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.
Lawmakers double budget for correction ombuds
Democratic state lawmakers have nearly doubled the budget for the state’s new correction ombuds. While Governor Ned Lamont flat-funded the office at $400,000 annually — an amount that both members of the Correction Advisory Committee and Interim Ombuds DeVaughn Ward have said is not nearly enough to perform the ombuds’ necessary duties — including responding to complaints and visiting prison facilities.
Ward told the Committee at a meeting in February that he planned to ask lawmakers for a budget of around $800,000.
The additional money — which increases the ombuds’ budget to a total of $790,800 in 2026 — includes funding for an advanced nurse practitioner, a special investigator, an assistant ombuds and an administrative assistant.
“ That one person [the ombuds] can’t possibly go to the 13 correctional facilities that we have and deal with the number of complaints or concerns that people may have,” Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, told lawmakers at a meeting on Tuesday.
— Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter
Advocates voice concerns on special ed bills
Advocates for students with disabilities say they’re deeply concerned with some of the provisions in Senate Bill 1561 and House Bill 7277, controversial measures that have also been criticized by some lawmakers.
The legislation have numerous provisions that include changes to how private special education programs can bill for services and a requirement that the Office of Policy Management, along with the state Department of Education, create fixed costs for services for students that are outsourced to other school districts.
On Wednesday, the Connecticut Council of Administrators of Special Education and Special Education Equity for Kids of Connecticut came together to send a letter voicing their criticism to the lawmakers that have championed those bills. They said that the rate setting provisions in SB 1561 and HB 7277 have numerous flaws, including the short time frame of just six months for designing and implementing a rate setting system, as well as assigning that job to the Office of Policy Management, which they argue is not equipped with the educational expertise to take on this task. While the groups said they agree with some of the proposals, they believe the others would have a “devastating” impact on special education students.
The groups asked Gov. Ned Lamont to convene a Blue Ribbon Commission that would include parents, administrators, economists, and other experts to assess whether a rate-setting system is feasible, and, if so, detail recommendations for that system. The groups said that while they favor some aspects of the legislation, they requested to meet with lawmakers to work together to improve the proposed bills.
— Laura Tillman, Human Services Reporter
Work, live, ride
A bill known as Work, Live, Ride that would push towns to build more housing near train and bus stations passed the Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The legislation includes funding to increase staffing at the Office of Responsible Growth, which would be tasked with helping towns figure out their zoning and planning development.
Under the bill, certain funding for municipalities would be prioritized for towns that adopt zoning to increase residential density near public transit, a concept known as transit-oriented development.
Supporters say it would increase housing supply, which the state desperately needs, and benefit the environment by encouraging more people to use public transportation.
Opponents fear it would weaken local control and that the prioritization of funding would mean towns that don’t join the program would miss out on money they need for infrastructure projects.
The additional positions at the Office of Responsible Growth would mean the need for an appropriation of about $250,000 in the state budget, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill. It passed the committee with a 40-14 vote, and next heads to the House.
— Ginny Monk, Housing & Children’s Issues Reporter
Public defender eligibility
Lawmakers and the governor appear to be at odds over who should be eligible for public defender services in the state.
In February, Lamont unveiled a budget that reduced eligibility for public defender services from 250 percent of the poverty level — $80,375 for a family of four — to 200 percent of the poverty level, or $64,300 for a family of four.
Lamont’s proposal would reverse the expansion that the legislature made in 2022, which has only just begun to take effect since January.
Deborah del Prete Sullivan, legal counsel for the Office of Public Defenders, said that before the increase in eligibility, even someone making minimum wage couldn’t qualify for public defender representation.
“These are not people who are making a lot of money at all,” del Prete Sullivan told the appropriations committee in February, just after the governor’s budget was unveiled.
The appropriations committee budget restores funding for 20 public defender positions originally removed from the governor’s budget. Del Prete Sullivan noted in February that the department had hired people to cover the anticipated increase in caseload, and that reducing the eligibility level would mean either having to lay people off or institute a hiring freeze.
Connecticut public defenders represented people in over 118,000 cases in 2024.
Rob Blanchard, spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, told CT Mirror that the differences in the two budgets are “subject to negotiations” over the next few weeks.
— Emilia Otte, Justice Reporter
Free bus fare for high school students
The $55.7 billion two-year budget adopted by the legislature’s Appropriations Committee this week includes $3 million in both fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to provide free bus fare for high school students. The Transportation Committee also passed a separate measure to provide discounted and free bus rides to high school students as well as veterans. That proposal, which is not included in the version of the budget passed by the Appropriations Committee, requires the Department of Transportation to create a program allowing certain high school students to ride buses for free or discounted fares, as well as free bus fare to veterans.
“The [Transportation Committee] proposal is a recognition that these are two important groups of public transit riders and we need to support efforts to get them connected to places of work, education, recreation and home,” said Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, co-chair of the Transportation Committee. “I think the Appropriations package takes a significant step in supporting this effort.”
— Katy Golvala, Health Reporter
Riparian ‘buffer’ bill advances
The area around rivers, streams and wetlands known as the “riparian zone” would enjoy greater protections from development under a bill advanced by state lawmakers on Friday.
The legislation, House Bill 7174, gives the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, along with local wetlands commissions, the ability to regulate activities within a 100 foot buffer zone surrounding any waterway or wetland. Currently, those agencies only regulate activities within the boundary of the wetlands itself.
Proponents of the bill argue that it is necessary to help protect riparian areas from over development, which can have negative impacts on habitats, water quality and flood control.
“These buffer areas around streams help to alleviate some of the major flooding by controlling erosion, and fostering native soils,” said Rep. Brandon Chaffee, D-Middletown.
Critics, however, argued that the legislation amounted to massive expansion of those agencies’ regulatory powers.
Rep. Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin, proposed several amendments to the bill — some of which were technical in nature, and another that would have reduced the buffer zone to 10 feet — that were voted down by the majority Democrats on the Planning and Development Committee.
“There are better ways to ensure that we have clean water in this state, than to essentially take over large swaths of the land mass of this state,” Dubitsky said.
The bill makes several other minor changes to the powers held by local wetlands commissions, and allows the commissioner of DEEP to develop regulations for fish passageways at certain dams.
The Planning and Development Committee voted to advance the bill Friday, following similar approval by members of the Environment Committee. The bill now heads to the House for further consideration.
— John Moritz, Environment & Energy Reporter