STATE LEGISLATIVE NEWS The 2019 Connecticut legislative session will open on January 9, 2018. We will have a new Governor and a largely new legislature. Twenty percent of the 151member House Chamber are freshmen legislators and 7 of the 25 member Senate Chamber are freshman. We must take extra care to meet and educate our local legislators, especially the newly elected officials, on issues affecting our industry. Please reach out to us if there are state regulations or codes that are impacting your business so that we are aware of any challenges and can advocate effectively on your behalf. Your membership supports lobbyists in Hartford to be your voice but we need to hear from you. Click here to find your legislator Democratic Legislators Will Push Liberal Agenda Of Paid Leave, Minimum Wage Hike And Pot After making major gains at the polls, Democratic legislators are reenergized to push forward a liberal agenda they believe can be enacted next year under Gov.-elect Ned Lamont. Democrats are advocating for key bills they are calling the Big Five: raising the minimum wage, enacting paid family and medical leave, erecting electronic highway tolls, approving sports betting and legalizing recreational marijuana. Three of those items would raise money, and some moderate Democrats think those increases should be the bulk of the revenue raisers — rather than hiking a variety of other taxes as the state faces a projected deficit of $2 billion in the next fiscal year. Democrats picked up 12 seats in the state House of Representatives for a 92-59 advantage. They also gained five seats in the state Senate for a 23-13 margin, breaking an 18-18 tie for the past two years that allowed Republicans to block plans for tolls, sports betting and legalized marijuana, as well as increases in taxes and spending. Read More What’s the Matter With Connecticut? Since the era of “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit,” Connecticut has played an outsize role in defining the American suburb. High-quality, low-density living remains one of the state’s chief draws and suburban voters are one of its most important constituencies. Across the country, suburban voters fed up with President Trump broke heavily for the Democrats in the midterms. That happened in Connecticut, too, but it wasn’t a “change” election in the Nutmeg State. Rather, it was a “more of the same” election. Democrats retained control of the governorship and strengthened their position in the state Legislature Republicans suffered one of their most demoralizing losses in the 26th state Senate district, in suburban Fairfield County. Twenty-two-year-old Democrat Will Haskell defeated the incumbent Republican, 68-yearold Toni Boucher. Ms. Boucher has served in state office for about as long as Mr. Haskell has been alive. The district, which had been sending Republicans to Hartford since the 1970s, includes several “Gold Coast” communities, all or in part, such as Weston, New Canaan and Westport. Mr. Haskell’s campaign was buoyed by an adulatory profile in the New York Times and an endorsement by President Obama. Though he had been considering law school after graduating Georgetown University in May, Mr. Haskell instead set his sights on state office, inspired, he says, by a desire to “get involved in the fight against Trump’s agenda.” Ms. Boucher was assumed to be safe because of her many years of constituent service and embrace of the classic local brand of Republicanism—social moderation and fiscal conservatism. Read More NOVEMBER 2018 | HBRA of Fairfield County 25
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