February 7, 2020

Rep. Kennedy, Orange State Lawmakers Begin 2020 Session

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State Lawmakers Begin 2020 Session

HARTFORD – The General Assembly gaveled in for the 2020 Legislative Session on Wednesday. The current legislative session is a “short session”, which will run until midnight on Wednesday, May 6th.

“The first day of every legislative session marks the beginning of another chance to do right by the state of Connecticut,” said Rep. Klarides. “I see plenty of opportunities to advance causes to make our state more affordable, transparent, and open. We should be able to find bipartisan solutions to many of the issues impacting our state and I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle work with Republicans to move our state in a better direction.”

“This legislative session we will be debating Governor Ned Lamont’s priorities to start tolling trucks and to legalize marijuana and sports betting,” said Rep. Ferraro. “We should be focused on creating a more open and transparent state government that listens and works for the people. I encourage residents to contact us this legislative session or to contact the Governor’s Office directly to let him know how you feel about his priorities. It is important that the public reaches out to their lawmakers to let them know what they think and to share their ideas about how we can improve our state.

“I had high hopes Governor Lamont would look to promote low tax, pro-growth policies for Connecticut families and businesses instead his proposals looks like many of the same bad economic policies that have hurt working families in this state,” said Rep. Kennedy. “Connecticut residents don’t want any form of tolls. People are taxed too much and we need to work to lower their tax burden and make Connecticut affordable for all the state’s citizens.”

Governor Ned Lamont delivered his state of the state address to the joint session of the House and Senate. Governor Lamont’s main focus this legislative session is passing truck-only tolls.

Additional priorities for the governor include studying a way to legalize marijuana and implementing a Clean Slate Program to expunge Class C&D misdemeanors after 7 years. The governor’s $22.3 billion one year budget plan increases spending 0.6% on top of the 3.4% increase built into the adopted budget.

For more information or to read the Governor’s full budget proposal visit
https://portal.ct.gov/OPM/Bud-Budgets/Bud-Budgets/FY-2021-Budget-Adjustments.

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