New London — Every fifth desk in Hartford is already empty, Gov. Ned Lamont joked with The Day's Editorial Board on Tuesday.

"Some guy at (the Office of Policy and Management) said, 'Cut another 3 percent, cut another 3 percent,' and they did it through attrition and it was a thoughtless process. I'm not doing that," said Lamont, responding to questions on the size of state government a week after he released his two-year $43 billion budget.

More than once during a wide-ranging interview, Lamont, a former telecommunications businessman, distanced himself from the Malloy administration and called for new ways to trim government while leaving the door open for innovative ideas. Lamont cast himself as a deal-maker seeking transformative change and compromises on tolling, casino expansion, sports betting and New London's role in a burgeoning offshore wind industry.

Lamont said that after four years, he hoped to say he gave "the citizens of Connecticut a vision for what their transportation system is going to look like, and that things are going to get better. This is a place where you want to start a business or grow your business. When it comes to government, it didn't happen overnight but you saw in place a way we radically reframed how we deliver our services at a lot less cost, with a different set of people and probably fewer people."

State government could see between 10,000 and 15,000 retirements over the next several years, which Lamont described as "a threat and an opportunity."

He noted his administration has slashed some positions already to centralize functions that don't require "independent fiefdoms at every commission." Lamont said the move shows his team is taking the size of government seriously, but he argued the "big savings is how we move to an online, digital government."

While the state cannot digitize some services, such as the Department of Children and Families' efforts to help children who otherwise don't have parents, Lamont said Connecticut residents won't "recognize what government looks like in 10 years. Everything will be smaller, more electronic and on your screen."

"Some states are ahead of us there. The country of Estonia, they're all online. Louisiana — they do their DMV online. Louisiana? Come on. We can't compete?" Lamont said. "This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff, and that's where the real savings are."

The governor noted that he picked Josh Geballe, who spent more than a decade with IBM, to lead the Department of Administrative Services, "usually more of a political appointment."

"He's bringing in new commissioners who've spent time leaning up services; in his case, it's in the digital world," Lamont said. "So I think I've got the team in place to do it. I just have to convince people who say, 'You're not cutting enough,' that now we've got the building blocks to make substantive change."

'Slightly different tone'

Lamont said his spending plan was an effort to "strike a balance" with a "slightly different tone than what was done in the past. It's my first draft, my best effort. I think it's real, I don't think it's based on gimmicks. I think it's fair — we can debate about that."

After the rollout of his proposal, "everybody went right to their foxholes," Lamont said, noting progressives called for higher taxes on the wealthiest residents and others pushed him to "hammer the spending harder."

While offering wiggle room for ideas on revenues and cuts, Lamont said he wouldn't budge on higher income taxes on the state's wealthiest residents. He argued he wants the state's richest taxpayers to stay — and invest — in Connecticut to "help us grow."

"I'm not interested in raising the income tax," he said. "We've done it five times in the recent past. There's a law of diminishing returns. I've got other ways that wealthier communities are going to contribute more."

Lamont noted the budget calls for delays of corporate tax breaks and a plan to re-amortize the $2 billion teacher pension obligation bond, so annual state contributions don't "go through the roof." It also calls for greater contributions from towns and cities for teacher pensions, as well, particularly from wealthier communities.

He also made the case for expanding the sales tax base, noting sales tax only applies "to the slowest moving part of the economy, the Sears Roebuck economy, the lawnmowers that are sold over the counters. It doesn't apply to lawnmowing services, the fastest-growing pieces of our economy, the services and digital economies."

Lamont acknowledged that taxing "lawnmower services, yoga, and barber shops" was a bureaucratic process and "it's a lot easier to ratchet up the sales tax a bit. The door is open. I think my way is more in keeping with the 21st century economy. Am I willing to compromise on that? Yeah. I've got to get a budget done."

Asked about his push for regionalization of school services, Lamont noted he's not looking to penalize school districts and "not asking any town to give up school districts. I respect their feisty independence."

But he said he would use his bonding authority to incentivize shared services. He said he's more likely to authorize state bonding for two towns with relatively small schools looking to combine a school and share a superintendent, versus towns looking to construct their own facilities without sharing services.

Asked if he encourages small districts to regionalize and potentially streamline back-office positions, Lamont said he couldn't "figure out why I have to encourage them to do that."

"You would think they'd look at the numbers and say, 'I've got a superintendent for 1,000 students, the superintendent could also do 10,000 students' and maybe they can share some things," he said. "I'd be a hero of a first selectman because I reduced taxes by one mil, but that doesn't seem to be happening."

b.kail@theday.com