1) Take from one group or persons and give to another group or persons.
2) Add costs to the already cost-burdened & hard-working residents of CT (this includes unfunded mandates on our cities & towns)
3) Have a “sounds good” or “feel good” title but are misleading in the end goal.
4) Add regulations or reduce free commerce between citizens.
5)Takes away rights or freedoms from property owners and citizens.
Public Health
SB 181 – This bill’s title claimed it wanted to reduce overcrowding in hospital emergency rooms, yet the bill exempted the state’s only public hospital (John Dempsey) from the same requirements as our private hospitals. The answer given was that these requirements would have cost the state money and it would affect our already precarious budget. I can’t support two standards for public vs. private.
Public Safety
HB 5324 – Makes Connecticut less safe by restricting the state’s police officers from stopping drivers for violations, including taillight and headlamp infractions, license plate infractions, registration infractions and tinted windows. Police often use these violations as a way of establishing probable cause to pull over a vehicle and begin an investigation into a more serious crime.
Elections
HB 5057 – Removes a section of statute that states “drive-only” driver’s licenses must indicate on the back that they are not meant to be used for voting. These licenses were originally designed to say “drive-only” and were given out to illegal aliens and other people and there are serious concerns the legislation will increase voting fraud.
Labor
HB 5164 – Allows striking employees to access unemployment benefits after a period of two consecutive weeks of striking. This would tip the scales in favor of union labor and could have a devastating impact on employers.
SB 221 – Eliminates the tipped minimum wage, which threatens the restaurant industry that was already hobbled by government shutdowns and pandemic policies that crippled customer traffic. Increasing worker-related costs for businesses by 133% at a time when they can least afford it.
SB 414 – Would create an additional layer of bureaucracy and cost to taxpayers by directing all state offices to hire Diversity, Equity and Inclusion directors.
Environment
HB 5004 (“The Green Monster”) – Forces a Net-Zero Green House Gas (GHG) economy by 2050, requires PURA to initiate a docket to determine how the state can phase out natural gas and requires each state agency to consider GHG reduction goals when issuing certain transportation or electric related permits, license or administrative approval.
HB 5485 – Creates a “roadmap” that steers Connecticut to a mandate that forces residents to purchase an electric vehicle and could end with Connecticut using California’s radical emissions standards. The proposal was put forth without a plan for how to provide the charging infrastructure, how to recoup the road use taxes from gasoline purchases, and how this would affect the poor in Connecticut, as EV’s are much more expensive to purchase than traditional vehicles.
SB 193 – Calls for Connecticut’s Constitution to be amended in the name of “environmental rights,” but in reality, it would give state government an unnecessarily broad overreach of power.
Housing
SB 207 – Allows a housing authority to expand jurisdiction to include other towns and cities. Allows them to purchase ‘affordable’ housing units in the state. This bill would allow the housing authority to use the affordable housing appeals process to circumvent local zoning approval and build affordable housing in a town that rejected it. This proposal offered an unfair economic advantage to public housing authorities over private developers.
HB 5242 – Restricts a landlord’s ability to deny a prospective tenant’s rental application based on a prior felony conviction by creating a process to appeal application denials. Denial of an application based on misdemeanor convictions would be barred, making it nearly impossible for a landlord to deny criminals from moving into their properties. This proposal had the potential to affect the safety of the landlord as well as the other residents of the rental property.
SB 143 – This bill from legislative Democrats would flip the landlord-tenant relationship on its head by establishing a general right for a tenant to remain in a rental unit after the tenant’s lease expires. Under this bill, a landlord would not be able to require a tenant to leave their property even after their lease has expired and require the landlord go to court to have a tenant removed. This bill will essentially legalize squatting.
Education / Children
HB 5416 – Reduces the number of crisis response drills conducted in Connecticut schools, making our children less prepared should tragedy strike.
HB 5420 – Raises the age required for paying child support to 21 at a time when everyday costs are soaring for parents.
HB 5417 – States that local or regional Board of Education will provide a reason if boards remove or restrict access to any library material belonging to the school library or media center. No board will remove or restrict access to library material for a number of reasons that include content material is related to sexual “health” and addresses physical, mental, emotional or social dimensions of human sexuality including but not limited to puberty, sex and relationships.
SB 125 – The bill language erases “expectant mother” and replaces it with “pregnant person,” and “his or her” is removed and replaced with “such alleged genetic parent’s child.” The word “women” is replaced with “pregnant parents.”
HB 5371 – Bill requires the Department of Social Services to study the costs and benefits of expanding HUSKY Health benefits to all uninsured state residents under the age of 19, regardless of income or immigration status, effectively providing illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded health insurance. The cost to taxpayers would be enormous.
HB 5279 – This grants more authority to the Chief of a fire or police department to determine whether cause of death was line of duty, should a first responder die after the end of a shift.
(Signed into law on 5/14/24).
HB5413 – This bill gives more tools to law enforcement to address the street takeovers that we’ve all heard about over the past few years.
(Unfortunately, the Senate failed to call this bill to the floor for a vote).
HB5491 – This exempts certain municipal property taxes for veterans who have a service-connected permanent and total disability rating. While I would have preferred this to be permissive, it’s a small token of recognition for our servicemembers who sacrificed so much.
(Signed into law on 5/21/24).
HB5198 – This bill was improved to expand the use of telehealth services while providing necessary patient protections.
(Signed into law on 6/4/24).
SB393 – Improves the process by which unclaimed property held by the Treasurer, can be reclaimed.
(Signed into law on 6/4/24).
HB5001 – This was a victory for our seniors, as it improves safety in our nursing and home-based care services.
(Signed into law on 5/21/24).