From the gas tax to ‘hero’ pay
Here’s what to know about Monday’s special legislative session in CT
A special one-day, lameduck session of the Connecticut General Assembly on Monday is expected to extend the gas-tax holiday through December and free bus rides until the end of March, while providing more winter-heating relief for lower-income families, and so-called hero pay for essential workers during the pandemic.
It was also give the state House and Senate one more chance to bid adieu to retiring lawmakers and those who failed to win reelection this month.
Majority Democrats are planning a single piece of legislation with multiple parts, including the use of
federal funds to supplement the state’s low-income heating relief called LIHEAP and Operation Fuel utility and energy-relief programs. Republicans who are 23-13 and 97-54 minorities in the Senate and House respectively, are critical of the format of the legislation and believe that the state’s projected multibillion-dollar surplus should be invested more in taxpayer relief.
The legislation, with an eye to the state’s transportation fund for road and highway improvements, would restore five cents per month to the gasoline tax for five months, restoring it by May 1 to its regular 25 cents per-gallon rate that was suspended during the spring session of the legislature.
“The gas-tax holiday has helped a lot of people over the last few months,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. “We also look to help people who are having a hard time playing their heating bills.”
“I expect bipartisan support,” said Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, who expects the final legislation to be drafted as a single bill. He and Duff agreed that having a single bill will make the day’s work more-efficient for lawmakers for the singleday special session. The next General Assembly regular budget-setting session starts on January 4, when Gov. Ned Lamont starts his second four-year term.
But House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford and Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, said that with the state’s advantageous financial position, utility relief and payments to essential workers can and should be enhanced. The way the regulation was recently rewritten, a $3,000-to-$4,000 benefit may only be $600to-$700 per family: barely enough for half a tank of heating fuel oil.
“My concern is whether we are amending LIHEAP so it can accomplish what we all want it to do,” Candelora said in a phone interview. “I am hoping to see that we return the funding levels not just in the aggregate, but in the total benefits people receive.” Changes to the program were approved in August, changing the state Department of Social Services benefit schedule that took effect on November 1. “I have a lot of questions.”
“The Democrats and the governor propose flat funding, however in talking with the area action agencies, we know that applications are up as much as 18 percent,” Kelly said. “Flat funding actually falls behind the cost of electricity and home heating oil. In order to actually tread water we need to be about 130-percnt of budget. Washington first came to the party with a 40 percent cut, then come back with a 32 percent cut. We’re sitting on the finances we’re sitting on, we’ll do something. I continue to voice this concern.”
“I think the issue on the special session is that the average Connecticut family needs to keep an eye on this majority,” Kelly said. “Here we are three weeks off an election where they all claimed to be the big taxes cutters and protectors of the middle class. They can now put their money where their mouth is. They talked to talk. Let’s see if they walk the walk. While extending the gas tax, so the state doesn’t have a cliff on Dec. 1, the month-long extension and then nickela-month walk down is something, but it’s not what Connecticut needs. We need the gas tax to be suspended through June 30.”
Kelly noted that on January 1, the highway-use tax for heavy trucks that was approved in 2020, eventually generating $90 million in revenue that will likely be passed on to consumers, Kelly said. “We’re sitting on historic levels of extra money that has been collected by Connecticut taxpayers,” Kelley said, who called it ill-advised to put all the various issues into one omnibus law.
“There’s no reason not to have five separate bills,” Kelly said in a phone interview. The legislation currently drafted includes an allowance for beverage sellers with inventory onhand January 1, to continue the nickel can-and-bottle deposit on items and not have to relabel them for the new 10-cent deposit program, which takes effect with the new year.
Buses and essential workers
According to a draft of the legislation, federal regulations allow for up to a 12 month fare-free period for buses. Connecticut halted fares in April,, so to conform to federal rules, the fares have to return on April 1, 2023. It costs the state about $2.7 million per month. Extending the program will result in a loss of $10.8 million from December 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023.
Under the premium pay for essential workers, 134,000 people, including health care workers and supermarket employees who kept medical services and in-person grocery shopping open at the height of the COVID pandemic, would be eligible for nearly $90 million. Under the draft legislation, 53,618 workers making less than $50,000 a year would receive $1,000; 16,211 making less than $60,000 a year would get $800 payments; 13,148 workers making less than $70,000 a yar would collect $750 each; and 11,827 parttimer would get $200.
After a deluge of applications, projected benefits had been drastically reduced to fit into a $30 million budget, which would have limited top payments to between about $230 and $47.