These news briefs were originally written for CT Politics, The Connecticut Mirror’s weekly newsletter providing updates on the 2025 legislative session. To sign up for CT Politics, click here. Consumer protections in LTCI partnership plan The Human Services Committee this month passed a m easure that would add protections for people who have long-term care insurance policies through the state partnership plan.The Connecticut Partnership for Long-Term Care, a joint program by the state and private industry, has sold policies to more than 60,000 people since its inception in 1992.The bill would impose a series of safeguards for people in the plan: Require the state’s Office of Policy and Management and insurance commissioner to file annual reports with the General Assembly, beginning Jan. 15, 2026, on incurred loss and actual paid loss for each long-term care insurance policy in the past three calendar years; Require OPM to file a report by Oct. 1 that outlines the feasibility of a policy allowing consumers to cancel their LTCI plans and obtain full refunds for any premiums paid whenever a carrier files for rate increases that exceed the rate of inflation; Mandate that the insurance department only precertify LTCI policies that, among other things, do not tie executive compensation to the approval of higher rates for policyholders; Require the insurance commissioner to turn down any rate increase greater than what that was allowed at the time the policy was precertified; Insurance companies must, as part of any rate hike request, provide details of all reinsurance contracts associated with the policy at issue. The proposal cleared the Human Services Committee with an 18-4 vote earlier this month. It now heads to the Senate floor.— Jenna Carlesso, Investigative Reporter Special ed transition time House Bill 7076, a bill that would shorten the time students spend in transitional special education programs, passed out of the Education Committee 42-3 Monday. Currently services for students with severe disabilities can last through the end of the school year during which they turn 22. Instead of finishing out that school year, H.B. 7076 proposes ending transition services as of a student’s 22nd birthday. The bill gained support among superintendents who say these services are costly, but it also had strong opposition at its public hearing earlier this month from over 100 parents and special education advocates who say the services are crucial for some of the state’s highest-need children. — Jessika Harkay, Education Reporter Push for more diverse teachers A bill that lawmakers hope would better support diversifying the teacher workforce passed out of the Education Committee 31-14. Committee Co-chair Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, said Senate Bill 1513 would expand the Aspiring Educators Diversity Scholarship Program, which currently provides up to $10,000 annually to former priority school district students who are now seeking to become educators. “This piece of legislation provides opportunities for anyone who wants to come into the field of education, regardless what school district you come from,” McCrory said. “We expand this out beyond priority school districts to all school districts across the state of Connecticut. If a child wants to become an educator in the state of Connecticut, we will provide scholarship resources for that child to come and work in our state.” McCrory said the state budget allocated $4 million for the program last year, but only 10% of the budget has been used and that the program has to be marketed better going forward. — Jessika Harkay, Education Reporter GAE LTCI bill advances The Government Administration and Elections Committee voted to advance a bill Wednesday that would add consumer protections and increase transparency around long-term care insurance plans. The measure would require insurers to certify that premium rate increases are necessary to prevent a material risk of insolvency, require public hearings for rate hike requests that exceed 10%, mandate that carriers notify potential buyers of the risk of rate increases prior to purchasing plans, and bar insurers from entering into state contracts if they violate any provisions of the bill. Sen. Rob Sampson, a ranking Republican on the panel, called the 10% increase an “arbitrary” threshold to trigger public hearings and worried about singling out companies that sell long-term care policies. The public hearings will “effectively amount to a dog-and-pony show with folks upset about their bills,” said Sampson, R-Wolcott. Rep. Matt Blumenthal, the committee co-chair, said the bill tackles a “vital” problem. “I’ll just say this is a really vital and important issue, as everyone has recognized. The rate increases we’ve seen in many situations have been devastating and appear deeply unfair,” said Blumenthal, D-Stamford. “It’s a problem that this General Assembly, and it sounds like others on this committee, think needs to be addressed in a formidable way.” — Jenna Carlesso, Investigative Reporter Punishing incarcerated with fines? Correction officers are asking for the ability to impose fines on incarcerated people who participate in assaults, rioting, tampering with security devices or other serious offenses. The officers say the policy is necessary because the legislature has restricted their ability to discipline those who are incarcerated. Current law prohibits correction officers from taking away phone time or recreational time, and it limits the amount of time incarcerated people can spend in solitary confinement. Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, questioned what would happen if an inmate didn’t have any money in the commissary, and asked whether it could actually incentivize bad actions, with someone “buying” the opportunity to assault a correction officer from other incarcerated individuals. Robert Beamon, president of AFSCME Council 4, Local 391, said officers were “rationing” punishment for people they knew were chronic disciplinary issues — giving two days in segregated housing for one offense, five for another — since they cannot give more than 14 days within a one-month period. Barbara Fair, the executive director of the advocacy organization Stop Solitary CT, said she was strongly against the bill, saying it would end up punishing not the incarcerated people, but the families who paid money into their commissary accounts. Deborah Del Sullivan, the chief public defender, Correction Ombuds DeVaughn Ward and acting Child Advocate Christina Ghio also testified against it, with Ward saying that it would “exacerbate a deeply flawed disciplinary system” in which inmates are often coerced to plead guilty and corrections officers hold power over the proceedings. — Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter New curbside voting rules The Government Administration and Elections Committee advanced two bills this week that would set up new rules for curbside voting, create new restrictions for distributing absentee ballot applications and create a new state-run board to help manage local election offices. The bills — S.B. 1515 and S.B. 1516 — are largely a response to the ongoing election scandal in Bridgeport, which resulted in the city’s 2023 Democratic mayoral primary being overturned in court and five political operatives being charged with election-related crimes. Some of the new rules being proposed, like bans on political candidates sitting in a car with someone while they use curbside voting, are meant to address complaints that were filed in the aftermath to that 2023 election.  — Andrew Brown, Investigative Reporter Composting in New Haven New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker announced plans this week to develop the state’s largest curbside composting program using a $3.3 million grant from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The grant, one of nine announced by the agency on Thursday, is part of a broader effort to alleviate Connecticut’s growing trash problems by diverting heavy, soggy food scraps and other compostables from the regular waste stream. “Most of the trash here…  goes to Bridgeport and is burned,” Elicker said. “That is clearly not the best solution for compostable materials that could be used for such better purposes.” To address the problem, New Haven plans to build a new sorting facility on the site of its former incinerator off of Middletown Avenue. The city will also distribute colored, biodegradable bags to residents on city garbage routes, who will be asked to separate organic waste into those bags and place them into their bins on pickup day alongside other trash. Garbage trucks will then carry all those bags together to the new sorting facility, where the compost bags will be separated and likely sent to a digester facility in Southington where they can be broken down into biogas and soil. Steve Winter, the city’s executive director of climate and sustainability, said he expects to test run the program on a select number of garbage routes starting in 2027. Eventually, he said, the hope is to expand citywide reaching around 32,000 addresses. — John Moritz, Energy & Environment Reporter Happy birthday, CT Fastrak Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Connecticut DOT employees held a birthday party on Friday for a 10-year-old bus line. They gathered in downtown New Britain on Friday morning to celebrate a decade of operations for the CT Fastrak, a dedicated bus route between Hartford and New Britain, and the event was complete with a bus-shaped cake. Lamont, Blumenthal and a crowd of other state and local officials touted the bus line as a prime example of how public transportation projects can assist lower-income residents, reduce carbon emissions and promote housing and retail development along the transportation corridor. — Andrew Brown, Investigative Reporter Defense on public health On Wednesday, legislators passed a bill aimed at safeguarding Connecticut against potential public health cuts by the federal administration, including $30 million to address “unexpected shortfalls” in public health funding and $5 million for communications during public health emergencies. The proposal also seeks to codify certain current federal laws, in case of changes, into state law, including language related to fluoride levels in drinking water and the guarantee to emergency services regardless of ability to pay, known as EMTALA. Now the bill goes to the floor for a vote. Several Republicans raised concerns during the debate about putting funding towards potential threats instead of addressing immediate needs. Then, during the fourth hour of discussion on the bill, Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, a co-chair of the Public Health Committee, announced she had just gotten word about roughly $150 million in federal cuts to the Department of Public Health. Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, also a co-chair, called the moment “poetic.” He said the state needs to contemplate additional funding beyond what’s included in the bill. — Katy Golvala, Health Reporter Accommodations for students with disabilities While 17 states challenge the constitutionality of 504 plans, Connecticut is one step closer to codifying accommodations for students with disabilities into state law with the Education Committee’s passage of House Bill 7219 Friday morning. Unlike an Individualized Education Plan, which provides specialized instruction, children with 504 plans do not require special education services. The 504 plans instead outline accommodations for almost 48,000 Connecticut students with disabilities, including things like preferential seating, assistive technology or extended time on tests. It passed unanimously out of committee. “We wanted to ensure that within our schools, these accommodations continue to be protected for students,” said Education Committee Co-chair Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield. — Jessika Harkay, Education Reporter Edits to education cost sharing grant Senate Bill 1511, a bill that would increase per-pupil funding for Connecticut’s highest need students in the state’s Education Cost Sharing Grant, passed out of the Education Committee Friday. The bill’s passage comes after strong support from students, teachers and other education stakeholders. Among other things to target disconnected youth, Senate Bill 1511 proposes raising the “foundation” amount of per-pupil state funding from $11,525 up to $12,488, while also adding a new 50% weight for students with disabilities who receive special education services. The ECS changes would cost Connecticut an additional $506.1 million in FY26 and an additional $516.2 million in FY27, according to estimates from the School and State Finance Project. The proposed legislation now heads to the Appropriations Committee where it could face some difficulty. “I think the ECS funding increase … is going to be a pretty penny,” said Committee Ranking Member Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, R-Prospect. “It’s going to cost too much.” — Jessika Harkay, Education Reporter Newspaper notices In what will likely be their last regular meeting of the session, members of the Planning and Development Committee on Friday approved a long-discussed measure to change requirements of legal notices for municipalities. House Bill 6812 is still a work in progress. It was added onto a bill about inclusionary zoning for consideration while members negotiate with towns and the newspaper industry. Past proposals would have allowed towns to post meeting notices online rather than requiring them to advertise certain legal notices with local newspapers. Towns argue that as the newspaper industry has declined, some communities don’t have local papers and more people are likely to see the notices online anyway. Newspaper industry officials say keeping the notices in news print is important for transparency. Members will work out the details of the bill in the coming weeks, and the measure passed with bipartisan support. — Ginny Monk, Housing & Children’s Issues Reporter Tiny homes at places of worship A bill that’s moving forward in the Connecticut legislature aims to address the lack of shelter space for people experiencing homelessness by allowing places of worship to build tiny homes on their property. House Bill 7062 would allow churches, temples and mosques to build tiny homes as temporary shelter for the homeless population “as of right,” or without a special hearing before the town planning and zoning commission. The measure would apply to towns with populations of 25,000 or more, and churches would be allowed to build up to eight structures. The bill passed with bipartisan support, although some Republicans raised concerns that the bill would infringe on local control. — Ginny Monk, Housing & Children’s Issues Reporter Sunday hunting bill advances Lawmakers took a step Friday toward eliminating what has been described as one of the last remaining “blue laws” in Connecticut. House Bill 7231 would permit Sunday hunting on private lands throughout the state, rolling back a long-standing prohibition that limited Sunday hunting to only a handful of private shooting preserves. An earlier version of the bill would have permitted Sunday hunting on both public and private lands, but faced pushback from hikers and other conservation groups over safety concerns. The committee voted overwhelmingly Friday to send the bill to the House floor. Parker said further tweaks to the bill are being worked out to ensure hunters stay a certain distance away from blazed hiking trails. — John Moritz, Environment & Energy Reporter Incarcerated mothers and breastfeeding The Judiciary Committee heard public testimony on a proposal to allow people who are incarcerated to breastfeed children during visits. Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros testified in support of the measure, explaining that there isn’t currently any law or policy in place regarding breastfeeding, so incarcerated mothers are unable to do so. Quiros added that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which establishes national standards on correctional health care institutions, all support making accommodations for incarcerated mothers to breastfeed. “Providing a safe, hygienic environment for lactating mothers to breastfeed during visitation affirms the importance of maternal-infant bonding, supports health outcomes for both mother and child, and moves us toward a more human and restorative system,” DeVaughn Ward, interim correction ombuds, wrote in submitted testimony. — Katy Golvala, Health Reporter Moving Bridgeport correctional center? The heads of a Bridgeport-based advocacy organization spoke in favor of a proposal requiring the Department of Correction to study relocating the Bridgeport Correctional Center and the New Haven Correctional Center. Callie Heilmann, co-director of Bridgeport Generation Now, said the Correctional Center’s location across the street from the city’s largest high school and a local Boys and Girls club was inappropriate. “Our children should not have to go to school across the street from a prison. Our children should not have to attend after school sports and enrichment programs across the street from a prison. And our families should not have to run their daily errands around a prison facility,” she told the legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. She described students having to walk along a chain-link fence with barbed wire to get to school. The two co-directors asked that the community be included in the relocation study, and that the department also look at cash bail reform, since, they said, the facility holds hundreds of people in pretrial detention who cannot afford to pay bail. — Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter Universal Pre-K Gov. Ned Lamont’s bill to create a universal pre-k endowment passed out of the Education Committee on Friday, despite some opposition from Republican lawmakers. The bill now heads to the Appropriations Committee.  House Bill 6867 would use surplus funds to create thousands of new pre-K spots across the state. Under the governor’s plan, families making less than $100,000 a year would be able to send their kids to pre-K for free, while households making less than $150,000 a year would pay $20 a day. Twenty-nine members of the Education Committee voted for the bill, while 14 members voted against it. Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, opposed the bill on the basis that it would hand the power about the decision of how to use taxpayer dollars to the executive branch. “I take our constitutional prerogatives seriously and believe we should be involved, and in fact we should be the first movers, about decisions to pay taxpayer dollars,” he said. “This bill violates the state’s budgetary guardrails, which have been the most important policy innovation in this state in the last 15 years, quite easily.” The Office of Legislative Research told the committee that the bill is believed to require a three-fifths vote of the legislature. Rep. Mary Welander, D-Orange, said that while funding questions remain, the bill is “an incredible piece of legislation.” — Laura Tillman, Human Services Reporter ...read more read less