The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
One state bill signed into law, 615 to go
Hundreds of bills are in danger with May 8 deadline
HARTFORD — Legislative committees have approved about 615 policy bills this session, but with just over three weeks until the General Assembly’s midnight May 8 deadline, the prospects are dimming for hundreds of them. Only one, on home energy assistance, has been ratified in both the House and Senate and been signed into law by the governor.
Leaders of the Democraticdominated House and Senate are now prioritizing what will reach floor debates and votes during the end game of this short, 13-week session, which by law focuses on adjustments to the second year of the $51-billion budget passed in 2023.
But after hundreds of hours of public testimony and dozen of meetings among the 26 joint House and Senate committees, a wide variety of bills with financial consequences remain active, and committee chairs will be lobbying their Democratic majority leaders for introducing further protections for visiting nurses; navigating the security concerns of artificial intelligence; improving nursing homes; and revising state law on the nascent retail cannabis landscape.
The closer the legislature gets to its witching hour on that second midweek in May, the morepowerful the Republican minorities of 54-97 in the House and 1224 in the Senate will grow. Republican lawmakers can stretch out debates for hours, or allow legislation to be voted on with little discussion, depending on their stake in a bill.
The panel that passed the most pieces of legislation this year was the Judiciary Committee, with 66 bills ranging from the decriminalization of small amounts of hallucinogenic mushrooms, to a prohibition on the use of AI to create and transmit intimate images, to a law that would allow towns and cities to destroy all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes seized during street takeovers. The Government Administration & Elections Committee passed 65 bills, while the Labor & Public Employees Committee approved 40 bills, as did Public Health and the Planning & Development committees. The budget-writing Appropriations Committee did not vote on budget revisions to take effect with the new fiscal year on July 1, waiting instead for negotiations with the governor’s office.
Third-term state Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, co-chairwoman of the Labor Committee said her committee is trying to
build on expanding worker benefits that in recent years have resulted in an escalating minimum wage and paid family and medical leave. A bill on paid sick leave for 1.6 million workers in smaller companies is still a major goal for this year.
“The work that we do really directly impacts literally tens of thousands of families in many instances. So I know we have an ambitious list of bills this year but I do feel optimistic that we can pass many of them,” she said. “I feel a number of them are critical to pass this year.”
A meltdown between the leaders of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee resulted in no bills emerging from that panel, although there were 40 under consideration at its deadline last month. Democratic leaders promised to resurrect some pieces into other bills.
Hundreds of bills pass in average years
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said that it’s likely that some pieces of legislation will be married with others to expedite their passage. “The process involves recognizing that in many cases, we’re going to have more content that gets voted on than bills,” Looney said on Wednesday, noting that three or four bills could be collapsed into one and duplicate bills would be reduced.
“Obviously, there are some concepts that will not go forward and people will be told that this is the even year, short session, keep this in mind for next year when we come back for the long session. But there will be a lot of things that will move because it will have combined content.”
Last year, in the longer budget-setting session, 234 bills became law. The year before, in a short session, 168 bills were signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont. The odd-numbered years have the General Assembly meet from early January until early June, while the short, budget adjustment session in the odd-numbered years go from early February until early May.
“The number-one priority is the fact that we should be adjusting the budget,” said Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, stressing the need to stay within the so-called fiscal guardrails approved by lawmakers in 2017 and reaffirmed in February 2023 that limits bonded debt, caps state spending and requires revenue savings. He was critical of the Senate and House co-chairs of the Insurance Committee, because one of the bills that died, a Republican priority, was aimed at helping small business with health care costs for their employees. Others he would be content to see expire.
“There are a number of bills that are not positives for the business environment,” Harding said on Thursday.
Looney said the budget negotiations with Lamont’s office will become more focused as tax deadlines arrive in the middle and end of the month to give the state a better idea of revenue flow.
“There’s always a crunch in the even year, and this year it’s even more acute,” he said, adding that Lamont’s office still had not given lawmakers a solid total on the amount of unspent federal pandemic relief available.
Lamont meanwhile told reporters on Wednesday there is about $200 million in available American Rescue Plan Act funds. Still, much of it is committed or allocated, yet not spent and could be reprioritized.
Below are some of the hundreds of bills awaiting action.
Tipped minimum wage
Among Democrats’ top labor-related initiatives this year is a bill that would bring Connecticut in line with seven other states that eliminated the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. While Connecticut’s minimum wage is currently set at $15.69 an hour — adjusted annually for inflation — there is an exception allowing waiters, bartenders and other service workers to make as little as $6.38 an hour from their employer, as long as tips bring their pay above the minimum wage level. Lawmakers have advanced legislation that would phase those workers into the standard minimum wage no later than 2027. The bill is strongly opposed by the restaurant industry, which argues that businesses will be forced to increase prices to pay the higher wage. Supporters argue it will ensure waiters don’t get stiffed when tips are lower than normal, and that businesses can simply charge service fees in lieu of tips.
Shore Line East
After experiencing service cuts related to the end of federal pandemic aid last year, most of Connecticut’s commuter rail lines are due to full service under proposed budget adjustments. The exception is the Shore Line East service running from New Haven and New London. A group of shoreline lawmakers led by state Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, co-chairwoman of the Transportation Committee, are pushing for full restoration of service along the line, which they argue has only suffered a decline in ridership due to the lack of state support.
Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this month when the Appropriations Committee declined to put forward any changes to the current two-year budget, leaving cuts to Shore Line East in place, for now. Cohen said this week she continues to engage with legislative leaders and Lamont on ways to find money for more trains.
One option would involve having State Treasurer Erick Russell using surpluses within the special transportation fund to pay off long-term debt, saving the state about $33 million in interest payments that can be used to fund other services, including Shore Line East. Cohen acknowledged that there’s a lot of people fighting for those dollars, but believes it should be used to enhance public transportation.
Drunken driving
Connecticut lawmakers have long sought strategies to combat the state’s stubbornly-persistent problem with intoxicated drivers. This year the Transportation Committee passed two separate, rival bills: The first would lower the state’s legal intoxication limit from 0.08 percent blood-alcohol concentration to 0.05 percent; the second would create a separate offense of driving while impaired for anyone caught with a BAC between 0.05 and 0.08, with penalties limited to a fine, 45-day license suspension and mandatory classes.
Both Republicans and some Democrats, including members of the influential Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, have raised concerns about ensnaring more drivers by lowering BAC limits. It’s likely that one or both bills will be referred to the Judiciary Committee, where they might expire, before taken up on the floor of the Senate. Judiciary co-chairman, state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, said he’s yet to fully look at either proposal, but noted a similar measure to lower the BAC limit to 0.05 percent last year failed to gain committee support.
Climate change
Earlier this year, it appeared as if Lamont and lawmakers were headed for a showdown over a controversial proposal to phase-out the sales of new, gas-powered cars by the year 2035.
Bipartisan opposition to that plan forced Lamont and his Democratic allies to shift course with a series of more moderate, incentive-laden policies to lower emissions. Democrats’ signature climate measure this year is a bill that would declare a statewide climate crisis for the purpose of attracting federal funds while setting new targets for reducting greenhouse gas emissions and a package of studies, reports and financial incentives to help municipalities and businesses reach those targets. The effort has support of environmental groups, though many advocates continue to grumble over the collapse of more aggressive legislation.
“If this plan has any flaws, it’s all carrot and no stick,” said state Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, one of the bill’s sponsors. Republicans remain opposed to the bill, which they say will nonetheless place additional costs on consumers.