Bills Passed and New Laws Taking Effect on July 1st!
With the legislative session over and the governor signing – and even vetoing – bills almost daily, I wanted to highlight several, and provide a full list of new laws that take effect on July 1st.
You can find a list of all bills that passed the 2025 session by clicking here.
The Cost of Energy
A major piece of legislation we took up concerned the high cost of energy in our state.
Senate Bill 4 is a comprehensive plan that creates savings of more than $100 million in the public benefits, places $100 million of Covid debt on bond, and securitizes storm costs which is projected to save about $90 million off the bill providing an overall decrease of about $300 million from ratepayers’ bills. It also requires the Office of Consumer Council (OCC) to study the public benefits charges.
While not the comprehensive energy policy overhaul I would have liked, I did support the bill and hope to see even more positive changes to help save you even more money in the future.
Housing and HB5002
Following an 11-hour debate and despite strong bipartisan opposition, the House passed an omnibus housing bill that has the potential to undercut local zoning and take away local control in favor of Hartford mandates.
House Bill 5002, priority legislation for the majority party, creates unrealistic fair share housing requirements for each town, requires town zoning to allow for as of right conversion of commercial lots for certain residential development, prohibits towns from including minimum parking requirements on certain housing developments, and allows developers to recover attorneys’ fees from towns in certain circumstances in 8-30g appeals, among other concerning provisions. It also combined various bills and sidestepped normal procedural requirements for consideration of legislation.
I voted against this bill because it’s another massive overreach from Hartford. Zoning requirements should be set locally, and not be forced onto our towns by Hartford mandates.
I’m pleased to note that Governor Lamont vetoed this bill, and I look forward to debating a substantially different proposal during a fall special session!
Several new laws will take effect July 1st that could have an impact on you, your business, or our community. I have highlighted some of them below.
AN ACT CONCERNING THE FALLEN HERO FUND
I supported this bill so that the surviving family of a firefighter killed in the line of duty shall be paid a death benefit from the Fallen Officer Fund. With the eligibility now expanded from only law enforcement members, the fund will be renamed the Fallen Officer and Firefighter Fund. This new law will also provide health insurance coverage to the survivors of a firefighter killed in the line of duty.
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE BIPARTISAN DRUG TASK FORCE
This bill is aimed at reducing drug prices, and includes a feasibility study about importing prescription drugs from Canada. It also states that the insurance commissioner must require health carriers to annually report on pricing offered to, and profit generated between, the carrier and any pharmacy benefits managers (PBM) or mail-order pharmacy doing business in Connecticut.
AN ACT CONCERNING THE ILLEGAL USE OF CERTAIN VEHICLES AND STREET TAKEOVERS
Municipalities with more than 20,000 residents will be empowered to adopt an ordinance allowing for the destruction of vehicles seized during so-called street takeovers (large groups of vehicles blocking roads or intersections) after holding them for 30 days. There are some restrictions, including that a reasonable effort be made to contact the owner. If the owner did not know the vehicle was used for such an event, that person has the right to collect the vehicle within 90 days.
This bill makes technical changes in a statute related to veteran’s affairs, including the appointment of a manager to administer an Office of Advocacy and Assistance. The office shall include 8 to 14 veterans’ service officers, who are veterans!
Other major acts include:
An expanded list of those that will take effect on July 1, along with summaries, can be found here.
Feel free to share this information with anyone who may benefit from it!