Maria Horn

This is my State Capitol update for the week of May 10.

If you prefer to watch rather than read, click the image below to hear about the issues contained in this newsletter.

The 2024 legislative session officially ended at midnight on Wednesday.

After two weeks spent mostly in Hartford, with increasingly limited sleep, it’s good to be home. We did a lot of constructive work this term, which resulted in good legislation we passed in the House. Some of those bills died in the Senate: some boldly and dramatically, others in quiet ways it will take a few days to sort out. Those that passed both chambers now make their way to the Governor’s desk, and Governor Lamont has already begun to sign those bills.

The last week of session is a cauldron of activity. When you spend this much intense time together with staff and colleagues, you learn a lot about them: some of that has nothing to do with legislation.

I arrived Monday morning armed with a bag of chocolates and caramels from Thorncrest Farm in Goshen, which I put into a bowl on my desk in the chamber. Word traveled, and that bowl needed frequent replenishing, with supplies running out just before the final gavel. I now know which of my colleagues prefer white chocolate, and the identity of one legislator who is a caramel fiend.

That may seem trivial, but those personal exchanges – about chocolate, family, sports teams, footwear, pets, whatever - help bond us to one another and make it possible to discuss difficult things. And if you want to get anything hard done, you have to do that. A sense of humor, heavy on self-deprecation, helps too.

When you get to those difficult conversations, you also learn about people’s negotiating styles. The choices we make are hard, and the issues are complicated. The most satisfying negotiations for me are the ones where we come at each issue with a discussion of principles, and what we are each trying to achieve. When you do that, issues are no longer binary and you can often find overlap, or ways to compromise on policy to meet the most goals and eliminate the worst outcomes. There are some, however, who treat negotiation like a game, where I will get what I want by threatening to deprive you of what you want. You learn to deal with both, but you get better legislation by the former.

The biggest bill I was responsible for this week was HB 5524: An Act Authoring and Adjusting Bonds of the State and Concerning Provisions Related to State and Municipal Tax Administration, General Government and School Building Projects. (What can I say, the bill titles in Finance can be kinda boring.)

To back up, the committee I chair is the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee: this year, because we chose not to adjust the biennium budget, there was no “Revenue” bill – but we did have some Finance and plenty of Bonding, all of which went into this bill. We put many hours into it, during the committee process and right up through that final day. This bill is also traditionally a vehicle to include other widely supported issues that may not have found a home yet: as time runs out it becomes clear that we won’t be able to run a lot of small bills. The final bill included some priorities of mine: enabling municipalities to create a homestead tax exemption and an increased exemption for farm equipment; giving towns a tool to address excessive noise; making it easier for towns to work together to create shared services; enhancing reporting on hospital finances and the spending of federal money; school construction projects; and bonding to fund capital expenditure throughout the state, to name a few provisions.

Plan A was to run our bill around dinner time on Tuesday night, but as a line of legislators (in both parties) made their pitches to me and House Leadership, things ran a little late and I finally stood up on the floor to introduce the bill around 11pm. Because of all the bipartisan work, and because the bill itself included items of importance to a wide swath of legislators, debate was swift, and we passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, a little after midnight

The next day (Wednesday), the Senate took up the bill. Ultimately, it passed in the Senate by a vote of 35-1, but because the minority in the Senate had decided to use the bill to eat up time on the last day, it took many hours to get there.

Meanwhile, back in the House, we started drafting a bill with a variety of other last-minute “fixes” in it. Now, drafting a brand-new bill on the last day of session is a risky maneuver (maybe foolhardy is a better description), so for it to have any kind of chance it really needs support from…everybody. It felt like a replay of the negotiations for the big bill, but on 16x fast forward and with much lower stakes. At one point, I found myself sprinting down the chamber stairs on one side, and back up them on the other to talk to the Minority Leader. Then back down and up to talk to the Majority Leader, then back to my desk to vote (we were debating other bills throughout this), then back over to the Ranking Member’s desk, then into the Speaker’s office behind chamber to talk to his Chief of Staff. I decided that counted as my run for the day.

Online, we were getting Senate approval section by section, and then for the entire final draft – first by text, then by email when we decided we needed that record. Drafts pinged back and forth while the Senate debated HB 5524, the main bill.

What we were drafting procedurally was a “strike-all amendment” to a bill we had decided not to run this year. These days, amendments are usually “signed” online through a digital portal. But there was no time for that, so when the amendment was finished, we used the old school method, and I signed it with a felt tip marker while it was still warm from the printer. We passed this bill, HB 5512, at 11:30 pm on Wednesday night, unanimously, and sent it right up to the Senate. Which never ran it. After the gavel fell at midnight, I chatted with the House Minority Leader about how we both knew the odds were long for that bill, but decided we enjoyed the process anyway.

The end of session is always bittersweet. You’re saying goodbye to some colleagues who are retiring, and see you later to the others returning to their home districts. There are some good bills that didn’t make it this year, among them our main environmental priority, HB 5004, which the minority in the Senate made it their top priority to stop. We will return to that one, but it was hard to see all the work and compromise that went into that bill be met with silence in the Senate.

Back in district, today I was thrilled to participate in the ribbon-cutting for the new health center in North Canaan, which is expected to open for business next month. Funded in major part by bonding from the State of Connecticut, it was a potent reminder of how important bond funds are to many municipalities throughout the state. You can see the beautiful facility for yourself at their open house tomorrow - more information provided later in the newsletter.

In the coming days and weeks, I’ll share more details about which bills passed both chambers of the legislature, and which bills the Governor is signing into law.

Happy Mother’s Day this weekend to all the mothers in your life!

• Legislative Priorities Pass in House. Click here. 
• Session Days Recap. Click here.
• STIP Public Informational Meeting. Click here. 
• Upcoming Events. Click here.  

H.B. 5001 - Supporting our Seniors 

As the elderly population steadily grows, there is an urgency to provide resources and assistance to this community.  During Monday's session, we took a significant step to achieving that goal by passing HB 5001, a top priority for House Democrats this session. 

HB 5001, which passed with bipartisan support, protects and prioritizes elderly residents in our state. This bill:  

• Makes it easier for seniors to age in place
•  Creates a nursing home database, providing consumers with an easy and reliable way to compare locations around the state
• Establishes incentives to encourage nursing homes to improve care

Quality early childhood education and affordable childcare contribute to a robust economy and help ensure the success families and future generations.

Sky-high childcare costs have increased 214% since 1990. It's why we crafted and passed a bill in the House to make childcare and early childhood education more affordable and accessible.

This House Priority Bill:

• Creates the “Early Childhood Care and Education Fund,” to be used for childcare and early childhood education programs
• Establishes the Early Childhood Care and Education Fund Advisory Commission that will report on the health of the Fund and annually update recommendations on how to best use its resources
• Invests in teachers and assistant teachers in state-funded school readiness programs and state-funded childcare programs
• Requires a study on the availability of space in state-owned properties that may be used for early childhood care and education programs

WIC (Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, Children) enrollment in Connecticut is among the lowest enrollment rates in the country at 46%. Not maximizing participation in this program is resulting in worse outcomes for the health and nutrition of young children. 

This bill:

• Keeps Connecticut families healthy: It allows Connecticut agencies to more easily enroll children and parents who qualify into federal nutrition assistance programs to keep our families healthy.
• Promotes outreach and information to access these federal programs that Connecticut underutilizes.
• Promotes Connecticut farmers by supporting them to participate in these programs at farmers markets. 

When we grow healthy children, they are less likely to develop nutrition-related chronic diseases, they are at a lower risk of cavities/tooth decay, they have improved mental health, and they have improved participation in other social service programs. In general, children are better off when their families participate in WIC.

✅SB 432 - Further supports Connecticut nonprofits.
✅SB 13 - Expands the student loan repayment plan.
✅SB 3 - Consumer protections for Connecticut residents.
✅HB 5512 - Requires the Commissioner of Revenue Services to study the Department of Revenue Services' collections processes.
✅SB 339 - Requires anyone convicted of intentionally injuring or killing a police officer’s animal or a volunteer canine search and rescue team’s dog to pay restitution.
✅SB 396 - Implements task force recommendations for the elderly nutrition program.
✅SB 439 - Expands the eligibility criteria for compensation of persons wrongfully convicted.
✅SB 420 - Authorizes municipalities to adopt an ordinance regarding illegally passing a school bus.
✅HB 5523 – Allocates $360 million dollars in federal funds. $160 million to public higher education, $50 million to nonprofits, $21.8 million in to early childcare, and $24 million in to mental health.  
✅SB 5 - Makes improvements to our public schools & indoor air quality, increases access to early childhood education, and enhances school nutrition programs.
✅SB 341 - Establishes a fallen officer fund to provide health insurance coverage to survivors of a police officer killed in the line of duty.
✅SB 292 - Further protects our environment and health by phasing out the sale of certain products containing the dangerous and forever chemical PFAS.
✅SB 192 - Protects communities by unsafe or deteriorating dams.
✅SB 253 - Prohibits foreign governments from spending money on political campaigns.
✅HB 5367 - Provides gene testing coverage for critically ill infants.
✅HB 308 - Improves the timeliness of wheelchair repairs.
✅HB 5046 - Bettering patient care in nursing homes
✅HB 5055 - Strengthening police data reporting requirements  
✅SB1 - Improving the health and safety of Connecticut residents
✅HB 5002 – Supporting early childhood care and education.
✅ HB 5129 - Requires colleges to provide substance-free housing.
✅HB 5390 - Incentivizes municipalities to opt in to designating a transit oriented community.
✅HB 5411 - Improving accessibility to medical records.
✅HB 5498 - Improves the security of elections.
✅SB 0123 - Protects victims of financial abuse and coerced debt by providing additional resources.
✅HB 5200 - Improves access to healthcare for disabled people.
✅HB 5436 - Makes it easier to become a teacher in Connecticut
✅SB 395 - Prohibits Connecticut healthcare entities from reporting medical debt to credit agencies
✅HB 5182 - Makes technical revisions to the education and early childhood statutes.
✅HB 5330 - Implements the recommendations of the Department of Transportation concerning certain environmental hearings, the Office of the State Traffic Administration, bicycle traffic, traffic authorities, variable speed limits, public transportation, motorcycle helmets and reckless driving.
✅HB 5437 - Creates the Educator Professional Development Mandate Review Advisory Council, which will advise on the costs and effects of mandates related to educator professional development and in-service training.
✅HB 5004 - Protecting the environment and mitigating the climate crisis.
✅HB 5226 - Protecting our environment: Establishes a state stewardship program to manage the collection and recycling of certain batteries.
✅HB 5280 - State law enforcement will join the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) databank making firearms easier to track.
✅HB 5430 - Requires a study on migraine treatment for women and veterans, who disproportionately are affected by migraine disorders.
✅HB 5003 - Ensures that children and families have increased access to all available nutrition programs in the state.
✅HB 5279 - Expands eligibility for families of firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty to receive benefits. 
✅HB 5399 - Protects victims of sexual assault by improving the training and responsibilities of first responders and the Office of Victim Services.
✅SB 396 - Implements task force recommendations for the elderly nutrition program.
✅HB 5422 - Strengthens the response to hate and bias crimes.
✅ HB 5001 - Supports Connecticut seniors and improves nursing and home-based care
✅HB 5491 - Establishes a property tax exemption for veterans who have a service-connected permanent and total disability
✅ HB 5408 – Supports CT businesses by requiring executive branch state agencies to purchase a certain percentage of procured print or digital advertising from in-state commercial or nonprofit news publishers
✅HB 5458 - Maximizes efforts to aid housing insecure and homeless persons
✅HB 5198 – Protects healthcare patients and providers by expanding telehealth provisions adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic until June 30, 2027
✅HB 5300 - Authorizes the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development to consider certain businesses that do not have their principal business operations in Connecticut to be eligible businesses under the invest CT fund program.

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Maria Horn
State Representative