New Connecticut state laws take effect
Legislation includes tax on heavy trucks, pay raises for state lawmakers
When the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1, ringing in the start of the new year, more than a dozen new laws will take effect in Connecticut from the erasure of thousands of cannabis convictions to a new highway use tax on heavy trucks and pay raises for state lawmakers.
Here’s a roundup of the new Connecticut laws taking effect Jan. 1, 2023:
Cannabis
Thousands of Connecticut residents convicted of cannabis possession will have their records cleared as part of the state’s 2021 law legalizing adult-use cannabis.
Other provisions of the law that kick in on Jan. 1 include a requirement that the Department of Consumer Protection make recommendations about whether to establish a cannabis on-site consumption or event license.
The Alcohol and Drug Policy Council, jointly with the departments of Public Health, Mental Health and Addiction Services, and Children and Families, must also submit recommendations by the start of the year on how to prevent cannabis use by people under the age of 21 and the impacts of cannabis legalization on youth, among other public health considerations.
Criminal justice
Nearly 280,000 more people are eligible to have their criminal records erased under Connecticut’s clean slate law starting Jan. 1 but that process is now delayed until late 2023.
Under the law, people convicted of certain crimes, who have not had any other criminal convictions for seven or ten years, depending on the conviction to be erased, will have their records cleared. They must have completed their sentences and meet other eligibility criteria.
The delay in implementing the law is partly due to legal and
policy questions from the state’s Judicial Branch about how the expungement process will be executed.
Starting Jan. 1, the Board of Pardons and Paroles cannot deny an application without providing written documentation of what factors it considered in determining the person’s qualification for a pardon under another criminal justice-related law approved by lawmakers last year.
Environment
Changes to Connecticut’s decades-old “Bottle Bill” law, which allows for the returns of certain kinds of used bottles and cans in exchange for a 5-cent redemption, will begin next year.
The program, which is part of the state’s litter-reduction efforts, will expand to allow redemptions for several new products approved by lawmakers last year, including teas, hard seltzers and ciders, energy drinks and coffee. Due to lingering supply issues, lawmakers recently voted to give a one-time exemption to retailers to continue to sell older stocks of bottles and cans they have on hand.
Connecticut golf courses will be prohibited from using the pesticide Chlorpyrifos to control foliage and soil-borne insect pests under another new law taking effect in January. Those who violate the ban could face a civil penalty of up to $2,500.
Health
Connecticut is expected to increase testing for lead poisoning and step up intervention efforts as part of a new law that aligns the state’s childhood lead poisoning standards with federal standards. The law also lowers the threshold for blood lead levels that trigger a parental notification or home inspection.
According to the governor’s office, 1,024 Connecticut children in 2020 had a significant enough concentration of lead in their blood that the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy would have recommended a home inspection. But Connecticut law required only 178 investigations.
Under a separate law effective Jan. 1, certain commercial health insurance policies will be required to cover diagnostic mammograms, ultrasounds, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) for breast screenings, as well as routine ovarian cancer screenings.
Transportation
Large commercial trucks will have to pay a new highway usage tax starting Jan. 1. The fees, which range from 2.5 cents per mile for vehicles weighing 26,000 to 28,000 pounds to 17.5 cents per mile for trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds, are expected to generate about $90 million per year for transportation improvements in Connecticut.
Salary increases
Beginning Jan. 4, the start of the next legislative session, the annual base salary for members of the General Assembly will increase from $28,000 to $40,000. Salaries for leadership positions such as House Speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore will also increase.
The law authorizing the increase also aligns the governor’s salary with the pay for the chief justice of state Supreme Court and the salaries for lieutenant governor and other constitutional offices will be the same as state Superior Court judges.
The governor’s salary will increase from $150,000 to $226,711. For the other constitutional offices, their annual pay will jump from $110,000 to 189,483.
The pay bump won’t impact Gov. Ned Lamont, who is independently wealthy and does not take a salary.