Governor Ned Lamont told CT Mirror he considers opting Connecticut into the federal Scholarship Tax Credit “premature” and prefers to wait for federal guidance, even as neighboring New York signaled it plans to join. Connecticut remains undecided.
Connecticut has joined the ranks of blue-state holdouts on the federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC / ECCA / §25F), and Governor Ned Lamont is in no hurry to decide. In remarks to the Connecticut Mirror published May 20, 2026, Lamont, a Democrat, called the prospect of opting Connecticut into the program “premature,” saying flatly, “I just think it's premature,” and indicating he would rather wait for federal guidance before committing the state one way or the other. It is a noncommittal posture rather than a refusal: Connecticut is neither in nor out, and the governor has left the door open while pointing to the rules that have not yet been written. This is the first Connecticut-specific gubernatorial position we have logged, and it places Lamont alongside the undecided rather than the opposed.
The timing of Lamont's comment is what gives it weight. They came as neighboring New York moved in the opposite direction: Governor Kathy Hochul signaled in early May 2026 that New York plans to join the program, a stated intention rather than a completed election, but enough to raise the regional contrast. The federal credit lets a donor give up to $1,700 to a qualifying Scholarship Granting Organization and claim a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit, with the program set to launch January 1, 2027. Because the scholarships are funded by donors rather than the state treasury, a participating state spends nothing to open the door, which is precisely why a neighbor's decision to opt in tends to sharpen the question for the states still on the fence. We track how Democratic governors have split on §25F, and Lamont now sits squarely in the wait-and-see column.
Lamont is not deliberating in isolation. Patrice McCarthy, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE), publicly backed the governor's instinct to wait for federal guidance, and she framed the hesitation in oversight terms: scholarships routed through private organizations, she argued, lack the public reporting and accountability that govern public-school finances, which in her view creates a serious lack of transparency. That argument echoes the central objection raised by public-education groups nationally, the concern that a program nominally open to all students functions as a channel toward private tuition with thinner public oversight. It is the same fault line visible in Maryland, where Governor Wes Moore has also declined to tip his hand, and in the broader fight over who opposes the credit and why.
For donors, families, and prospective SGO founders in Connecticut, the practical takeaway is that the state remains pending and the clock is the variable to watch. The Connecticut legislature has adjourned, and as of mid-June 2026 there has been no concrete follow-on development, no governor's press release, no Department of Revenue Services or State Department of Education guidance, no SGO listing activity, and no new bill movement, which leaves Lamont's May remarks as the most current statement of where Connecticut stands. The decision itself may turn less on Hartford than on Washington: Treasury's forthcoming regulations, which the department previewed in June 2026, are the “federal guidance” Lamont says he is waiting for, and they will define the room a state has to act. Connecticut's current status, and every other state's, is tracked on our Connecticut state page; you can compare it with New York's, see who is already operating on the SGO directory, and read how the credit works on our learn pages.
