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The legislative session is over and the governor continues to sign – or veto – bills that will impact our entire state. Some will take effect upon his signature while others will begin at a future date. I’d like to point out a few key pieces of legislation from the 2025 session, and to also provide a list of laws that take effect on July 1st.

You can find a list of all bills that passed by clicking here.

The Budget

This year was the first year of the biennium budget cycle, which means the state budget, which sets the tone for state spending over the next two years, dominated the session. I voted against the $55.8 billion budget because it smashes Connecticut’s fiscal guardrails, increases state spending by more than 10%, and creates an additional $2 billion tax-and-fee burden on Connecticut’s families and businesses. It also included a series of policy changes in the budget implementation language that had absolutely no connection to the state’s finances.

During the budget debate, Republicans offered several amendments to make improvements to the budget, including additional support for Special Education and improved funding for healthcare services through Medicaid rate increases. Sadly, those amendments failed along mostly party lines. These were among the proposals included in a fully vetted, balanced and no-tax-increase budget proposed by my colleagues and I – the House Republican Reality Check budget – that was unfortunately dismissed by the majority party without consideration.

The budget that passed – the $55.8 Billion budget can be reviewed here.

The Cost of Energy

Another major piece of legislation we took up concerned the high cost of energy in our state.

Senate Bill 4 is a plan that creates savings of more than $100 million in the public benefits, moves $100 million of Covid debt to bonding, and securitizes storm costs projected to save about $90 million, together 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 with a view to finding additional reductions.

While it’s 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 “as of right” conversion of commercial properties to certain types of residential development, prohibits towns from including minimum parking requirements for housing developments, and allows developers to recover attorneys’ fees from towns in 8-30g fair housing appeals under certain circumstances, as well as other concerning provisions. It was also a mish-mash of several hastily put-together bills that 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.

Most of the laws passed during the 2025 legislative session will not become effective until later this year or further into the future. However, there are 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 expansion from solely law enforcement members, it 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.

AN ACT CONCERNING ASSORTED PROPOSALS TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR THE MILITARY SERVICE OF MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES AND VETERANS IN CONNECTICUT

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 themselves 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!