In The Loop – March 4, 2022
We told you the session would be fast and while each day seems to meander through the zoom culture of public hearings, they rush by faster than last session. Now that the Capitol hosted its first in person session since March 13, 2020, and there are rumors that the Capitol and LOB might start to host an in person portion of public hearings and committee meetings in a couple weeks, we’re all focused on the first final deadlines (JF day) for several committees beginning on March 17th.
A few committees have set final committee debates on several of the big issues of the session- the “aid in dying” bill is to be acted upon by the public health committee today while we’re hearing that many of the Democratic Caucus’ top items are coming up for a final committee vote in the next week such as – changes to CT’s absentee voting laws and potentially the multiple labor union contracts.
A tentative session for house action for these issues is in the works for March if all goes as planned.
The governor has hit the road pushing many of his 2022 initiatives with visits across the state to drum out “real people” support as well as seeking the deeper engagement of key stakeholders. The dual action on tax cuts is based on a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) budget surplus driven by the last two years of enormous federal aid flowing into CT’s coffers to augment a somewhat healthy stability in CT’s revenues, while expenses were either lower than predicted due to the pandemic, or because they were reimbursed and paid out of the federal dollars that flowed into CT’s coffers.