Liz Linehan

For day four of 7 Days, 7 Bills, I want to tell you about HB 5002 - An Act Concerning Early Childcare and Education.

High-quality and affordable early childhood care and education contribute to a robust economy and help ensure the success of families and future generations.

Connecticut has one of the highest costs of childcare in the country. It's why we crafted and passed a bill in the House to make childcare and early childhood education more affordable and accessible.

For day three of 7 Days, 7 Bills, I want to highlight a bill I advocated passionately for this session: HB 5261: An Act Concerning the Consumption of Energy Drinks by Children.

Energy drinks are all the rage. From typical soft drink producers to YouTube Influencers, the manufacturing and sales of energy drinks have become big business… but they can also be quite dangerous!

Today is day two of 7 Days, 7 Bills, where I highlight one bill a day which we’ve passed in the House of Representatives.

Today's bill is HB 5172: An Act Concerning the Assessment of Motor Vehicles for Property Taxation. This bill corrects a 2022 law that makes important changes to your car taxes.

There’s a week left in the legislative session, and today we start 7 Days, 7 Bills, where I highlight one bill a day which we’ve passed in the House of Representatives.

The first is a bill I’m very proud to highlight, HB 5491, which establishes a property tax exemption for Veterans who have a service-connected permanent and total disability rating as determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The exemption will be used for a home that is a primary residence, but if a qualified Veteran does not own a home, the exemption will apply to a single motor vehicle that they own. The addition of the motor vehicle provision is a more equitable way to be able to provide this benefit to all disabled veterans.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, street takeovers have become a national issue, including here in Connecticut. This cannot become the new normal. These takeovers by the illegal use of all-terrain and other types of vehicles, pose a significant threat to public safety, endangering participants, innocent bystanders, and law enforcement officials.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives took bipartisan and unanimous action to help cities and towns regain control of their streets as we voted 148-0 to pass HB 5413 to control takeovers, which have proven to be a concern for many of our residents.

Every year it is my honor to host the Manufacturer ConneCTion Fair, which brings together manufacturers from across our state and connects them with the brightest minds of the next generation of innovators.

I think we had our best one yet this year as I introduced the first ever college career and internship fair, which featured on-the-spot interviews for internships and jobs.

Yesterday was an important day at the State Capitol.

I was joined by my Committee on Children Co-Chair Sen. Ceci Maher, Governor Ned Lamont, Department of Children and Families Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly, and others to announce major reforms to the Short Term Assessment and Respite (STAR) homes system.