State bills, some affecting elders, newborns and vets, doomed by costs

— With just three weeks left in the legislative session and more than 600 bills remaining in the General Assembly’s pipeline, the culling process has begun in earnest.

The budget-writing Appropriations Committee on Monday killed seven bills without even mentioning them during a brief meeting in which six pieces of legislation survived and the rest died of inaction, if not actual neglect, because they would have cost more money in the two-year, $51-billion budget, adopted in last year’s session.

So, a bill that would have created a separate elder justice unit in the Department of Criminal Justice at a cost of about $800,000 expired in the committee without a vote.

Another casualty: a bill to require newborn screening for Duchenne muscular dystrophy at a cost of $376,000, starting in 2027.

A bill that would require the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to perform pollen counts in accordance with federal standards at a first-year cost of as much as $1.3 million, suffered a similar fate.

And a half-million-dollar program to create an advanced life support unit on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, also died without a mention in the committee.

The seven dead bills, including the proposed expansion of home care for the elderly; hazard pensions for certain judicial employees; and the expansion of some veterans benefits, will likely return next year during the longer, budget-creating session of the General Assembly, which runs from early January into early June.

The presence of added costs — reflected in “fiscal notes” prepared by the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis — doomed the seven for this legislative session, which ends at midnight on May 8, however.

But this year’s 13-week budget adjustment session, in which the Appropriations Committee has already agreed to keep in place the $26-billion state budget that starts July 1, is holding the line on new spending, even as tax receipts pour into the state Department of Revenue Services, which will soon give Democratic majority leaders a better picture of Connecticut’s fiscal health.