Here's what Connecticut lawmakers are planning in 2021
Funding for higher education, a public option for health care and the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Now that the election results are in, Connecticut’s political parties are preparing their agendas for the next legislative session.
With a 31-seat majority in the state House of Representatives and an eight-seat majority in the state Senate, the Democrats will get to set the agenda. They are expected to focus on funding for higher education, health care coverage and legalization of recreational marijuana.
Lawmakers have been putting pressure on Gov. Ned Lamont to increase spending on public universities and community colleges, according to the CT Mirror. The pressure on Lamont to be more generous in the budget has grown after a bump in tax revenue cut the state budget deficit by almost 40% last year.
Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven told the CT Mirror that with more than one million applications for unemployment benefits filed in Connecticut since mid-March, legislators can’t afford to watch colleges and universities struggle.
“We’ve got to step up and give them new opportunities for training so they can find new professions, so they can stay in Connecticut and so they can feed their families,” she told The Mirror.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all state universities to limit occupancy. UConn is at just 50% occupancy, which is slightly lower than the state average of 53%. This has decreased the revenue available to colleges, who rely in part on student housing and meal fees to keep their doors open.
Legislators are also looking to revisit previous bills that would add a public option for health care in the state, according to WNPR. Democrats view it as a key priority while Republicans are a bit more reluctant to explore the idea.
“Even though we have a new president … there’s still going to be paralysis there,” Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, told the CT Mirror. “That’s why it’s up to us here in Connecticut, because our constituents simply can’t wait any longer for the politics of Washington to work in their favor. They need the politics of Hartford to work in their favor.”
Lamont supports measures to make insurance “more accessible and affordable,” according to the Hartford Courant. A measure to add a public option was lobbied against when it came up in 2019, so it will likely face pressure from insurers once again should they forward another through in future sessions.
Connecticut may also look at measures to legalize recreational marijuana as well after five other states, including nearby New Jersey, passed ballot measures during election 2020, CTNewsJunkie reported.
Legalization would grow the state’s gross domestic product by a projected $953 million at the minimum, according to a study by UConn economics professor Dr. Fred Carstensen.
Nationally, polls show that 66% of Americans support legalizing marijuana, according to the most recent Gallup data.