Steve Weir

House Republicans Drive Earmark Reform Bill

Recent scrutiny into how legislative earmarks were handed out revealed there was very little oversight into the process. Audits revealed that some of the organizations who were being awarded money lacked any verifiable public presence or solid track record of work. This combined with a federal probe prompted House Republicans to push for reforms. HB-5039 was developed in response to those concerns and the need to provide additional oversight and transparency. An important component of HB-5039 is addressing a gap that allows recipients to pass along funds to another organization without approval, transparency, or accountability. Additionally, earmark recipients would also require prior approval and any organization receiving passed-along funds would also be subject to the same transparency requirements as the original earmark recipient.

House Republicans Offer Plan to Provide Much Needed Tax Relief

Representative Weir and his House Republican colleagues are working to provide residents with real tax relief, not election year gimmicks. Our first proposal would provide permanent tax relief by more than doubling the maximum credit. This would expand income eligibility by approximately $20,000 (for single filers) and ($30,000 for joint filers), benefitting more than 800,000 filers across our state. Connecticut is losing roughly $340 million to New York due to the "convenience of employer" rule. Under this rule, Connecticut residents who are employed by a New York company (but work remotely) are paying income taxes to New York rather than Connecticut. The House Republican's plan would bring that money back to the taxpayers of Connecticut through sustainable relief. Read more here .

Rep. Weir Fights for Parental Choice

Representative Weir stood alongside his Republican colleagues in support of the thousands of Connecticut families who submitted testimony and packed the legislative office building today in support of educational freedom. HB-5468, if implemented as proposed, would directly impact homeschooled, parochial, and private school students. One of my first concerns with this bill is how the public hearing process is being handled and the lack of respect to the thousands of residents who want their government to hear them. Representative Weir believes a troubling aspect of this proposal is the removal of parental choice that permits them to choose which type of education their children receive. In addition, this bill would require parents to submit annual filings with the school district, a curriculum portfolio, and comply with other mandatory reporting requirements. It also involves DCF anytime a child leaves a school system (including moving to another district), which DCF testified it does not have the resources with which to comply. "I oppose HB-5468 because I believe parents should be the ones to make these types of choices that affect their families, not the government," Rep. Weir said.

Students Create Valentine's Day Cards for First Responders

Second grade students at Gilead Hill School are helping spread the love (even if it is after Valentine's Day) by creating cards for our local first responders. These cards will serve as a small thank you to them for all they do for our community as a whole. It is extremely rewarding to have been able to play a small part in helping to facilitate this (upcoming) exchange. All of the accolades go to our second-grade students for their amazing artwork, time and effort, and the educators at Gilead Hill for reorganizing their curriculums to help give back to our community.

Rep. Weir Joins House and Senate Republicans in Support of Connecticut's Farmers

Tuesday, House and Senate Republicans held a forum alongside Connecticut farmers to hear directly how the most recent land assessments are threatening their livelihoods. Under current CT law (Public Act 490) lets farmland be taxed on its use value rather than its fair market value with the intention of keeping property taxes lower. The state reassesses those numbers every five years to reflect current conditions, but in 2025, the vales for some farmland increased significantly, which resulted in massive property taxes for these farmers. Needless to say, this has caused a massive issue with our local farmers and their farmland. On Monday, Governor Lamont suspended the reassessment and reinstated the 2020 recommended land use values under Public Act 490, effective immediately. Also noticeably absent from the forum was the Connecticut Department of Agriculture Commissioner Brian Hurlburt who was responsible for the change in assessment value. As an operator of a small farm myself, Representative Weir recognizes the hard work that is involved with farming and stated "Gov. Lamont rightly called for the halting of the new farm property assessments, it's too bad it took until the final hour for him to finally intervene."