Potential Life-Changing Laws Could Be Big Shift In CT

HARTFORD, CT — There is a little over a month to go before the state General Assembly adjourns for the session, but before that legislators will have to consider a massive array of bills with potentially life-changing effects for many of the state’s residents.

Life-changing isn’t an exaggeration this session. Minimum wage workers could find themselves making nearly $5 more an hour in a few years along with access to paid family and medical leave. Those will criminal records could start with a clean slate.

There are also some potential increased costs for Connecticut families. Commuters may find themselves paying hundreds of extra dollars a year in tolls and the cost for paid family and medical leave would add a $250 deduction to a worker making $50,000 a year. Gov. Ned Lamont also wants to tax services at the same rate as goods, so that would mean higher costs for things like haircuts, veterinary care, home renovations and legal services. Some proposals would target the state’s richest with new taxes.

Connecticut is the Land of Steady Habits, so all these proposed changes aren’t guarantees.

Here are some of the major law changes legislators are considering over the course of the next month.

Minimum wage

A bill proposed by Lamont would raise the state minimum wage from $10.10 to 11.25 on Jan. 1, 2020 and incrementally raise it to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2023. Future increases would be linked to the employment cost index.

At the current minimum wage a parent with a family of two would have to work 54 hours a week before becoming ineligible for the state HUSKY A insurance. Under a $15 minimum wage that would drop to 36 hours per week, according to the state Office of Fiscal Analysis.

The change would also lead to increased costs for municipalities that employ minimum wage workers. It is estimated to cost Bridgeport an extra $1 million in fiscal year 2023.

Two bills that passed committee would eliminate training wages.

Tax Proposals

A new proposal would add half-a-percent to the sales tax with the money going mainly to lower income communities.

The bill would calculate a municipality’s capacity under a formula published in the New England Public Policy Center. The formula calculates the total amount of taxable property in a city or town against a standardized tax rate and a per capita basis. Wealthy towns in southwestern Connecticut has the highest per capita capacity while cities like Bridgeport, Hartford, Waterbury and New Haven along with some smaller cities and some rural towns have a lower capacity.

Another bill would have added a two percent surcharge on capital gains for taxpayers earning $500,000 or more as single filers or married couples earning more than $1 million in a year. It wouldn’t apply to trusts or estates. Democratic legislators tabled the idea for now and will study the issue in the future.

One of his biggest tax change proposals would impose a sales tax on services at a rate equal to goods. That would put a tax on contractor fees for home renovations, vehicle trade-ins and legal services among others. The move is expected to bring in nearly $800 million in revenue over the next two fiscal years.

Lamont has also suggested taxes on wine and liquor bottles, plastic grocery bags, sugar-sweetened beverages and a higher tax on e-cigarette liquid.

Early Voting

The House voted by a large enough margin to authorize a ballot referendum question that could lead to early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. The Senate must secure at least 27 votes for the item to appear on the 2020 ballot. If Connecticut voters approve it would allow legislators to craft a bill in time for the 2021 election, according to CT News Junkie.

Clean Slate Criminal Records

A bill would automatically wipe the criminal records of people who are convicted of misdemeanors three years after their sentence is complete and certain felonies five years after completion of a sentence. It passed a committee vote 21 to 19.

Advocates say it will help people get out of a cycle of crime by allowing them to get jobs without the stigma of a criminal record following them around.

Some Republican lawmakers expressed concern including records being wiped without any input from victims.

Tolls

This one is the $800 million question. Connecticut is the only state on the eastern seaboard that doesn’t have tolls. Lamont and many Democratic legislators want to change that in an effort to rebuild transportation infrastructure on the state’s highway and rail systems.

The exact details aren’t known, but Lamont wants no more than 50 toll gantries that would be every six to seven miles on I-84, I-95, I-91 and Route 15. State EZ-Pass holders with a commuter discount would pay 4.4 cents per mile under current proposals during peak times. There are also proposals to look at tax credit or ways to alleviate the cost for Connecticut residents.

Republican legislative leadership has been steadfast in its opposition to tolls and criticize plans that would allow bureaucracy to decide toll rates in the future.

Trip examples for peak times:
Stamford to New Haven: $1.80
New Haven to Hartford: $1.72
Danbury to Waterbury $1.28
Milford to New Haven: 44 cents

Marijuana

Lamont has signaled his support the legalization, but said the biggest push is coming from the legislature itself.

Eventually a single bill regarding the major aspects of marijuana legalization will be crafted and put before the legislature for a vote.

Paid Family Medical Leave
There are three paid family leave bills floating through the legislature. Two bills proposed by legislators would offer up to 12 weeks of leave per year with 100 percent coverage of the employee's salary with a maximum benefit of $1,000 per week.

Lamont’s bill offers a maximum benefit of up to $900 per week at a 67 percent replacement rate.
Here is how those proposals compare to other states.

The program would begin paying benefits by July 1, 2021 with deductions to employees starting a year before that.
There is some debate about whether the program should be administered by the state Department of Labor or a private insurance company, according to the CT Post. One union official estimated it would take between 100 and 300 new hires to administer the program through the state.

The bill caps employee contributions at .5 percent up to the maximum Social Security earnings of $132,900. The state legislature could increase the amount of employee earnings subject to contributions if the program heads toward insolvency.

The Family Medical Leave Act would cover private sector employers with at least one employee instead of the current 75 employee cutoff.

Teacher Pensions
Lamont wants to shift some of the burden onto towns to pay for the costs of teacher pensions. Currently the state picks up the tab, but Lamont like his predecessor Gov. Dannel Malloy thinks that should change.

The proposal would shift costs more for wealthier communities that tend to pay their teachers higher salaries while reducing the hit for the state’s poorer communities. There is some pushback as towns don’t have a say in managing the teacher pension fund or negotiating benefit or contribution levels.

The proposal passed committee and will have to be decided by the state legislature. It is unpopular among many municipal leaders. Connecticut Council of Small Towns executive director Betsy Gara said it would lead to higher property taxes.

“Towns have had no say in managing the teachers’ pension fund or in negotiating benefits or contribution levels, which are set in statute. As proposed, towns will have no way of managing costs going forward. Existing binding arbitration laws make it difficult for towns to negotiate savings in teachers’ salary and benefit packages, which contribute to pension costs,” Gara said.

21 To Smoke
A bill that would raise the age to purchase tobacco and other smoking products to 21 received bipartisan committee approval by a 20-1 margin.

Studies show that 95 percent of current smokers started before they were 21-years-old,said State Sen. Saud Anwar (D- East Hartford) who is a medical doctor who specializes in the treatment of lung diseases. He said he was excited at the prospect of becoming one of the first few states in the nation to raise the age.

It can become very difficult for young people who start to smoke to ever stop said State Sen. Mary Daugherty Abrams.

"There is no reason not to be supporting this bill," she said. "Our children are in harm's way."
Connecticut, like other states across the country has seen an uptick in youth smoking as vaping products become more popular.