New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
The bills that passed, failed on last day of legislative session
HARTFORD — On the final day of the 2022 General Assembly session, hundreds of bills were still up for consideration before lawmakers adjourned Wednesday night. Here’s a look at how some of the bills fared:
What passed
Stricter consequences for juvenile car thefts
The state Senate Wednesday evening overwhelmingly approved a juvenile justice package that had previously passed the state House and now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont for approval. The hotly contested bill will require a minor charged with a crime to be arraigned in court within five days of their arrest and will give state Superior Court judges the ability to implement GPS monitoring for certain repeat motor vehicle offenders.
Additionally, police will be allowed to hold suspects for eight hours, instead of six, when they are seeking a detention order from a judge. The bill will also make it easier for law enforcement to access the records on juvenile arrests.
The bill will treat all motor vehicle thefts the same, instead of basing the punishment on the value of car, which is the existing standard. A first car-theft offense will be a misdemeanor and a second offense will be a felony.
The measure’s passage comes after a multi-year political fight over an uptick of car thefts in Connecticut suburbs. Republicans have pushed for a crackdown on juvenile offenders, while some Democrats have argued that such a policy was inconsistent with available data and would disproportionately punish poor children and children of color who could instead benefit from greater services.
No more marijuana gifting
After an 80-minute update on the state’s legal cannabis landscape, the state Senate on Wednesday afternoon approved legislation to end so-called marijuana gifting parties that became public retail marketplaces even as the state’s regulated recreational-use system is being developed for later this year.
“We knew we wanted to close this loophole,” said Sen. James Maroney, DMilford, co-chairman of the legislative General Law Committee.
The bill, which won initial passage last month in the House, was approved 22-13 and next moves to Lamont’s desk for final action.
Organizers of parties where people give items of value in exchange for cannabis-related products, could face $1,000 fines from the state and up to $1,000 from local towns and cities, plus scrutiny from the state Department of Revenue Services for making sales without paying sales taxes.
The bill would also eliminate fees for medical cannabis patients, create a task force to study hemp production; limits outdoor advertising for cannabis products between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. and require them to stay 1,500 feet away from schools, churches and recreation facilities; and require members of the Social Equity Council to attend half of the meetings or give up their seats.
Juneteenth as a state holiday
A bill to make Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery, into a state holiday passed the House on Wednesday by a vote of 148-1 and now heads to Lamont.
“Us being recognized as whole human beings, I hope that is what this holiday will bring,” said Sen. Robyn Porter, a Black Democratic lawmaker from New Haven.
Lamont has said he is open to enshrining Juneteenth as a paid day off for state workers, and a spokesperson said Wednesday the governor’s office will review the bill and its associated costs.
Pesticide banned on golf courses
Starting Jan. 1 next year, Connecticut golf courses will be prohibited from using the pesticide Chlorpyrifos to control foliage and soil-borne insect pests, under legislation that won unanimous, final approval in the House on Wednesday, in an amended bill that now heads to Lamont for final review.
“We are looking to ban a particularly harmful chemical here,” said Rep. Stephen Harding, RBrookfield, a top Republican on the legislative Environment Committee, who along with Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, cochairman of the committee, said was developed with support from state golf course officials.
The final bill deleted a section that would have banned neonicotinoids, a family of chemicals that has been outlawed in the European Union for possibly causing colony collapse in bees, which have been found to be affected by pollen and nectar from plants treated with the chemical. The legislation includes a section to study the effects of neonicotinoids.
‘Collateral consequences’ in licensing
Senate lawmakers approved a licensing reform bill in the waning hours of the legislative session that would grant felons greater leeway in obtaining professional licenses after their release from prison.
The legislation, which attempts to address the “collateral consequences” of criminal convictions, would generally prohibit state licensing panels from taking across-the-board actions against people with felony convictions, and instead would require those boards to review each case individually.
The legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 35-1, and heads to Lamont’s desk.
“This bill removed an automatic ban for having had a criminal record and allows an agency to look at each individual, look at whether the crime was related to the job that the person would be performing and whether or not that would impact the ability of the person to carry out their responsibilities and duties safely and competently,” said state Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, the chair of the Labor Committee.
What failed
Lollipops as the state candy
The fourth-graders at Timothy Dwight School in Fairfield who lobbied for legislation making lollipops Connecticut’s state candy learned a hard lesson about politics, as their bill passed the House but never came up for a vote in the Senate.
“Those kids really are
amazing,” House Speaker Matt Ritter said last week. “We’re all very proud of them.”
Housing affordability
Despite soaring rents across much of the state, it was a quiet session for housing policy, with the major efforts pushed by advocates eventually falling short.
A bill that would have allowed municipal authorities to develop and operate affordable housing in cities and towns outside of their jurisdictions passed out of committee but never came up for a vote in the House or Senate.
Funding the Contract Standards Board
Despite passing unanimously in the Senate, a bill that would have bolstered the Contract Standards Board, which provides
oversight over executive branch contracts, did not come up for a vote in the House.
Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff, said the heads of executive branch agencies raised concerns “based upon what they saw would be constraints, particularly in their emergency contracting standards.”
Ban on flavored vapes
An attempt initially to ban flavored vaping devices and then just to limit them to customers 21 and older never came up for a vote.
Ban on foreign money in state elections
An effort to reduce foreign interference in state elections, among other reforms, was on the House calendar, but did not come up for a vote.
Allowing striking workers to collect unemployment
The House never took up a measure passed by the Senate that would have allowed striking workers to collect unemployment insurance.
Tesla and Rivian selling electric vehicles directly to consumers
Though lawmakers did take action this session to promote the adoption of electric vehicles, they did not pass a bill that would have allowed Tesla and Rivian to sell electric vehicles within Connecticut.
Instead, consumers wishing to buy from those brands will have to do so at third-party franchise dealerships.
Ending annual harvest of horseshoe crabs in Long Island Sound
An attempt to impose a moratorium on the harvesting of horseshoe crabs fell short, amid opposition from commercial fishermen as well as from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which proposed stricter limits instead of an outright ban.