From housing to child care, these are the major bills the CT legislature has passed this year

CT Insider – Wednesday, June 4, 2025
By Alex Putterman

Connecticut’s legislative session will end Wednesday night, likely with a flurry of bills passing through both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Here are some of the key measures that have already passed through both chambers — or are highly likely to do so — and now head to Gov. Ned Lamont for his signature.

Child care fund

After months of back and forth, legislators accomplished their chief goal of the session: the passage of a two-year $55.8 billion budget that includes money for education, social services, municipal aid and much more.

Maybe the most ambitious provision in the budget is a $300 million child care trust expected to create 16,000 new preschool and child care slots by 2030. Under a bill establishing the trust and its guidelines, these slots will be entirely free for families earning less than $100,000 and subsidized for many families above that threshold.

Proponents, including Lamont, hope the new child care trust will go a long way toward reducing exorbitant costs for Connecticut families.

“We’re making the biggest commitment to early childhood in the history of the state,” Lamont said Monday.

Special education

The budget also included $60 million over two years in additional funding for special education, to be distributed based on a schools district’s income level and count of special ed students.

That funding, a priority for leaders in both chambers, addresses advocates’ longtime concern that the state does not include a weight for special ed students in its school funding formula, leaving needy districts struggling to afford needed services.

Along with the additional funding, the legislature also created a new competitive grant to support in-district and regional special education programs, established new training for special ed staff and imposed additional regulation of private special ed providers, among a slew of other measures.

Many of these measures garnered bipartisan support, with both Democrats and Republicans agreeing on a need to bolster special education in the state.

Housing

After years of trying and failing, legislative Democrats finally passed meaningful zoning reform, headlined by a policy that allocates each town a set number of affordable housing units it’s expected to zone for.

Towns that fail to comply won’t face any particular consequences, but those that meet their quota will be prioritized for certain state funds.

The policy passed last week as part of a broad housing bill that also included incentives for development near transportation, the creation of new “priority housing development zones” for high-density units, limits on municipal parking bans, an expansion of fair rent commissions, new money for public housing and a ban on “hostile infrastructure” designed to prevent homeless people from sitting or lying in public places.

“If you live in Connecticut, you’re spending a significant amount of your income right now on housing,” said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford. “This bill is but a step in the direction that is needed to adequately address what has long been a running crisis.”

Response to the legislation largely fell along partisan lines, with Republicans opposed and most Democrats in support.

Proponents say the bill will go a long way toward easing the state’s housing crisis. Opponents say it represents state overreach into local housing decisions. Both sides agree its the most significant housing legislation Connecticut has seen in years.

Electric costs

Since Connecticut residents were slammed last summer by a spike in their (already-high) electric bills, lawmakers have looked to reduce energy costs, introducing a series of competing proposals.

This week, they reached a bipartisan compromise to lower energy costs for families and businesses, largely by issuing bonds to pay for public benefits charges currently included on customers’ electric bills.

Estimates varied on how much money the legislation would truly save electric customers, but lawmakers from both parties said families could see their bills reduced by at least $10 a month, or more than $100 a year.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the legislation had passed the House of Representatives and appeared likely to pass the Senate imminently.

“Not one of us should walk out of this chamber today even close to believing we’ve resolved this problem,” said Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield. “It provides some relief, and for that I greatly appreciate it.”

Tax credit for families

Probably the most notable change to the tax code this session was the establishment of a $250 direct payment to working parents who receive the state’s earned income tax credit.

The policy represented a compromise for lawmakers who sought a broader child tax credit, which would have been available to more families and paid additional money to families with multiple children.

Still, proponents say the payments will help about 85,000 families.

“It’s not that you automatically get a $250 credit, but it is saying if you’re already working, if you’re earning the earned-income tax credit, which means you’re a working family, you get a credit on top of that,” Lamont said Monday.

Striking workers

A bill permitting workers on strike to collect unemployment has passed through both legislative chambers but will almost certainly not become law.

That’s because Lamont has vowed to veto the measure, saying it “sends a terrible signal” to businesses in the state.

Unemployment for striking workers has been a top priority this session for organized labor and its supporters in the legislature, who say the policy would help even the balance of power between workers and management in contract disputes.

Though legislative leaders typically don’t expend precious debate time on bills they know the governor will veto, both chambers made an exception this year, seemingly in an effort to send Lamont a message.

“There’s no incentive for employees to keep a strike going. They’re just looking for better wages, they’re looking for better health care,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat, said last week. “We need to make sure that they’re on a level playing field as businesses are, because a lot of times businesses can wait it out longer.”

Trust Act expansion

As President Donald Trump assumed office and vowed a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Connecticut Democrats sought to strengthen the state’s existing Trust Act, which limits cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

The new bill expands the law to cover to juvenile probation officers, prosecutors and others and allows for lawsuits against towns or cities that violate the act. At the same time, it broadens exemptions to the Trust Act, allowing cooperation with immigration enforcement officials in cases involving anyone convicted of a variety of violent and sexual offenses.

The legislation passed both the House and Senate in late May, and Lamont, who initially expressed skepticism, eventually indicated he plans to sign it.

“I’m doing everything I can to make people feel safe in this state,” the governor said.

Includes past reporting from staff writer Ken Dixon.

Access this article at its original source.