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| Dear Neighbor,
We are in full swing and in fact, we had a session day yesterday to approve judges and referees and adjust our joint rules.
As I mentioned at the start of session, I am now serving on the Appropriations Committee. I am pleased to share that I have been appointed as Chair of the Conservation and Development Subcommittee. What does a subcommittee do? We help oversee the budgets and budget requests of various departments including the Department of Housing, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Office of Workforce Strategy, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the Public Utility Regulatory Authority among others.
While this represents a significant uptick in work, I am looking forward to serving in a new capacity and digging into the individual budgets to better understand their departments and to locate and hopefully, mitigate any inefficiencies we might find. I’m excited to get to work with my co-chair, Senator Joan Hartley (D-Waterbury).
Today, we held a press conference to announce the formation of the Feeding CT Caucus that I am proud to co-chair with Senator Eric Berthel (R-Bethel, etc.). Our focus this year is $10 million in funding for the CT Nutrition Assistance Program (CT-NAP). This program was started more than 20 years ago by Gov. Jodi Rell. This bill would bring us in line with the funding that states around us provide to their state food banks. It would also take 15% of the dollars and they would be used for CT Grown products.
Have a great week,
Eleni
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| I am proud to co-chair the newly launched Feeding CT Caucus along with Sen. Eric Berthel. The purpose of the caucus is to advocate for the appropriation of more dollars to attack head-on the fact that one in eight residents (468,150) struggle with hunger in Connecticut according to Feeding America. Also, more than 112,000, including one in six children, are food insecure.
The Feeding CT Caucus will be requesting $10 million for the CT-Nutrition Assistance Program (CT-NAP), which provides fresh food to Connecticut Foodshare, food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters across the state. Additionally, 15% of the funds would be utilized to purchase produce and other products from Connecticut farmers.
Sen Berthel and I hosted a press conference today along with Jason Jakubowski, the President and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare. Please click on the video below to hear some of our comments. |
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| HB5986, An Act Establishing a Refundable Child Tax Credit Against The Personal Income Tax, is a bill I was happy to sign on to and support. |
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| With nearly 40% of Connecticut families unable to make ends meet, this bill will benefit 550,000 children in the state. Connecticut is the only high-cost-of-living state with a broad-based personal income tax that does not adjust for the number of children or childcare expenses. House Bill 5986 establishes a permanent refundable child tax credit against the personal income tax for up to three children, in the amount of $600 per child, for tax filers with a federal adjusted gross income of 100,000 or less for single filers or $200,000 or less for married individuals filing jointly. For every $1 in child tax credits, a family spends $1.38 in the local economy. |
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| We understand what's going on nationally, but we can't stop doing our jobs for the people of Connecticut and that starts with putting forward good public policy. This week, House and Senate Democrats announced a legislative proposal to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for providers, which is long overdue.
A recent state Medicaid Rate Study found that Connecticut lags well behind peer states when paying providers under Connecticut’s Medicaid program. Many areas of care are currently reimbursed at the same levels they were in 2007. Increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates is a worthy investment, and that’s the type of good work we’re going to keep doing here. |
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This legislation was inspired by the tragic line-of-duty deaths last year of two Connecticut state employees, including a trooper from the Connecticut State Police and an employee from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Because of their ages and years of service, neither of those state employees were eligible to receive pensions at the time of their deaths. The change ratified by the legislature today means that both surviving families in those instances will begin receiving survivor benefits, based on their eligibility circumstances.
This change will also apply to all future situations in which a state employee who was not eligible to receive a pension is killed in the line of duty. |
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I'm sure you're aware of the current administration's attempt to pause federal funding for grants, financial assistance for housing and nutrition among others, and loans. The specific programs below could have taken a hit, too:
- Head Start
- Section 8 housing
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
- Title I education grants
- Child nutrition programs
- Community Health Center Program
Fortunately, a federal judge did order the administration to halt its proposed action to pause federal spending. Still, the attempt has shaken many to the core, with many states, including ours, finding themselves frozen out of Medicaid portals.
If this proposal doesn't move forward, the administration's willingness alone to pause various funds, and put Americans' well-being at risk is cruel. Click on the image below to read the new analysis.
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| Last night, I had the pleasure of speaking with the Canton Board of Education alongside Senator Paul Honig (D-Harwinton and many other towns). The Board requested we come to speak about the excess cost grant as well as what could possibly come up this session in the Education Committee and the newly formed Special Education Committee. The Board submitted their questions ahead of time.
We were recently informed of a shortfall in the Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) grant. The amount we appropriated for each year in the FY 24-25 budget, approximately $181 million, was insufficient to cover the total requests for reimbursement that the state ultimately received from districts. The requests for Excess Cost reimbursement in FY 24 totaled almost $261 million, leaving an $80 million deficit. Every district in the state received less than they expected because the overall need was much greater than was budgeted. |
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| I have spoken at length with the House Chair of the Committee on Education, to try and understand why the shortfall was so great, and she assured me that in addition to working toward a systemic fix to bring special education costs down by incentivizing districts to create more specialized programs in district, which also typically delivers a higher-quality of instruction and accountability, they are also seeking to allocate additional funds to make up for the losses the districts are experiencing.
Some of the other areas of focus for the Ed Committee this session include:
- Investing more in early childhood so kids are entering kindergarten prepared. That will prevent over-identifying kids as special needs, who instead didn't have any early childhood education and are behind.
- Moving away from annual standardized testing and toward a pre-No Child Left Behind world where we administered the CMT in 4, 6, and 8th grades, freeing up time for teachers to do more than basic math and literacy, and also saving districts significant money.
- Exploring the removal of some smart devices from schools to address disconnection.
None of these is the cure-all, and we still rank third in the country in public education investment per student. But it was reassuring to hear that the new leadership of the Education Committee is looking at holistic, sustainable solutions that are designed to increase funding to all communities in Connecticut. |
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| Canton nonprofit organizations seeking full or partial funding are invited by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to apply for a grant ranging from $250 to $10,000. |
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| Over the past three years, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Canton Greater Together Community Fund has awarded 23 grants totaling $85,530 to address a wide range of community needs and improvements in Canton.
The application period will remain open until March 15, 2025, at 5 p.m. Grant awards will be announced in early June. The Canton GTCF Committee will host an in-person information session to provide an overview of its grant application process and answer any questions about how to apply for a grant on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, at 7 p.m. at the Canton Community Center.
This is the fourth call for grant proposals in Canton. For more information, including eligibility, guidelines, and how to apply, please click HERE. |
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| This year marks the Year of the Snake, symbolizing wisdom, intuition, and transformation. May this year bring clarity, growth, and prosperity to all who celebrate.
Sincerely,
Eleni Kavros DeGraw
State Representative |
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