Southington’s Capitol Rep: An Interview With Christopher Poulos

CHRISTOPHER POULOS PHOTO

Chris Poulos first made headlines in 2007 when he was named Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year. While he continues to teach Spanish at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, CT, Poulos has also pursued a career in local politics. Last fall the Democrat was elected to a second term as Representative for Connecticut’s 81^st district, which spans the southern two-thirds of the town of Southington. The Outsider sat down with Representative Poulos for an interview on September 3^rd. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

After full two years in the State legislature what, in your eyes, is your most notable achievement?

It’s the relationships I’ve formed as a state rep in the past two years that have enabled me to deliver for the town. In Hartford I take care to have a good relationship with the speaker of the House. The governor knows me by name. I can call him. I frequently call his chief of staff. Having those relationships means when there’s an issue that’s important to me – whether funding for the library, Camp Sloper, the Calendar House, or money to refurbish Pulaski Terrace – they listen. I don’t have to fall in line [on votes] because they respect how I think. Those relationships have been critical.

At the same time there are my relationships in the district with community organizations, businesses, and above all the residents I represent. I’ve taken the time to meet people where they are at their houses and listen. People appreciate that. It allows me to know what the needs of our community are and how I should vote and advocate for them. I take that to Hartford, and it’s really beneficial.

I’m proud of the library of course and of all the monetary aspects I’ve been able to deliver – Calendar House, Library, SoCCA, the housing grant. The relationships may be less tangible, but are equally important to doing the job well.

Were the relationships what made the funding possible?

It’s like building a plane and flying it at the same time: if building a plane is building your relationships and flying it is advocating for funding for our town, the two will occur simultaneously. If I did one without the other I would not be as successful.

And is it insurance against occasions when times get tough?

Absolutely. At times I have had to not vote the party line. There’s a conversation with the speaker and the committee chairs. They respect my position and my rationale. That’s evidenced by the fact that when I advocate for something critical to Southington, they support it.

What has been a low moment in the past two years?

The most challenging part of being a legislator, the place where I’m at my lowest, is having to manage the division that we see in society. There’s a lot of rhetoric coming from both extremes, and as a moderate legislator I have to walk a fine line and compensate for both sides. What fuels me is this: ninety percent of the people you talk to when you see them at home or at an event are very tired of the polarization. They say, thank you for doing what you do. Still, there have been times when tough comments have been made on social media. People are passionate, and while I don’t criticize them for that, polarization takes you down a notch. I’m thick-skinned and believe in what I do, and ninety percent of the people I talk to reaffirm the path I’ve taken. But that’s probably the darkest thing about being in politics nowadays.

Where does the polarization come from? What are its roots?

One of the major contributing factors to strong, polarizing opinions is social media. Think about when social media became widespread in the 2010s. Since then, I’ve seen people who will interact with me differently whenever they’re behind the keyboard. I shouldn’t make it about me – they interact with all people differently. The algorithm of social media just feeds these polarized opinions. That is one of the major contributors to this division.

You’re a teacher. Do the kids in your school have to put their cellphones in bags before class? Is there a policy at your school?

It’s funny you should ask that because at my school each teacher used to have their own policy. That was challenging, because if one teacher is open to kids having their phone out all the time in the period before your class, and you need them to focus and put their phone away, it becomes hard to manage. So this year our school came out with a policy. In the [State] House there was a proposal that every district needs to have a cellphone policy, and it didn’t pass out of the Senate, but my superintendent said we’re going to act as if that bill had passed. So they put a new policy in place: zero cellphone during academic times. It’s not in a pouch, but students are not allowed to take it out; if a student goes to the bathroom they’re not allowed to take their phone. So far, two weeks into school, I’ve noticed a difference in terms of distraction during academic times.

What is an issue that has generated the greatest number of contacts to your office?

An issue where I’ve received a lot of input from both sides has been housing. There’s two camps. One says we have to make life affordable for tenants, young people, and seniors. The other camp says we have developers and landlords, and we need to protect their livelihood. The way I see it is we’ve got to find a third way, one that doesn’t penalize developers and landlords and doesn’t hurt tenants and young people and seniors.

I put some thought into a concrete proposal – one that has come up and gone away before, and needs more work – to offer seniors in a certain income bracket that want to stay in their homes but are being priced out by taxes a 100-percent property tax abatement. In exchange for that [abatement], they put a 40-year deed restriction on their property [that reduces the assessed value of the home]. If you’re an elderly person living, say, on Plum Orchard Drive, and you’re facing challenges with the cost of living, this gives you a tool to stay in your home and be with your grandkids in exchange for the restriction. Later, after that person passes away, a young family can go into that house and buy it for a reasonable price. At that point there are, say, 30 years left on the deed restriction. That will help keep young people in our communities because there’s an incentive for them to stay in the house for the 30 years: once the restriction wears off, the assessment [and the sale value] balloons.

If you stay in your house for 30 years, you are probably going to fix up your old house. So it’s going to gentrify our older communities and to improve their overall look and character. It’s a win-win solution, where we create integrated affordability all in one place. We’re helping seniors, we’re helping young people, and we’re maintaining the character of our neighborhoods.

Is this proposal something your fellow lawmakers support?

The concept has been brought forward, but it’s never been able to cross the finish line. This is one of the ideas I will continue to advocate for. In the next session – a short session – individual legislators don’t raise bills; it would have to be raised by the Housing Committee. If we wait for the next long session we have time to plan and coordinate. Many times it’s not a Democrat vs. Republican issue, it’s a suburban-urban-rural issue. We have to get people in those communities to see the value of something that’s going to help the suburbs, and people in the suburbs to see the value of something that’s going to help urban or rural communities.

In Connecticut electricity comes from a mix of sources, about two-thirds natural gas, one third nuclear, and a few percent renewables like solar and wind. Why did that spike in rates occur in 2024? Did it have any connection to the underlying costs of producing and transmitting electricity from these sources?

Before I say anything I want to say that the cost of electricity in Connecticut is too high. As for the ‘public benefit’ – that’s the buzzword – I did a little research. There are 58 public benefits. Yes, we had to keep Millstone open. Yes, there were electrical vehicle chargers in the public benefit. Yes, we didn’t turn power off [for users in financial difficulties] during Covid. So, Eversource had to be paid.

We still need to find more ways to reduce the public benefit. During this last session they looked at the public benefits and removed a few of them. But many [of the rest] were 20-year long power-purchase agreements, including one with the Millstone power plant, and they have to pay those bills. If they don’t pay those bills then there would be litigation against the state of Connecticut.

There has been talk of renewables. I’m not opposed to renewables, but we have to have a thoughtful timeline for the transition to renewables that involves innovation and does not involve putting the cost of that transition on the back of ratepayers, especially because we have the third-highest electrical bill in the country.

We have to have a balanced approach, and we have to continue to use natural gas and nuclear as we transition to renewables. I know Governor Lamont has looked into bringing more natural gas in. As for the possibility of the expansion of nuclear, time will tell. In the last session, Senate Bill 4 was the big energy bill. I was most proud of the way that was bipartisan; Democrats and Republicans supported a bill together. I don’t think it brought the public benefit down as much as people wanted; more work needs to be done. But we’ve been deregulated for 27 years and it was a very small step in the right direction. The hard work that lies in front of us will be to use that as a starting point and see how we can reduce bills. That is one of the main things constituents have asked me for. For that reason I have not supported any legislation that would raise bills or reduce the reliability of our grid.

What’s something that we’re not talking about enough?

We’re talking about it a little, but Artificial Intelligence is an area we need to give our attention to. I’m looking at it through the eyes of an educator. There’s no way you can dismiss A.I. It’s here. We need to learn how to live with it. I’m not sure if there is a way to legislate it, but we do need to have a conversation about Artificial Intelligence and how to make sure it exists without causing problems in our communities and society in general. A lot of that involves education and awareness. I worry about A.I. with elderly people and the threat of scammers, I worry about A.I. with our younger generation who depend on it. We do need to put our heads together and try to figure out a way to live with it. It’s a public health issue; it’s an education issue.

Is it also an energy issue, because of its energy demands?

Someone just told me that a certain amount of [additional] A.I. increases the heat generated by data centers a certain amount. So it is an energy and an environmental issue. But we’re all still learning and that’s something where, whenever I have the chance to learn, I do. There were AI proposals [in the legislature] but they didn’t make it across the finish line; I’m sure they’ll come back.

Was there a book you read recently that you would recommend?

I was just in Florence for a family vacation and I was reading Brunelleschi’s Dome [by Ross King]. I started reading it because I was going to the Duomo and it was about this giant dome they were going to build on a basilica. No one thought it could be done; building it was impossible, from a physics standpoint. A guy came in with a bold proposal and he was able to build the dome that still stands there today because he didn’t use conventional thinking or follow the way things had always been done. That kind of book inspires me because we get trapped into thinking conventionally and at times we have to think outside the box if we want to make a transformational change.

That trip sounds like a summertime highlight.

Well, it was good to take a family trip – my wife and I turned 50 this year, and my daughter graduated from high school. We’re in many different places all the time, so to be together as a family on a trip in a celebratory way was great. But I would be a liar if I didn’t say one of my summer highlights was knocking on over 1,000 doors and sitting at people’s kitchen tables and having nice conversations with them. Being out there when you’re not on campaign, when you’re just visiting and having a conversation, when there’s no ask for a vote – the conversations are more authentic. That was a highlight as well.

Have you made a decision on whether you will run for election to represent the 81^st District next year?

My focus now is on doing my job well and the time will come for that decision. I typically say, if I feel like I’m adding value, if my family supports me, and if I like the job, we’ll keep moving forward. When the time for that decision comes, that’s the rubric I will use.