These news briefs were originally written for CT Politics, The Connecticut Mirror’s weekly newsletter providing updates on the 2025 legislative session. To sign up for CT Politics, click here.

Free bus passes

Sean Tommany, principal of University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford, remembers how he scolded a student who came into school late. The student insisted that the bus he’d tried to board was packed. “The bus was so full, he couldn’t get on,” Tommany told the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee on Thursday.

Tommany was speaking in favor of SB 1243, a bill that would set up a state program allowing school districts to apply to the Department of Transportation for bus passes, which the schools could either distribute to students for free or sell to them at a low cost.

Last year, the state of Connecticut granted Hartford Public Schools $175,000 for a pilot program to give students free bus passes. Tommany said that the first month, students rode the bus about 4,500 times.

Oluwaseyi Oluborode, said that her high school has a dual enrollment program with the University of Hartford. Since many of the classes take place after school, students often can’t attend without bus passes. She also recounted her own experience of losing transportation when her parents’ work schedules changed. “I would hesitate to commit to things after school, and I dropped out of volleyball,” she said.

The bill would require the school districts to pick up any additional costs that the reduced or free passes would put on the state. It’s not clear how much the passes would cost each municipality.

— Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter

PURA ordered to turn over records

A New Britain Superior Court judge this week ordered the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to turn over certain records to Avangrid’s two gas utility companies in their appeal of regulators’ decision to cut gas rates.

In February, those utilities requested discovery of documents relating to their claims that PURA Chair Marissa Gillett bypassed other members of the commission by issuing unilateral decisions during the rate case, and that she secretly helped review an op-ed published in The Connecticut Mirror by two lawmakers critical of the utilities. (Both lawmakers have denied that Gillett helped write the piece).

Attorneys for PURA objected to the motion, arguing that it was premature and part of a larger campaign by the utilities to discredit PURA and Gillett.

In his decision on Wednesday, however, Superior Court Judge Matthew Budzik wrote that there was some merit to the utilities’ request and ordered PURA to hand over documents detailing the agency’s decision-making procedures in rate cases, as well as any documents related to the “drafting or authorship” of the op-ed. Those records must be turned over in 15 days, Budzik said.

Bodzik denied a third request for discovery regarding allegations of ex-parte communications between Gillett and a PURA staffer about language that appeared on the agency’s website.

In January, Avangrid and Eversource both sued PURA making similar claims that Gillett was wielding unilateral control over the agency. That case has yet to be decided.Representatives for PURA did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

— John Moritz, Environment & Energy Reporter