These New CT Laws Can Change Your Life On Oct. 1

CONNECTICUT — The coronavirus pandemic didn't slow down the state General Assembly the past year, and quite a few new laws were drafted, debated and ultimately signed by Gov. Ned Lamont. Many of these are set to go into effect this week. Here are just a few:

If you smoke — anything — in Connecticut, Oct. 1 will be a big day. The state will no longer split hairs between electronic delivery systems for nicotine and cannabis. A vape is a cigarette is a joint, under the eyes of the new law, and beginning in October, where residents can smoke a cigarette, they can smoke a joint.

There will just be far fewer places in the state where they can smoke a cigarette. The new law requires hotels and motels to prohibit the smoking or vaping of cannabis anywhere on their premises. So, gone are special lounges and guest rooms for tobacco users. In the workplace, so-called "smoking rooms" are banned under the new law. Currently, an employer with five or more employees may designate employee smoking rooms if the company also designates enough non-smoking break rooms. Companies with fewer than five employees are currently exempt from rules forbidding smoking in the workplace. That all goes away on Oct. 1.

Think you'll instead just grab your jacket and take your smoke break outside by the entrance to the parking garage? Think again. The new law prohibits smoking within 25 feet of a doorway, working window, or air intake vent, in addition to the premise's interior. In most downtown areas, that'll place your break time in the middle of traffic, making smoking really bad for your health.
The new cannabis law also bans tobacco smoking and vaping in any area of a school building, instead of only inside it — including any area of a college dormitory in Connecticut universities.

Currently, it's against the law to light up inside a state or municipally owned, operated, or leased building. Come Oct. 1, you can add the campus and grounds around those buildings to the suddenly long list of smoke-free zones.

Public Act 21-58, the so-called "bottle bill," provides for increased handling fees for containers, a broader list of acceptable container types, a higher deposit, and other features intended at making redemption of containers more convenient for consumers. Certain businesses will be required to install at two reverse vending machines for their retail operation.

If you prefer to pay in cash instead of plastic at those retail operations, you're in luck: Public Act No. 21-60 prohibits vendors from refusing cash as a form of payment. You can start peeling off Benjamins without fear of reprisal as of Oct. 1.

See also: 'Urgent Health Advisory' Issued + New School Report Draws Outrage

Ageism is in the crosshairs of Public Act No. 21-69. As of Oct. 1, it's illegal for an employer to request a prospective employee's age, birthdate, or graduation date on an initial employment application unless it is for a bona fide occupational qualification or required by state or federal law.

Public Act 21-28 significantly expands the regulations that protect pedestrians and bicyclists against vehicle traffic. Distracted driving penalties are increased, as are the circumstances under which drivers must yield to pedestrians at uncontrolled crosswalks. The legislation affords more power to municipal governments to set speed limits on local roads, and establish pedestrian safety zones. It even adds a new infraction, "dooring," which describes the soon-to-be-illegal practice of motorists opening their door without care for moving traffic, often to the detriment of bicyclists.

Come Oct. 1, ice cream trucks in Connecticut will be getting a bit of the school bus safety treatment. "An Act Concerning the Safety of Children When Buying Ice Cream from a Frozen Dessert Truck" requires ice cream truck drivers to gear up with special flashing signal lamps and a stop sign arm that can be extended horizontally from the left side of the truck. Also affected are drivers, who must stop at least 10 feet from the front or back of the truck when the new bling is engaged. After stopping, the driver may proceed past the truck at a speed up to 5 mph, and must yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian crossing the road to or from the truck. Ice cream truck drivers have until May 1, 2022, to get their rides up to code.

Under most circumstances, a veteran who was not honorably discharged from service is ineligible for state veterans' benefits. A new law, effective Oct. 1, extends those benefits to veterans whose other-than-honorable discharge was due to a mental health condition or as a result of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Public Act No. 21-78 expands the definition of "domestic violence" to include threats, humiliation, and intimidation. It also creates a grant program to provide free legal assistance to indigent restraining order applicants, and forbids insurance companies from refusing coverage based on a person's status as a victim of domestic violence.

Certain elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes, and two rhinoceros species are out of play for sellers, importers and collectors as of Oct. 1. The ban, as detailed in Public Act No. 21-52, also includes any part, product, or offspring of the species, whether dead or alive, including part of a manufactured or food product. Notably, the legislation's ban does not extend to fossils or ivory, or the use of the animals in a movie or TV show.

Under Public Act No. 21-54 and effective Oct. 1, the state will provide telephone services for inmates in correctional facilities and children detained in a juvenile detention facility. These communication services must be offered free of charge.

As of Oct. 1, data managers must alert you if information such as your taxpayer ID, health insurance policy number, fingerprint, voiceprint, retina image, and medical history get lifted from wherever they might be stored. "Data managers" to whom this law applies now include anyone who owns, licenses, or maintains computerized data that includes personal information, rather than just those who do so in the ordinary course of doing business in the state, as under current law.

Public Act No. 21-36 makes state Medicaid coverage available to the victims of violence committed in public by someone who is not their family member or intimate partner. That coverage can be used to pay a brand-new class of Social Services worker, a "certified violence prevention professional." The new law, effective Oct. 1, also mandates that the Department of Public Health create an official training program for anyone seeking to become a "certified violence prevention professional."

Do you have a dam on your land? If so, you need to make sure you tell that to anyone to whom you might sell your property. That's the gist of Public Act No. 21-41, signed June 14, and effective Oct. 1.

Public Act No. 21-42 requires the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to set up a system to implement a real-time public notification system that allows the public to choose to be notified of sewage spills or permitted sewage bypasses by Oct. 1. The notifications must occur within two hours after DEEP receives a report about the event.

Existing law requires employers to make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location near a nursing employee's work area, other than a toilet stall, so the mom can express her milk in private during a meal or break period. That law's been upgraded with the signing of Public Act No. 21-27. Effective Oct. 1, that designated nursing area must be free from intrusion and shielded from the public, include or be near a refrigerator or employee-provided portable cold storage device in which the employee can store her breast milk, and have access to an electrical outlet.

Public Act 21-69 requires employers to provide both their existing employees and job applicants with the wage range of the positions they have or for which they are applying. Included in the bill's definition of "wage range" is the pay scale, previously determined wage ranges for the position, actual wage ranges for current employees, and the employer's budgeted amount for the position, as applicable.

Public Act No. 21-4 establishes an emergency lien assistance program to provide loans to homeowners who are facing foreclosure due to liens from municipal water or sewer charges, municipal tax debt, or condominium or common interest association assessments and fines, among other homeowner-friendly provisions.

Public unions will have an easier time of signing up new members after Oct. 1, when Public Act No. 21-25 goes into effect. From that point onward, employers must provide the union with every new employee's name, job title, work address, work phone number and home address within 10 days of the hiring. The employer must also allow the union access to new employees' orientation, and government buildings and facilities to hold union meetings.

Public Act No. 21-33 creates a new crime: enticing a juvenile to commit a criminal act. You will have committed this class A misdemeanor if you are at least 23 years old and knowingly cause, encourage, solicit, recruit, intimidate or coerce a minor to commit or participate in a crime. The new legislation also does away with "no knock warrants," whereby law enforcement officers could enter certain premises without first knocking and announcing their presence or purpose. The law will also allow a judge or jury to draw an "unfavorable inference" from a police officer's deliberate failure to record the use of physical force on their bodycam. All this go into effect Oct. 1.

Public Act No. 21-7 mandates that local municipalities appoint an agent for elderly people in the community. That person will be responsible for helping the seniors apply for federal and other benefits, as well as ensuring they are aware of the programs. The advocate will also liaise between the town's senior community and elected local officials, and the Department of Aging and Disability Services regarding any challenges the local elderly community might be facing.

The legislation also directs the state's Court Support Services Division develop a community response education program for neighborhoods that are home to sex offenders. The aim of the program will be to assist senior centers and other facilities serving or housing senior citizens in such neighborhoods, parents and children to learn how to better protect themselves from sexual abuse and sexual assault. The law is effective Oct. 1.