The Newtown State Legislative Delegation is hosting a legislative town hall to discuss key issues facing the state of Connecticut from 12 to 1:30 pm this weekend, Sunday, January 12.

This forum allows constituents to ask questions about the state legislature’s upcoming session and discuss legislative priorities with their elected representatives. Both State Senator Tony Hwang (R-32) and State Representative Mitch Bolinsky (R-106) will be in attendance.

Topics may include the state budget & taxes, public safety, housing reform, the environment, transportation safety & efficiency, artificial intelligence, seniors & elder care, utility costs, and more. The event is free and open to the public.

This session with the Newtown delegation represents an excellent opportunity for all Newtown residents to become more informed about issues facing the Nutmeg State, and the priorities of the legislature in addressing those issues. It also is a remarkable opportunity to have a say in that process by directly addressing one of our local representatives and senator.

Among laws that went into effect on January 1 of this year are Connecticut’s minimum wage increasing from $15.69 per hour to $16.35 per hour.

Governor Ned Lamont signed Public Act 19-4 back in 2019, which implemented five incremental increases in the minimum wage between 2019 and 2023, followed by future adjustments tied to the percentage change in the federal employment cost index.

In May, Lamont signed legislation “strengthening the state’s laws regarding paid sick days protections by expanding them to ensure that more workers are covered and have access to them,” and that legislation went into effect on January 1.

The state’s existing laws require employers with over 50 employees that are mostly in specific retail and service occupations to provide their employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick leave annually. Effective January 1, the laws will apply to workers of nearly every occupation.

“Our existing paid sick days laws include important protections for certain workers, however there are broad categories left unprotected, and this update will expand this coverage to help ensure that people do not have to choose between going to work sick and sacrificing a day’s wage,” Lamont said.

On Election Day, Connecticut voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that could make it easier to cast ballots by mail or through drop boxes in future elections.

The amendment lifts long-standing restrictions that only allowed people in the state to vote by absentee ballot if they were going to be out of town, are sick or disabled, or couldn’t get to a polling location because of religious restrictions.

Effective January 1, an act prohibits anyone from knowingly making another individual liable for “coerced debt” (ie, generally, certain credit card debt incurred by a domestic violence victim who was coerced into incurring it).

“Specifically, if a victim gives a claimant certain information and documentation that a debt is coerced debt, the claimant must pause all collection activities on the debt for at least 60 days, review the victim’s submission and other available information it has, and then continue or end its collection based on the review,” the bill said.

PA 24-52—sSB 13 “expands the student loan payment tax credit for qualified employers that make eligible student loan payments on a qualified employee’s behalf” to assist workers struggling with student loan debt.

Hwang recently sent along a statement on the opening day of the legislative session, saying, “In the Governor’s speech, he highlighted his goals of making Connecticut more affordable and creating opportunities for state residents.

“I share those goals. We are in a strong economic position due to the implementation of the state’s fiscal guardrails which have injected discipline into government spending. We must continue to keep our state’s finances in good order to ensure that the State of Connecticut maintains this positive economic path. This means solidifying our commitment to keeping these fiscal guardrails in place...

“We must make this state more affordable for our taxpayers to live in. We must make our communities safer. We must work together to make our government more transparent and accountable. We must work together to create a cleaner, greener Connecticut in the face of climate change. We must create workforce development opportunities for education and skills training for good-paying jobs, to promote prosperity in our state’s economy.

Through their frequent interaction with and visits to the office of The Bee, we know our Newtown delegation’s constituent service never really ends. We also know that both have been working tirelessly in recent months preparing for this current session to ensure the needs of their constituents, including ours in Newtown, are addressed.

We trust Bolinsky’s and Hwang’s combined decades of state legislative experience will continue to serve Newtown well, and we look forward to robust input from all three of our delegation members as the current session continues to chug forward toward its early June culmination.

During that time, we encourage all of our state lawmakers to work together as collaboratively as possible, and to the extent they can, shelve the kind of partisan-driven agendas and antics plaguing statehouses across the nation — and even our own US Congress.

Thank you all for your elected service to the Newtown community.