CT Republican budget cutter says childhood shaped her politics: ‘I know what it’s like to be poor’

Hartford Courant – Sunday, May 11, 2025
By Christopher Keating

State legislator Tammy Nuccio cannot be easily categorized.

Even though her daughter and future son-in-law are both troopers, Nuccio recently voted against pay raises for the state police.

Although she grew up as the daughter of a mother on welfare, Nuccio has become a conservative budget-cutter who watches spending closely.

Nuccio, 53, has emerged as an influential player at the state Capitol on multiple issues as the chief architect of the House Republican budget that would cut spending and balance the budget. Democrats have sharply criticized the proposal that calls for a two-year wage freeze on state employees — a key constituency of Democrats who control both chambers of the legislature.
In the vote on the state police contract, Nuccio said she was looking out for the interests of the entire state as a Republican lawmaker who closely watches spending in the $26 billion annual state budget. She admits it was not easy.

“Who would want to vote against their kid on something?” Nuccio asked The Courant. “But it’s weighing my kid against 3.6 million Connecticut residents. Where do you think my alliance should be on that? My daughter understands, as do many other people that I’ve talked to. I’ve had other residents in my town who say, ‘I’m a state employee. We could definitely go a year without a raise. Two might be pushing it.’ This is literally a dinner conversation in my life — my daughter, her fiancee, and their friends that I see regularly.”
In the House Republican budget plan that she wrote, Nuccio proposed a pay freeze for herself and all legislators, as well as for the governor and all constitutional officers like the attorney general and state treasurer.

“If I’m going to put myself and my family before 3.6 million people, what kind of elected official am I?” Nuccio asked.
First elected in 2020 in a district that includes her hometown of Tolland, Nuccio moved up quickly and soon received major responsibilities as the ranking House Republican on the budget committee, which oversees the massive budget that pays for everything from dental care for prison inmates to the salaries of more than 50,000 state employees. The committee work is among the most time-consuming of the 28 legislative committees that cover every aspect of state government.

While Republicans view Nuccio as a policy wonk with deep knowledge on many issues, some Democrats and advocates view her as a budget-cutter who wants to trim money from state employees and craft a smaller government under what Republicans call their “reality check budget.” The Republican plan would spend an estimated $1.3 billion less than Democrats over the two-year span that starts July 1.

Sen. Cathy Osten of Sprague works closely with Nuccio, often sitting next to her at the appropriations committee’s meetings, but views policies quite differently from the Democratic side of the aisle.

“She does her job,” Osten said of Nuccio. “I just disagree with some of her policies. That’s where I am with it. She’s a very nice person. I think some of her policies are not helping out those people that are working poor or working men and women who need help. So we fundamentally disagree with that, but I think she’s a fine person.”

Childhood poverty

Nuccio grew up poor, which has shaped her life and her outlook.

Her mother was from a family of 10 children in the northern Connecticut town of Ellington, and only one of those 10 graduated from high school, she said. By age 24, Nuccio’s mother was divorced and had four children.

“We were free-lunch kids,” Nuccio recalled in an interview. “We were shopping at Salvation Army. We were welfare cheese. You name it. … I lived it. The way that I grew up informs it. I know what it is like to be poor. I understand what it’s like to have free lunch and not have the clothes.”

Nuccio said her mother became dependent on welfare and found it difficult to break out of the cycle of poverty.

“It’s keeping you where you are,” Nuccio said. “That is why I became a Republican. I wanted a hand out. I did not want the hand on my head, which is what I grew up seeing with my mom. Hand on her head. Stay where you are. … That is the system that we have.”

As the first person in her family to go to college, Nuccio worked hard to establish herself and only became involved in politics after she and her husband, Mark, raised three daughters.

When she arrived at the state Capitol, Nuccio said she had a conversation with a fellow legislator, whom she did not name, about welfare benefits, and “the assumption was I was a rich, white woman from Tolland.”

While Tolland has some large, expensive homes, Nuccio noted that she is solidly middle-class as her husband is certified in the heating and air conditioning industry. For the past 28 years, Nuccio has worked in the insurance industry as an accountant with a master’s degree in business administration who started her career at Hartford-based Aetna. She is now a senior financial analyst at Bloomfield-based Cigna, where she has worked for the past 24 years.

Nuccio publicly mentioned her upbringing recently when the appropriations committee was voting on the two-year budget. Osten, the committee’s co-chairwoman, delivered passionate comments about helping relatives in her own family who did not have enough money for food.

Nuccio responded as soon as Osten finished her remarks.

“I was just as poor,” Nuccio said to Osten. “Welfare mom, four kids. The whole deal. I was the kid getting free lunch. My mother was single with four kids. I understand the social net. … There is a lot in this budget that is not just to help a needy person. … There is no way that I can support something that is so far over the spending cap. … We don’t have the revenue in the governor’s package to pay for this level of spending. It’s not there. … It’s discouraging that this is where we are at. … We are in this budget blowing through the constitutional amendment that says we have to stay within that limit.”

Medical payments

Nuccio is also involved in a controversial bill that is sponsored by Lamont and is strongly opposed by a coalition of doctors and hospitals. The bill would cap payments for out-of-network health care providers, prompting opponents to say that the money would go to the insurance companies.

With her insurance background, Nuccio has a deep reservoir of knowledge on the bill. But some of her closest colleagues, including House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford and Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, the ranking Republican on the public health committee, appeared last week at a news conference with doctors and hospital employees who are against the measure.

Sen. M. Saud Anwar, a South Windsor medical doctor who also serves as a legislator, said the bill will “severely damage” health care in the state at a time when three community hospitals have declared bankruptcy and others are operating on tight margins. The bill, opponents said, could force hospitals and various medical practices to close.

The measure would cap the out-of-network medical payments at 240% of the Medicare rate for inpatient and outpatient services at hospitals. As a result, the Connecticut Hospital Association, which is among the most influential lobbying groups at the Capitol, is strongly opposed to the measure. Collectively, hospitals could lose more than $700 million in revenue each year if the bill passes, the hospitals said.

Earlier in the session, the bill narrowly passed the legislature’s insurance committee by 7-6 and still requires approval by the state House of Representatives and Senate before the regular legislative session adjourns on June 4.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been arguing that in order to reduce the cost of insurance, you have to reduce the cost of health care,” Nuccio said. “The hospitals are all supposed to be pretty much not-for-profit, but yet you’ve got CEOs making millions of dollars. You’ve got admin. You’ve got the nurses, who don’t make as much money, and the doctors, who make a ton of money. It’s trying to find that balance of accountability. … I look at claims all the time for my company. If you want to reduce the size of the profits that insurance companies are making, you’ve got to reduce the size of the claims.”

She added, “If you want insurance companies to make less money, then lower the cost of health care.”

As a relative newcomer to the legislature, Nuccio was chosen for the appropriations committee because of her deep background in accounting, Candelora said.

“Her ability to look at a budget and pick it apart and understand numbers is a true asset,” Candelora said in an interview. “What I would say about Tammy and so many other Republicans is you can’t stereotype them. So you can’t assume that Republicans fit a certain prototype. Certainly, her upbringing and her experiences have just helped her become a good legislator. … She’s exceeded everyone’s expectation in that she’s one of the few people in the building that could actually look at these numbers and put forth a constitutionally balanced budget.”

He added, “That police contract is a difficult one politically to vote against. But a statement needs to be made about sustainability for Connecticut’s fiscal future, and I think that was where Tammy was in that vote. If you think about it, we only have 900 state troopers out of 3.5 million. Statistically, it is rare that you will have a state legislator who has a child who is a state trooper. I give Tammy a lot of credit for taking a strong political position that is personally very difficult for her.”

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