Leopards, Lions & Laotians: Here Are All The New Laws In CT

CONNECTICUT — You likely heard the state budget has been implemented, and that marijuana will be legal in Connecticut in just a matter of days. But those are just a couple of the new bills that made it in under the wire — and in some cases, under the radar — and onto Gov. Ned Lamont's desk as the General Assembly wrapped up its legislative session.

House Bill 6689 and Senate Bill 1202 laid out how the state will spend your money through the end of June 2023. The first is the budget itself, which provides the spending blueprint and sketches out in broad strokes what the buckets holding the $46.4 billion look like and where they are. The second, colloquially known as the "implementer," in theory details how the funding gets into those buckets, and those are the details where the devil resides. In practice, the implementer also serves as a vehicle for a grab bag of orphaned bills to find their way into law.

Among the more contentious this session is a provision that will deny funding to school districts with Native American mascots. Other provisions cut funding for a state contract oversight board, cover the costs of inmates' phone calls, and make absentee ballot boxes permanent.

Less controversially, the new two-year spending plan calls for no increases in income tax and sales tax rates for the next two years.

The other big piece of legislation, Senate Bill 1201, may turn out to be Lamont's signature bit of legislation. The new law not only makes recreational marijuana use legal for adults, but lays the foundation for a whole new industry in the state. We've explained it in more detail here.

If you prefer to pay in cash instead of plastic, you're in luck: House Bill 5312 prohibits vendors from refusing cash as a form of payment. You can start peeling off Benjamins without fear of reprisal as of Oct. 1

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Under current law, if a traffic signal is inoperative, the intersection becomes "uncontrolled" and the standard right-of-way rules apply. As of Oct. 1, that crosswalk Wild West gets tamed somewhat: House Bill 5420 requires motorists to stop their vehicles and proceed as though a stop sign were facing in each direction at the intersection.

House Bill 6121 incentivizes businesses to provide training programs, offer modified interviews and reserve market-rate, full-time jobs for persons with disabilities. The program, under the auspices of the Department of Economic and Community Development, goes into effect Sept. 1.

There's a whirlwind of legislation, all centered loosely around social equity and child health, safety and education to be found in Senate Bill 2. A few of the provisions include the establishment of a youth suicide prevention training program, minimum mandatory mental health training for health care professionals, and new standards for remote learning. It also provides a framework for handling school lunch debt, eliminates any fees associated with early intervention services, and codifies some procedures for the handling of complaints of child abuse and neglect by the Department of Children and Families.

Senate Bill 356 immediately empowers the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to create an energy efficiency retrofit grant program. The agency will award grants for the installation of upgrades to affordable housing, including housing authority property or, other landlord-owned dwelling units. The law also authorizes the DEEP commissioner to receive funds from the federal government, corporations, associations, or individuals to fund the program.

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Senate Bill 952 establishes ambitious electrical energy storage goals for the state, and tasks DEEP with making it happen.

So thirsty you can't wait for your bartender? The Connecticut General Assembly feels your pain. The lawmakers passed, and Lamont signed, Senate Bill 894, which allows self-pour alcohol machines to be used in bars, restaurants, and breweries statewide. The technology is currently legal and available in 45 states nationwide, including Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, and now Connecticut. The same bill also allows package stores to now sell alcohol-infused candy and chocolates.

Senate Bill 1037 revamps the state's "bottle bill," and in 2024 will hike the deposit amount to at least 10 cents, rather than five cents. Residents will feel the transition in their wallet as, beginning July 1, 2023, the category of redeemables will expand widely to include juices, teas, mineral water, sports drinks and many other currently exempt beverages.

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 Senate Bill 925, 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 Senate Bill 972 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.

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In what is a clear by-product of lessons learned during the coronavirus crisis, Senate Bill 975 extends the rights of long-term care residents to include the use of virtual visitation technology.

Ditto Senate Bill 1008. It requires health care providers, insurers and others in the industry to ensure their workers are informed that a pulse oximeter is more likely to produce an inaccurate blood oxygen level reading for people of color as opposed to white people.

Senate Bill 989 expands what constitutes illegal stalking into cyberspace. "An Act Concerning Online Harassment" makes it illegal to not only intimidate someone online and expose their personal information ("doxing"), it also makes threatening someone's pet online an actionable crime.

Finally, Senate Bill 914 bill extends eligibility for certain veterans' benefits to members of the Hmong Laotian special guerilla units who served during the Vietnam War in the so-called "secret war" in Laos. These benefits will include the use of veterans’ license plates, veteran status on a driver’s license or ID card, a veterans’ service ribbon and medal, and $1,800 toward funeral expenses or cremation for certain indigent veterans