Ceci Maher (D)

CT Senate, District 26

Democrat
Licensed social worker, former fashion marketing executive, former non-profit CEO, current volunteer. Grew up in Stamford, lives in Wilton.
203-858-6561

My diverse experience makes me an effective Senator with a deep understanding of the needs of the 26th District.

I spent my early career in retail, running a multi-million dollar department at Lord & Taylor.  While I raised my three children, I volunteered in my community, which led me to earn a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University.

As a clinical social worker, I was trained to listen and help clients identify and overcome challenges. As a non-profit executive, I looked at challenges from a broader perspective and then harnessed resources and improved systems to address challenges faced by entire communities.

During my fourteen years at Person-to-Person, we grew from serving 15,000 people to 25,000 people per year– ultimately providing food for more than 1 million meals annually to people in need. I am proud to have led Sandy Hook Promise as interim executive director, supporting gun violence prevention programs.

This work led me to pursue elective office, and it drives the work I do every day for the people of the 26th District.

As a Senator, I have continued to address challenges, by protecting our seniors in elder care, supporting our schools and arts institutions and preserving our environment. I have attracted public funds to clean up and redevelop brown sites, promote sustainability and make vital improvements to our main streets. As Chair of the Senate Children’s Committee, I have delivered free breakfast to our students and expanded youth mental and physical health services.
My top three priorities are: making Connecticut a more affordable place to live; protecting our reproductive rights; and preventing gun violence.

Our fight for affordability began with the historic $600 million in tax cuts for the middle class passed by the Democratic legislature and governor. It continued with the expansion of tax exemptions for our pensions, because our seniors want to remain in their communities. Building on these important steps, we need to continue to diversify our housing options, so that our kids can return home and our seniors can downsize. By increasing housing stock we can also increase businesses and economic vitality for CT and bring down costs.

Protecting reproductive rights means not just making sure abortion is legal, but fighting off any other barrier to abortion that opponents create. This means telling the truth about so-called “crisis pregnancy centers”, and ensuring that providers are protected when they deliver the care their patients need. It also means ensuring that parents are able to start and grow their families through fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization.

I am proud to have just celebrated the one-year anniversary of Connecticut prohibiting the open carry of firearms and restricting the bulk sale of guns. These measures prevent guns from landing in the hands of someone who would use them to do harm. I will continue to support any measure that addresses the trafficking of guns and that removes guns from situations where they could be too easily accessed.
Our state is suffering from a housing shortage that limits economic growth. Connecticut employers are struggling to fill 90,000 jobs, but we do not have housing for the workers who could fill them. We want our children to be able to return home to raise their families and our seniors would like to downsize. We have been able to facilitate the construction of 147,000 units, but we need more. The state can provide further incentives and funding for communities and streamline the process for new housing.
The increase in bills this summer was due to several factors, increases to the “public benefits” part of your bill, as well as the impact of July 2024 as the hottest month recorded in state history, causing us to use more electricity than normal to stay cool. These factors created a perfect storm of spiking costs.

The “public benefits” part of our bill covers a number of different costs, about 77% of the cost increases are related to the state’s agreement to purchase nuclear power from the Millstone power plant in 2017, and 21% of the costs are related to the state’s utility shutoff moratorium during the pandemic. The shutoffs accrued debt from both commercial and residential clients of Eversource.

It’s important to me that we find solutions to these issues.

To start, in August, leaders of the Senate wrote a letter to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) asking them to reopen the decision that raised costs, amortizing debt over 10 months, instead of the recommended 22 months that the Chairman of PURA asked for. I’m hopeful PURA will reconsider these decisions and take action in a way that provides relief to everyone. Governor Lamont has also asked the leaders of the Energy & Technology Committee to work with him to develop solutions that will reduce energy bills, both in the short and long term.

Together we are looking at every possible tool at our disposal to help you and our state.