't
begrudge anybody. If you have adad that is a Wall Street stock
broker, and he's been investingin all your funds since you were
born, that's amazing for you. Ilove that. But if you're the
kind of person who grew up in ahousehold like me, and you
(12:55):
didn't have that financialliteracy, not because your
parents were not bad people, butbecause they didn't have
and it's never too late to startsaving. And I'm really, really
proud that we're helping over40,000 people save, most of
Nancy Barrow (13:15):
fantastic. I mean, it's really something you're
investing in yourself.
Sean Scanlon (13:19):
Absolutely!
Nancy Barrow (13:20):
You had a roundtable discussion about
caregiving and the sandwichgeneration, and the
complications of caring for yourelderly parents and kids at the
same time, and the resourcesavaialable in our state. And our
CEO, Erin Choquette, was on theroundtable. Why was that so
important for you to talk about?
Sean Scanlon (13:37):
Well, it's like a future of my life. I can see the
premonition of this coming. Andunfortunately, this is bigger
than just me. This is mostpeople exactly tied into what we
just talked about, right?
People, God willing, are livinglonger, but they don't have the
means to live longer, and SocialSecurity for most people,
doesn't work anymore. Not tokeep talking about my mom, but
(13:58):
my mom is now in her mid 70s,and she still works every day
nine to five because she can'tafford to live just on Social
Security. That story is thestory of so many people in our
state. But what happens is, allpeople hit a wall, right? There
will be a time where my momliterally, physically cannot
work nine to five. She neverwants to admit that, but there's
going to be a time that happens.
(14:21):
And when that happens, theburden of caring for her to make
sure that she is safe and secureand has what we all want and
need in retirement is going tofall on me and my wife, just
like her parents will fall on meand my wife. But the thing is
that that burden, and burden isa strong word, but that
(14:43):
responsibility maybe is going tohit us at the same time we still
have small kids, and that isexactly what the sales
generation is all about, right?
Is you're trying to care foryour elderly parents at the same
time you're caring for yoursmall children and my generation
and the generation above me and,the generation below me are kind
of the first generation to haveto deal with that, because
previous generations, you maybehad a pension, you were okay,
(15:06):
you maybe live 10 or 15 yearsafter you retire, and then you
die because you had a lifetimeof hard work. Now people are
living longer, and thereforethere's just not enough of a
societal safety net for themthat they can afford, especially
as costs go up for things likerent and for long term care and
for food and all these things.
(15:30):
And so we did that roundtablewith Erin, who is amazing, and
many other you know, people inthis space like AARP and
different advocacy groups to tryto draw attention to this,
because programs like paidfamily leave, most people don't
know are a resource for theexact kind of people like this.
Caregiving is something youdon't have to do alone. It is
not a burden you have to bear.
There are tools in place to helpyou do it. And I think some,
(15:54):
some big part of this is justletting people know that these
programs are available to them,and that roundtable was what
that was all about.
Nancy Barrow (16:03):
Caregiving is so important. What was your big
takeaway personally from thatdiscussion?
Sean Scanlon (16:09):
That people don't realize that we've made progress
as a state, right? You know, Iwas a lawmaker for eight years.
I passed a lot of laws. I'm nowon the executive side. So I see
it in both ways, but sometimespoliticians pass a law and then
they say, my job is done. I'vesolved this problem, right? But
(16:29):
if you don't implement thingscorrectly in government, or if
you don't spread the word aboutwhat we do, there's some like
self importance in thisbusiness, right? Where you live
in this cocoon of the capital orpolitics where you know, you
send out a newsletter to yourconstituents and say, I passed
the Paid Family Leave Law,right? And you're like, we're
done. We've solved all theproblems, right? But if I had $1
(16:52):
for every day that I hearsomebody telling me about a
story and I say, Hey, have youchecked out the Connecticut Paid
Family Leave? And they'resaying, no, what is that? Right?
We have to educate people aboutthe things that we've done well
as a state. And one of thethings that I think we've done
really well, and one of thethings I was very, very deeply
proud to vote for in 2019 wasthis program, because it is a
(17:13):
game changer for people in ourstate not to have to make the
impossible choices that peoplehave to make in other places.
And I think that that'ssomething that's really, really
important for our state.
Well, because it is stillstigmatized, right? And, you
know, I'm a firm believer, deepbeliever, in mental health. You
(17:40):
know, my dad was an alcoholic inlong term recovery. I never saw
him drink. He quit drinking themonth before I was born. My mom
sort of said to him, you know,you can go to rehab or you can
leave. And he chose to go torehab. And so I never saw him
drink. But when I my parentssplit up when I was six, when I
would go to see my dad, youknow, there was no babysitter,
(18:03):
he would take me with him to AAmeetings, which was kind of a
messed up place for a youngperson to be. But I would sit in
these rooms with these men,because a lot of times he would
go to just men's meetings. Hewas a tough marine and a cop and
and then you'd see these grownmen who, who I viewed as like
him, right? Who are all cops,firefighters had served the
(18:24):
military, uncontrollably sobbingand very upset, because they had
all this trauma that they didn'tknow what to do with. And the
one thing that they didn't knowwhat to do with, it was to
medicate themselves withalcohol. But once that went
away, they didn't have theresources to then figure out how
(18:44):
to deal with that trauma,besides the one thing that they
knew how to deal with it, andhearing these people talk about
how broken their lives were, andhow they had lost wives and
children and jobs and all thesethings, and I just really
believe that people like my dadcould have benefited so much
(19:05):
from mental health care, butthey never got it for primarily
two reasons. Number one, it wasso stigmatized that you know,
going to talk to somebody abouthow you were feeling and what
you were thinking about wassomehow not masculine or not
important. But number two iseven if they got past that
stigma, which is a really highburden, where the hell do you go
(19:25):
to get affordable care for thesekind of things, and how do you
treat those conditions if it'snot covered by your insurance,
or if it's covered by insurance,but you have to pay out of
pocket, an arm and a leg, and soWhen I got to the licensure,
healthcare was always the thingthat I cared the most about, but
the subset of healthcare that Icared the most about was mental
(19:48):
health and substance use. Andnot to drone on about it too
long, but when I got to Hartfordfor the first time, it wa at the
height of the opioid crisis, andthat had been going on for a
very. Long time, but it washeightened in the public
consciousness because suburbanpeople were starting to die, and
young people were starting todie in really, really big
numbers. And people were saying,Why? Why is this happening?
(20:11):
Well, it was the same crisisright, stigmatized mental health
care and unaffordable access tothe care. And so tried to make a
lot of progress in that in theeight years that I was there,
and the law that I am still, tothis day, most proud of, and I
don't have a big trophy wallbehind me of all my
accomplishments and people youknow, Ahearn at my my power here
(20:34):
in my office, but the onepicture I have of a bill signing
from the probably 100 or sobills that I passed as a
legislator. Is this MentalHealth Parity Act passed in 2019
we passed an updated version ofit in 2025 and it basically, as
you said, the premise is sosimple. It's just that insurance
companies cannot discriminate ortreat insurance differently for
(20:59):
mental health than they do forphysical health. And I would
like to think, and I know fromanecdotal evidence, that there
has been a lot more people inour state that have been able to
get the care that my fathernever could because of a law
like this. And again, it's greatstep in the right direction. As
I said, we just had to update itbecause people were finding ways
(21:20):
around it. This is a constantstruggle. We'll never fully win
this battle, but we are makingprogress, and I think we should
be really proud of that.
Nancy Barrow (21:27):
And Connecticut Paid Leave does cover mental
health and addiction treatment.
A lot of people don't know thoselittle caveats that we do, but
we do cover that. And ourcaregiver leave is so unique and
important in the fact that youdon't have to be blood related.
We have that expanded definitionof family that's related by
affinity, which is so cool thatit could be a neighbor or co
worker, best friend or a partnerthat you live with but aren't
(21:49):
married to, that can take careof you if you have a serious
health condition. I mean, it'sso important.
Sean Scanlon (21:55):
All of us experience this in our life,
right? You know, whether it'swith parents, whether it's with
your children or whether it'swith somebody you love that
you're not, to your point,related to, right? All of us
have people in our life that youknow we have these strong
relationships with, and they maynot be related to us, but that
doesn't mean that they don'tmatter to us. And I think the
(22:15):
fact that we've set up a systemwhere you don't have to make,
like we said, those impossiblechoices, and you can help the
people that you love get better,or you can get yourself better
right? These are the things thatI think truly matter. And we
talk a lot about as a state,what we could do to make
Connecticut more fiscally sound,to grow our economy. I think at
(22:40):
the end of the day, we need tomake our state more affordable.
I spend a lot of my time focusedon how to make the state more
affordable. But if we can makeit more affordable, and it's a
place that people want to be,because it's the kind of place
that you don't have to make thatchoice, or it's the kind of
place that you can get anapartment that's affordable for
you, or you can go to a greatschool and have a great park
(23:01):
down the street, right? Theseare the kind of things that make
a difference when people decidewhere they want to live. And if
we can crack the code onaffordability, we've already
cracked the code on getting ourfiscal house in order. And with
those two things together, Ithink we're going to start to
see more people coming toConnecticut because of what we
offer, and that's going to growthe economy, and that's going to
lift up all the voices that wewant to see, and that that sort
(23:24):
of rising tide lift all boatstheory. And I just feel like
we're at this great moment inConnecticut where we've gotten
through some really hard stuff.
We've made some hard decisions,but a good future is ahead, and
I think we've got these reallygood foundations, paid family
being one of them that are goingto pave the way for us to
ultimately have more success asa state than we have right Now
Nancy Barrow (23:47):
As the Governor says, It's a family friendly
state. You know, that's whatthat's what some of these
programs are doing. What aboutArray RX? And how does that help
Connecticut families get accessto prescription drugs?
Sean Scanlon (24:00):
Everybody in our state knows that drug prices are
crazy right now, and whether youhave insurance or you don't have
insurance, sometimes it doesn'tseem to matter, because when you
go to the pharmacy, you see thisbig cost that you can't afford.
And I'm somebody who justbelieves that nobody should have
to consider not getting aprescription because they can't
afford it. That was my mom'sstory. I remember going to CVS
(24:23):
and Guilford with her, and she'dbe begging the pharmacist behind
the counter if there was somesort of alternative drug that
she could call the doctor backand get because she couldn't
afford the one that we weregetting. And when I was growing
up, I just thought this was herproblem, right? And then I got
older and realized that half thepeople standing in line with her
at the CVS, we're going to havethe same damn conversation with
(24:44):
that pharmacist, right? Theanswer to this is absolutely, at
the federal level, we need tonegotiate the price of drugs for
all drugs that we buy. Americais one of the only countries in
the entire world that doesn't dothat, which is Surprise,
surprise. Why drug. Prices arecheaper in every part of the
world except for United States.
However, Washington, in case youhave noticed, doesn't get a lot
(25:07):
done these days because they'remired in gridlock. And so the
states really need to step upand try to solve these problems,
because we can't just blameWashington and say, well, these
knuckleheads down there can'tget their act together. I guess
we're just stuck with X, Y, Zproblem. No, we have to act. And
one of the ways that Connecticutis acting is to create this drug
(25:28):
discount card. It's called ArrayRX. You can get it right now,
literally, pause this podcast,go to array, A, R, R, A,Y,R,X
card.com and within two minutes,you can download this free card
that you can use at 98% of thepharmacies in the state, whether
you like to go to CVS orWalgreens or Walmart or the
(25:50):
independent pharmacy down thestreet from you, all of them,
98% of them take this. And rightnow, we see an average of 80%
savings on generic drugs and 20%savings on brand name drugs.
Average savings is about $200for the people who are using it.
200 bucks is a big deal. And asI tell people all the time, this
(26:13):
is not age restricted. So youcan be a senior or you can be an
18 year old, unemployed,uninsured, college student,
right? There are many differentways that you can access this,
and I just encourage everybodyto go check out our Array RX
card.com and make sure that youyou get your card and try it
out. And I guarantee you'll savesomething.
Nancy Barrow (26:36):
So good that you're doing that. What are you
most proud of since you tookthis job as Comptroller?
Sean Scanlon (26:43):
It's a really inside baseball thing, but one
of the things that we do ascomptroller is to run this it's
called the MERS pension system.
It's the Municipal PensionSystem. 107 of our 169 towns
have some involvement in thispension system. When I showed up
to work here, I got a briefingbook that was like 800 pages
long, and one of the things thatthey talked about was how this
(27:04):
plan was in big trouble, andthat the contribution rates that
the towns had to pay into it hadrisen by 75% in the preceding
five years, which wasunsustainable for them. And so
you had a system where some ofthese towns were saying, we may
have to lay off firefighters, wemay have to lay off the road
crew. And these are things thatnobody should have to do right
(27:26):
that would jeopardize the safetyof different communities. And so
I asked the guys, you know, whyhas nobody fixed this? And they
kind of laughed, and they said,Well, nobody has reformed this
system in 50 plus years. It justis the way it is. It's really
hard. And nothing triggers mypersonality like wanting to dive
in and fix something, thensomebody saying, well, it's
hard, and nobody's, you know,been able to do it. So over the
(27:49):
course of six weeks, I broughttogether Democrats and
Republicans, labor unions, themayors and first Selectmen, and
we reformed the system for thefirst time in decades, in 2023
which results in saving thetaxpayers in those communities
about $800 million over thecourse of the next 30 years. And
I think, has made the programmore sustainable, so that towns
(28:12):
can go out and recruit cops andfirefighters, again, something
that's not easy to do today,because I know firsthand how
hard those jobs are, but thosejobs are increasingly only
filled by people who say, hey,I'll run into a burning bill and
I'll chase this person. But Ineed a pension, right? I need a
secure retirement. Andunfortunately, because the MERS
(28:34):
system was in such bad shape,that was not the reality for a
lot of people. So I think fixingthat is the thing I'm most proud
of. But I tell you one otherthing too, which is that I'm the
youngest person to ever havethis job, and as we've discussed
for the last half an hour, thisjob is pretty wonky and in the
weeds, and most people don'tknow what I do, and that's fine.
(28:54):
I don't expect people are goingto have universal understanding
of the Byzantine world offinancing governments and how to
do all these things. But what wedo does impact people, and what
I've tried to do in my time hereas the youngest person ever to
have it, is to make what we domore accessible to people.
(29:14):
Because, again, I don't wantsomeone to have a degree in
accounting or a ton of financialliteracy, just to understand
what we do, because this istheir money, and I want everyday
people to understand it. So Iprobably spend too much time
trying to work with our team tobreak things down in a way that
someone like, again, my mom ormy father could have understood,
(29:38):
so that when government isunderstood and accessible, I
think it's at its best, and so Itry really hard to make
comptrolling accessible to thepeople of Connecticut.
Nancy Barrow (29:50):
I just want to say thank you. Sean Scanlon, the
Comptroller of the State ofConnecticut, thank you for all
you do for state workers, forfirefighters, for the cops for
also doing the Fallen Hero Fund.
You've done so much for them,and that is such an important
thing that you've done toexpand, you know, those services
to the fallen heroes. So weappreciate you doing that, and
(30:12):
thanks for your service to thepeople of Connecticut.
Sean Scanlon (30:16):
Yeah, you know, at the end of the day, politics is
personal, and the reason why wethink about politics is because
of things that are personal toour lives. And in many ways,
politics has sort of gotten outof control these days. And
everybody I know bemoans thestate of our politics, but I
think the answer to it is tobring it back to what drives us
(30:36):
all personally. And if we canhave conversations like this,
about the things that drive uspersonally or that are demanding
more of us, and we can talktogether about solutions, I
think we can bring down theclimate heat a little bit and
get back to trying to solveproblems, because that's at the
end of the day we that's what weneed to do for each other,
(30:56):
whether it's caring for sickpeople, whether it's solving the
thing that's causing yourneighborhood to smell bad
because there's a broken sewerpipe. These are all just basic
humanity things. And if we canmake life easier for people,
we've done our job ingovernment. Paid family leave is
doing that every single day forpeople in our state. And I
continue to be such a strongsupporter of what you do there,
(31:21):
and I'm so grateful for it, andI look forward to partnering
more, because the more we can doto get more people to understand
this incredible benefit we havein the state, the better off our
state's fiscal health is goingto be, and the better off our
physical health is going to be.
And I think we could do those,both those things, the future is
very bright for Connecticut. Sothanks for interviewing me.
Thanks for what you do.
Nancy Barrow (31:42):
Well, thank you so much for your time and for being
a guest on The Paid LeavePodcast. Sean, now you can talk
to your wife about it!
Sean Scanlon (31:48):
Now you gotta interview the kids and then go
for the 3 and the 4-peat!
Nancy Barrow (31:52):
Well, thank you so much again. For more information
or to apply for benefits, pleasego to ctpaidleave.org This has
been another edition of The PaidLeave Podcast, please like and
subscribe so you'll be notifiedabout new podcasts that become
available. Connecticut PaidLeave is a public act with a
personal purpose. I'm NancyBarrow, and thanks for
(32:13):
listening!
Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave
Podcast. The title basicallysays it all. I'm Nancy Barrow,
and I will be delving into thisnew state program and how it can
help you and your family. Thispodcast will give you
information you should knowabout Connecticut Paid Leave and
maybe just a little bit more.
Connecticut Paid Leave bringspeace of mind to your home,
(00:22):
family and workplace. Welcome toThe Paid Leave Podcast. November
is National Family CaregiversMonth and National Family Health
History Day is November 28th.
My guest is Sean Scanlon hebegan his term as Comptroller
for the State of Connecticut in2023. And before that he worked
(00:44):
as a state representative in the98th district. And in the House,
Sean became a champion forhealth care reform, a passion
rooted in his own lifeexperiences coming from a family
that was often uninsured orunderinsured. As chairman of
the legislature’s InsuranceCommittee, Sean wrote and passed
legislation protecting peoplewith pre-existing conditions
from insurancediscrimination,and prevented
(01:06):
insurance companies fromcovering mental health
differently than physicalhealth. Sean served as Chair of
the Finance, Revenue and BondingCommittee where he led the fight
to create tax relief for workingfamilies like the one he grew up
in, and worked with GovernorLamont to pass the largest tax
cut in state history. And wethank you for that Sean!
Sean Scanlon (01:27):
You're Welcome!
Nancy Barrow (01:28):
Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast.
Sean Scanlon (01:30):
Great to be on, thanks for having me!
Nancy Barrow (01:32):
I don’t know you personally Sean but we have 2
things in common before westart. I’ve had your wife Meghan
on this podcast talking aboutdomestic violence with the
Connecticut Coalition AgainstDomestic Violence, (CCADV) she
is brilliant, and also happybelated anniversary!
Sean Scanlon (01:45):
Thank you. So I am now the second Scanlan on this
podcast, which is cool. Yeah.
Thank you for the niceanniversary shout out. We just
celebrated our eighth weddinganniversary!
Nancy Barrow (01:56):
Well, that is something, isn't it. And I had
the pleasure also of havingSenator Chris Murphy on talking
about isolation and loneliness,and he said that he was most
proud of the gun control lawsthat he passed from the Sandy
Hook tragedy, and that'ssomething that you worked with
him on when you worked for ChrisMurphy.
Sean Scanlon (02:12):
I did. I worked for Chris in a very difficult
period when he was in betweenbeing a Congressman for the
fifth district, which includedthe town of Newtown, and then
becoming a US Senator. And inbetween that weird period was
when the tragedy in Sandy Hookhappened, and so I was working
in his office. I was actuallysupposed to be with him that
(02:35):
day, which I'm eternallythankful that I wasn't, because
the person who ended up beingwith him has had a lot of PTSD
around being with him at theschool and being there when the
parents were told that theirkids were no longer alive. But
it really did fuel Chris to dothe work that he did, and it was
(02:55):
really, really impactful to workwith him, and more importantly,
those families who I got to knowquite well during that period to
try to do something about this,this terrible epidemic that we
have in this country. So yeah,lots of lots of preceding guests
on this podcast.
Nancy Barrow (03:12):
Yeah. Well, those are the things that we have in
common. But let's talk about youand the Office of Comptroller.
What do you do? I know youhandle finances for the state,
but you do a lot in this officethat maybe people don't know
about.
Sean Scanlon (03:24):
Yeah, so in some ways, people may say, I'm sort
of like the CO chief financialofficer along with the
treasurer, and he's all themoney coming in and I'm all the
money going out. So we pay allthe state's bills. We keep the
state's books. We do all of thebenefit negotiation. So, for
example, I run the largesthealthcare plan in the state of
(03:45):
Connecticut, besides Medicaid,250,000 people get their health
insurance through our office.
And in some ways, we become sortof like the catch all agency. So
I run a flood program for theresidents of Hartford. I run a
retirement plan for smallbusinesses called my CD savings.
I run a drug discount card forthe people of Connecticut called
(04:06):
array RX. In some ways, we do alot of different things, but at
the end of the day, according toWikipedia, at least, I have a
chief fiscal watchdog ofConnecticut, and I take that
role really seriously. And everyday, we just try to help people
of Connecticut in some way, evenif it's not the ways that
typically lead the news.
Nancy Barrow (04:26):
And how are our finances looking for the state
as we go into 2026?
Sean Scanlon (04:31):
Well, you mentioned I was a state
representative before this, andI got elected 10 years ago to
that job, and when I took officein that job, we were in the
midst of A really bad fiscalcrisis in Connecticut, we had
record number of people leavingthe state, businesses leaving
the state, huge, huge budgetdeficits that were being closed
by big tax increases on people,big spending cuts on people, and
(04:55):
it was really not great for me,because I showed up in Hartford
in the only suit that I. Ownedvery idealistic, wanting to
change the world and wanting todo all these things to help
people that I had met during mycampaign, and all those things
were almost put on hold becausewe had no ability to do anything
but deal with this deficit. Wepassed a bipartisan budget in
(05:16):
2017 to make a long story short,that changed the way how we
budget as a state, and as aresult of that bipartisan
budget, in the last eight years,we've had eight consecutive
years of budget surpluses. We'veput aside $4 billion in our
rainy day fund. We've paid offabout $10 billion of our massive
unfunded pension liability. Andso by all these different
(05:40):
milestones, we are in a muchbetter place than we have been
in a long time. And in my mind,we ended that fiscal crisis that
we had experienced for the lastdecade or so, and we're on much,
much better financial footingtoday, which I think is
something to be proud of, but westill have a lot of work left to
do, and nobody is declaringvictory.
Nancy Barrow (06:02):
Yeah, but having that kind of surplus is pretty
impressive.
Sean Scanlon (06:06):
Yeah I mean, look, because of the pension debt that
we're paying down, which isalmost like if you start paying
down more on your credit card,you have a lesser payment. We
now freed up in the last fiscalyear alone, $750 million that
otherwise would have went topaying off debt that can now go
to do things like cut taxes orinvest in different programs
(06:29):
that help people. And so itsounds crazy when I say this,
but to my friends in theDemocratic Party who you know
maybe want to spend more or domore, I always say the most
progressive thing I think, thatwe can do is to continue to be
fiscally responsible. And thatkind of makes heads explode
because people don't reallyunderstand what that means. But
(06:49):
what it means is, if we getthrough this difficult period,
and we get this sort ofmillstone off of our neck, that
is this debt, we'll be able todo much, much more down the road
for the people of Connecticut,for my kids generation, for my
kids kids generation, if we stopthe things that built up over
(07:10):
time because of people kickingthe can down the road, and we
could actually get out of thisand then turn the corner on
creating a state that all of uswant to see.
Nancy Barrow (07:18):
Well, you were raised by a single mom after
your parents divorced, and yourdad was a police officer, your
grandfather was a firefighter,who was your biggest influence
in your decision to help peopleand then serve in politics for
the capacity of the residents ofConnecticut?
Sean Scanlon (07:35):
So, you know, growing up, you know, my dad and
my grandfather were like myheroes, right? And I thought
that I wanted to be a cop or afirefighter. It was sort of in
the blood. But a funny thinghappened when I was a teenager.
When I was 16, I got assigned todo a book report about Bobby
Kennedy, and I had never had anyinterest in politics. I honestly
(07:56):
don't remember my parents evervoting or even talking about
politics. It just wasn'tsomething that I grew up knowing
about. And for whatever reason,it sounds corny now when I tell
like students the story, butthis story of Bobby Kennedy just
really, really captured me in away that was unexpected. And
(08:18):
this idea that you could have ajob where you go and help people
that are often ignored or notseen or sort of in the shadows,
was so inspiring to me, and itsort of resonated me, because
when my parents split up, youknow, my dad moved back to New
York, where he was from, and Iwas raised here by my mom, who
(08:38):
had grown up here, and She had alot of struggles. She had no
job, she had no education beyonda high school degree, and she
decided to start a business inorder to try to, you know, keep
the rent paid in our apartmentand keep the lights on. And I
saw her struggle a lot in thatin that decade plus after my
(09:00):
parents got divorced, before Iwent off to college, and I just
was really interested in thisidea that I could have a job
where I could help people likemy mom, and did that book of
work and then sponged upeverything I could about other
people that had done this anddecided to get involved locally
in politics and the rest, Iguess, is history.
Nancy Barrow (09:22):
Shout out to that teacher that made you do that
book report!
Sean Scanlon (09:26):
Side note about him is, what's funny is, his
name is Jim Powers. He's retiredfrom Guilford High School. But a
few years ago, I've told thisstory so much that CEA, which is
the main teachers union inConnecticut, they asked me to
film this special with himcalled, Because of a Teacher.
And I talked to him on cameraabout this crazy experience, and
(09:47):
it was cool to see his reaction.
Because, you know, teachers do alot of great work every day, but
sometimes I think it can feellike, you know, do these kids
really care about RobertKennedy, right? And I obviously
really cared about RobertKennedy, and I think it was a
cool, full circle moment for himso.
Nancy Barrow (10:04):
That's amazing.
Speaking of single moms andstruggles, let's talk about
MyCTSavings. You mentioned thatearlier. When I'm doing outreach
at events around the state, I'vemet a lot of people from
MyCTSavings tabling there too,and we've become friends. But
how does this program helppeople in Connecticut with
retirement?
Sean Scanlon (10:20):
Well, I go back to my mom, right? My mom, every
dollar she ever earned when shehad her business went to the
bare necessities, right? And shecould never afford to either
save for her own retirement, andshe could certainly not afford
to pay for a retirement plan forher employees even though she
wanted to desperately.That's thecase for most small businesses
(10:40):
in the state. It's not that theydon't want to offer good
benefits, it's that they can'tafford to. And what my
MyCTSavings does is it allowssmall businesses to offer their
employees retirement at no costto them. And this program has
been around for a number ofyears, but it really just got
going almost by fate to time tome be getting this job. I voted
(11:03):
for this program back in 2016when it first passed the
legislature, but then it wasstalled for five or six years in
some controversy, but it finallygot transferred over to my
office before I was theComptroller, and so when I
started this job in January of2023 we had 700 companies
enrolled in this plan. I havemade it my personal mission to
(11:25):
expand this thing. We now have7500 enrolled in just the last
couple of years. And so I loveto do business walks. I've been
to half the main streets inConnecticut with mayors and
first Selectmen, just knockingon doors, handing out flyers
telling people about this. And Ithink, through word of mouth and
through the things that you seeour team at, we're making real
(11:47):
progress making sure thateverybody in Connecticut has
access to a retirement account.
And sometimes the criticism ofthis plan is, you know, I'll go
speak to like a chamber ofcommerce or something, and
somebody says, Well, my father,on my 18th birthday, took me
down to Charles Schwab andcreated an account. If that's
the case for you, that'sawesome. I love that. That's
that's great that your fatherhad that financial literacy. God
(12:10):
bless both my parents. Theydidn't have that, their parents
didn't have that. I am breakingthe cycle for my children, for
two families, two lines of afamily, because I'm the first
person in my family to have aretirement account, right? And
that's the case for many of thepeople that we're helping. They
are breaking the stigma offinancial illiteracy, and
(12:33):
they're breaking that barrierthat then is such a difference
maker for the next generation ofthat family, and so I don't
begrudge anybody. If you have adad that is a Wall Street stock
broker, and he's been investingin all your funds since you were
born, that's amazing for you. Ilove that. But if you're the
kind of person who grew up in ahousehold like me, and you
(12:55):
didn't have that financialliteracy, not because your
parents were not bad people, butbecause they didn't have
and it's never too late to startsaving. And I'm really, really
proud that we're helping over40,000 people save, most of
Nancy Barrow (13:15):
fantastic. I mean, it's really something you're
investing in yourself.
Sean Scanlon (13:19):
Absolutely!
Nancy Barrow (13:20):
You had a roundtable discussion about
caregiving and the sandwichgeneration, and the
complications of caring for yourelderly parents and kids at the
same time, and the resourcesavaialable in our state. And our
CEO, Erin Choquette, was on theroundtable. Why was that so
important for you to talk about?
Sean Scanlon (13:37):
Well, it's like a future of my life. I can see the
premonition of this coming. Andunfortunately, this is bigger
than just me. This is mostpeople exactly tied into what we
just talked about, right?
People, God willing, are livinglonger, but they don't have the
means to live longer, and SocialSecurity for most people,
doesn't work anymore. Not tokeep talking about my mom, but
(13:58):
my mom is now in her mid 70s,and she still works every day
nine to five because she can'tafford to live just on Social
Security. That story is thestory of so many people in our
state. But what happens is, allpeople hit a wall, right? There
will be a time where my momliterally, physically cannot
work nine to five. She neverwants to admit that, but there's
going to be a time that happens.
(14:21):
And when that happens, theburden of caring for her to make
sure that she is safe and secureand has what we all want and
need in retirement is going tofall on me and my wife, just
like her parents will fall on meand my wife. But the thing is
that that burden, and burden isa strong word, but that
(14:43):
responsibility maybe is going tohit us at the same time we still
have small kids, and that isexactly what the sales
generation is all about, right?
Is you're trying to care foryour elderly parents at the same
time you're caring for yoursmall children and my generation
and the generation above me and,the generation below me are kind
of the first generation to haveto deal with that, because
previous generations, you maybehad a pension, you were okay,
(15:06):
you maybe live 10 or 15 yearsafter you retire, and then you
die because you had a lifetimeof hard work. Now people are
living longer, and thereforethere's just not enough of a
societal safety net for themthat they can afford, especially
as costs go up for things likerent and for long term care and
for food and all these things.
(15:30):
And so we did that roundtablewith Erin, who is amazing, and
many other you know, people inthis space like AARP and
different advocacy groups to tryto draw attention to this,
because programs like paidfamily leave, most people don't
know are a resource for theexact kind of people like this.
Caregiving is something youdon't have to do alone. It is
not a burden you have to bear.
There are tools in place to helpyou do it. And I think some,
(15:54):
some big part of this is justletting people know that these
programs are available to them,and that roundtable was what
that was all about.
Nancy Barrow (16:03):
Caregiving is so important. What was your big
takeaway personally from thatdiscussion?
Sean Scanlon (16:09):
That people don't realize that we've made progress
as a state, right? You know, Iwas a lawmaker for eight years.
I passed a lot of laws. I'm nowon the executive side. So I see
it in both ways, but sometimespoliticians pass a law and then
they say, my job is done. I'vesolved this problem, right? But
(16:29):
if you don't implement thingscorrectly in government, or if
you don't spread the word aboutwhat we do, there's some like
self importance in thisbusiness, right? Where you live
in this cocoon of the capital orpolitics where you know, you
send out a newsletter to yourconstituents and say, I passed
the Paid Family Leave Law,right? And you're like, we're
done. We've solved all theproblems, right? But if I had $1
(16:52):
for every day that I hearsomebody telling me about a
story and I say, Hey, have youchecked out the Connecticut Paid
Family Leave? And they'resaying, no, what is that? Right?
We have to educate people aboutthe things that we've done well
as a state. And one of thethings that I think we've done
really well, and one of thethings I was very, very deeply
proud to vote for in 2019 wasthis program, because it is a
(17:13):
game changer for people in ourstate not to have to make the
impossible choices that peoplehave to make in other places.
And I think that that'ssomething that's really, really
important for our state.
Well, because it is stillstigmatized, right? And, you
know, I'm a firm believer, deepbeliever, in mental health. You
(17:40):
know, my dad was an alcoholic inlong term recovery. I never saw
him drink. He quit drinking themonth before I was born. My mom
sort of said to him, you know,you can go to rehab or you can
leave. And he chose to go torehab. And so I never saw him
drink. But when I my parentssplit up when I was six, when I
would go to see my dad, youknow, there was no babysitter,
(18:03):
he would take me with him to AAmeetings, which was kind of a
messed up place for a youngperson to be. But I would sit in
these rooms with these men,because a lot of times he would
go to just men's meetings. Hewas a tough marine and a cop and
and then you'd see these grownmen who, who I viewed as like
him, right? Who are all cops,firefighters had served the
(18:24):
military, uncontrollably sobbingand very upset, because they had
all this trauma that they didn'tknow what to do with. And the
one thing that they didn't knowwhat to do with, it was to
medicate themselves withalcohol. But once that went
away, they didn't have theresources to then figure out how
(18:44):
to deal with that trauma,besides the one thing that they
knew how to deal with it, andhearing these people talk about
how broken their lives were, andhow they had lost wives and
children and jobs and all thesethings, and I just really
believe that people like my dadcould have benefited so much
(19:05):
from mental health care, butthey never got it for primarily
two reasons. Number one, it wasso stigmatized that you know,
going to talk to somebody abouthow you were feeling and what
you were thinking about wassomehow not masculine or not
important. But number two iseven if they got past that
stigma, which is a really highburden, where the hell do you go
(19:25):
to get affordable care for thesekind of things, and how do you
treat those conditions if it'snot covered by your insurance,
or if it's covered by insurance,but you have to pay out of
pocket, an arm and a leg, and soWhen I got to the licensure,
healthcare was always the thingthat I cared the most about, but
the subset of healthcare that Icared the most about was mental
(19:48):
health and substance use. Andnot to drone on about it too
long, but when I got to Hartfordfor the first time, it wa at the
height of the opioid crisis, andthat had been going on for a
very. Long time, but it washeightened in the public
consciousness because suburbanpeople were starting to die, and
young people were starting todie in really, really big
numbers. And people were saying,Why? Why is this happening?
(20:11):
Well, it was the same crisisright, stigmatized mental health
care and unaffordable access tothe care. And so tried to make a
lot of progress in that in theeight years that I was there,
and the law that I am still, tothis day, most proud of, and I
don't have a big trophy wallbehind me of all my
accomplishments and people youknow, Ahearn at my my power here
(20:34):
in my office, but the onepicture I have of a bill signing
from the probably 100 or sobills that I passed as a
legislator. Is this MentalHealth Parity Act passed in 2019
we passed an updated version ofit in 2025 and it basically, as
you said, the premise is sosimple. It's just that insurance
companies cannot discriminate ortreat insurance differently for
(20:59):
mental health than they do forphysical health. And I would
like to think, and I know fromanecdotal evidence, that there
has been a lot more people inour state that have been able to
get the care that my fathernever could because of a law
like this. And again, it's greatstep in the right direction. As
I said, we just had to update itbecause people were finding ways
(21:20):
around it. This is a constantstruggle. We'll never fully win
this battle, but we are makingprogress, and I think we should
be really proud of that.
Nancy Barrow (21:27):
And Connecticut Paid Leave does cover mental
health and addiction treatment.
A lot of people don't know thoselittle caveats that we do, but
we do cover that. And ourcaregiver leave is so unique and
important in the fact that youdon't have to be blood related.
We have that expanded definitionof family that's related by
affinity, which is so cool thatit could be a neighbor or co
worker, best friend or a partnerthat you live with but aren't
(21:49):
married to, that can take careof you if you have a serious
health condition. I mean, it'sso important.
Sean Scanlon (21:55):
All of us experience this in our life,
right? You know, whether it'swith parents, whether it's with
your children or whether it'swith somebody you love that
you're not, to your point,related to, right? All of us
have people in our life that youknow we have these strong
relationships with, and they maynot be related to us, but that
doesn't mean that they don'tmatter to us. And I think the
(22:15):
fact that we've set up a systemwhere you don't have to make,
like we said, those impossiblechoices, and you can help the
people that you love get better,or you can get yourself better
right? These are the things thatI think truly matter. And we
talk a lot about as a state,what we could do to make
Connecticut more fiscally sound,to grow our economy. I think at
(22:40):
the end of the day, we need tomake our state more affordable.
I spend a lot of my time focusedon how to make the state more
affordable. But if we can makeit more affordable, and it's a
place that people want to be,because it's the kind of place
that you don't have to make thatchoice, or it's the kind of
place that you can get anapartment that's affordable for
you, or you can go to a greatschool and have a great park
(23:01):
down the street, right? Theseare the kind of things that make
a difference when people decidewhere they want to live. And if
we can crack the code onaffordability, we've already
cracked the code on getting ourfiscal house in order. And with
those two things together, Ithink we're going to start to
see more people coming toConnecticut because of what we
offer, and that's going to growthe economy, and that's going to
lift up all the voices that wewant to see, and that that sort
(23:24):
of rising tide lift all boatstheory. And I just feel like
we're at this great moment inConnecticut where we've gotten
through some really hard stuff.
We've made some hard decisions,but a good future is ahead, and
I think we've got these reallygood foundations, paid family
being one of them that are goingto pave the way for us to
ultimately have more success asa state than we have right Now
Nancy Barrow (23:47):
As the Governor says, It's a family friendly
state. You know, that's whatthat's what some of these
programs are doing. What aboutArray RX? And how does that help
Connecticut families get accessto prescription drugs?
Sean Scanlon (24:00):
Everybody in our state knows that drug prices are
crazy right now, and whether youhave insurance or you don't have
insurance, sometimes it doesn'tseem to matter, because when you
go to the pharmacy, you see thisbig cost that you can't afford.
And I'm somebody who justbelieves that nobody should have
to consider not getting aprescription because they can't
afford it. That was my mom'sstory. I remember going to CVS
(24:23):
and Guilford with her, and she'dbe begging the pharmacist behind
the counter if there was somesort of alternative drug that
she could call the doctor backand get because she couldn't
afford the one that we weregetting. And when I was growing
up, I just thought this was herproblem, right? And then I got
older and realized that half thepeople standing in line with her
at the CVS, we're going to havethe same damn conversation with
(24:44):
that pharmacist, right? Theanswer to this is absolutely, at
the federal level, we need tonegotiate the price of drugs for
all drugs that we buy. Americais one of the only countries in
the entire world that doesn't dothat, which is Surprise,
surprise. Why drug. Prices arecheaper in every part of the
world except for United States.
However, Washington, in case youhave noticed, doesn't get a lot
(25:07):
done these days because they'remired in gridlock. And so the
states really need to step upand try to solve these problems,
because we can't just blameWashington and say, well, these
knuckleheads down there can'tget their act together. I guess
we're just stuck with X, Y, Zproblem. No, we have to act. And
one of the ways that Connecticutis acting is to create this drug
(25:28):
discount card. It's called ArrayRX. You can get it right now,
literally, pause this podcast,go to array, A, R, R, A,Y,R,X
card.com and within two minutes,you can download this free card
that you can use at 98% of thepharmacies in the state, whether
you like to go to CVS orWalgreens or Walmart or the
(25:50):
independent pharmacy down thestreet from you, all of them,
98% of them take this. And rightnow, we see an average of 80%
savings on generic drugs and 20%savings on brand name drugs.
Average savings is about $200for the people who are using it.
200 bucks is a big deal. And asI tell people all the time, this
(26:13):
is not age restricted. So youcan be a senior or you can be an
18 year old, unemployed,uninsured, college student,
right? There are many differentways that you can access this,
and I just encourage everybodyto go check out our Array RX
card.com and make sure that youyou get your card and try it
out. And I guarantee you'll savesomething.
Nancy Barrow (26:36):
So good that you're doing that. What are you
most proud of since you tookthis job as Comptroller?
Sean Scanlon (26:43):
It's a really inside baseball thing, but one
of the things that we do ascomptroller is to run this it's
called the MERS pension system.
It's the Municipal PensionSystem. 107 of our 169 towns
have some involvement in thispension system. When I showed up
to work here, I got a briefingbook that was like 800 pages
long, and one of the things thatthey talked about was how this
(27:04):
plan was in big trouble, andthat the contribution rates that
the towns had to pay into it hadrisen by 75% in the preceding
five years, which wasunsustainable for them. And so
you had a system where some ofthese towns were saying, we may
have to lay off firefighters, wemay have to lay off the road
crew. And these are things thatnobody should have to do right
(27:26):
that would jeopardize the safetyof different communities. And so
I asked the guys, you know, whyhas nobody fixed this? And they
kind of laughed, and they said,Well, nobody has reformed this
system in 50 plus years. It justis the way it is. It's really
hard. And nothing triggers mypersonality like wanting to dive
in and fix something, thensomebody saying, well, it's
hard, and nobody's, you know,been able to do it. So over the
(27:49):
course of six weeks, I broughttogether Democrats and
Republicans, labor unions, themayors and first Selectmen, and
we reformed the system for thefirst time in decades, in 2023
which results in saving thetaxpayers in those communities
about $800 million over thecourse of the next 30 years. And
I think, has made the programmore sustainable, so that towns
(28:12):
can go out and recruit cops andfirefighters, again, something
that's not easy to do today,because I know firsthand how
hard those jobs are, but thosejobs are increasingly only
filled by people who say, hey,I'll run into a burning bill and
I'll chase this person. But Ineed a pension, right? I need a
secure retirement. Andunfortunately, because the MERS
(28:34):
system was in such bad shape,that was not the reality for a
lot of people. So I think fixingthat is the thing I'm most proud
of. But I tell you one otherthing too, which is that I'm the
youngest person to ever havethis job, and as we've discussed
for the last half an hour, thisjob is pretty wonky and in the
weeds, and most people don'tknow what I do, and that's fine.
(28:54):
I don't expect people are goingto have universal understanding
of the Byzantine world offinancing governments and how to
do all these things. But what wedo does impact people, and what
I've tried to do in my time hereas the youngest person ever to
have it, is to make what we domore accessible to people.
(29:14):
Because, again, I don't wantsomeone to have a degree in
accounting or a ton of financialliteracy, just to understand
what we do, because this istheir money, and I want everyday
people to understand it. So Iprobably spend too much time
trying to work with our team tobreak things down in a way that
someone like, again, my mom ormy father could have understood,
(29:38):
so that when government isunderstood and accessible, I
think it's at its best, and so Itry really hard to make
comptrolling accessible to thepeople of Connecticut.
Nancy Barrow (29:50):
I just want to say thank you. Sean Scanlon, the
Comptroller of the State ofConnecticut, thank you for all
you do for state workers, forfirefighters, for the cops for
also doing the Fallen Hero Fund.
You've done so much for them,and that is such an important
thing that you've done toexpand, you know, those services
to the fallen heroes. So weappreciate you doing that, and
(30:12):
thanks for your service to thepeople of Connecticut.
Sean Scanlon (30:16):
Yeah, you know, at the end of the day, politics is
personal, and the reason why wethink about politics is because
of things that are personal toour lives. And in many ways,
politics has sort of gotten outof control these days. And
everybody I know bemoans thestate of our politics, but I
think the answer to it is tobring it back to what drives us
(30:36):
all personally. And if we canhave conversations like this,
about the things that drive uspersonally or that are demanding
more of us, and we can talktogether about solutions, I
think we can bring down theclimate heat a little bit and
get back to trying to solveproblems, because that's at the
end of the day we that's what weneed to do for each other,
(30:56):
whether it's caring for sickpeople, whether it's solving the
thing that's causing yourneighborhood to smell bad
because there's a broken sewerpipe. These are all just basic
humanity things. And if we canmake life easier for people,
we've done our job ingovernment. Paid family leave is
doing that every single day forpeople in our state. And I
continue to be such a strongsupporter of what you do there,
(31:21):
and I'm so grateful for it, andI look forward to partnering
more, because the more we can doto get more people to understand
this incredible benefit we havein the state, the better off our
state's fiscal health is goingto be, and the better off our
physical health is going to be.
And I think we could do those,both those things, the future is
very bright for Connecticut. Sothanks for interviewing me.
Thanks for what you do.
Nancy Barrow (31:42):
Well, thank you so much for your time and for being
a guest on The Paid LeavePodcast. Sean, now you can talk
to your wife about it!
Sean Scanlon (31:48):
Now you gotta interview the kids and then go
for the 3 and the 4-peat!
Nancy Barrow (31:52):
Well, thank you so much again. For more information
or to apply for benefits, pleasego to ctpaidleave.org This has
been another edition of The PaidLeave Podcast, please like and
subscribe so you'll be notifiedabout new podcasts that become
available. Connecticut PaidLeave is a public act with a
personal purpose. I'm NancyBarrow, and thanks for
(32:13):
listening!
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