Praise poured in from throughout Connecticut when Kevin Lembo announced his resignation as state comptroller.
Lembo, 58, has been comptroller for 11 years. On Friday he cited a “serious and debilitating cardiac condition that has recently been worsening in intensity and severity.”
According to Lembo, cardiologists recommended that he not continue working.
State of Connecticut
He will leave the elected office Dec. 31 and Gov. Ned Lamont will name a successor to fill out his term through early January 2023.
“It is with incredible sadness that we receive this news,” Lamont said. “I can only imagine how difficult it is for Kevin to make the decision to step down from a position that he loves and that he energetically campaigned to fill.”
Before taking office in 2011, Lembo was Connecticut’s first healthcare advocate, fighting insurance companies on behalf of patients to reverse wrongly denied medical claims. As comptroller, he worked with labor and management to implement the Health Enhancement Program, a preventive care and chronic disease management initiative.
Lembo has built on that work through contract negotiations that have built up Connecticut’s healthcare sector and secured low prices for members of the state’s health plans.
“His voice strengthened the argument that healthcare is a fundamental human right,” state Treasurer Shawn Wooden said. “He was a leading voice in negotiating lower overall costs of healthcare while managing the state health plan in a manner that saved taxpayer dollars and delivered exceptional care.”
Lembo was also a counterweight who called out state officials over budget imbalance, excessive debt and rating-agency backlash when the state was struggling fiscally.
Since 2017, Connecticut’s bottom line has improved and the state this year received across-the-board rating upgrades from Moody’s Investors Service, Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings.
“We need acknowledge what the situation is. We need to even build a history around how we got there,” Lembo told The Bond Buyer in a September 2016 interview after speaking to the Municipal Analysts Group of New York at the Yale Club.
“Then after that, you need to lay out a plan to either stop a behavior that’s causing uncertainty or do the things necessary to satisfy the obligations of the state in a way that fulfills our obligations but also gives some comfort to those who are deeply concerned with what we’re doing.”
Lembo, a Guilford Democrat, was the first openly gay candidate elected statewide in Connecticut.
“Over 10 years ago, voters took a chance on a gay, vegetarian nerd that had never run for office in his life. I’ve worked every day since to represent this office with honesty, integrity, and a focus on the common good,” he said Friday. “Unfortunately, my health simply won’t allow me to continue to serve.”
Lembo earned respect from top Republicans as well.
“Kevin Lembo’s our most honest comptroller in a long time and even he says our budget may not be in balance,” then-Sen. Scott Frantz said in 2016. Frantz, a Greenwich Republican, co-chaired the legislature’s finance, revenue and bonding committee at the time.
In his most recent monthly financial and economic update on Wednesday, Lembo projected a general fund surplus of $894.7 million for fiscal 2022 due largely to federal rescue aid and the continued recovery from the pandemic.