Hubert Delany

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
 
I hope you and your family have been staying warm and healthy during this winter months.
 
This week has been a whirlwind of activities at both the state and city level. 
 
Below you will find summaries on our work in the state capital, our fight for voting rights, highlights on events I have attend, and observances and programs that I hope will be useful to you and your family.

As we continue to progress steadily through the current session, it is important that we continue to build upon past legislative successes that have allowed Connecticut to keep moving forward.

Yesterday, we voted to continue one of these successes by securing the fiscal guardrails that have allowed the state to cut taxes, invest in families and the economy, pay down debt, and save for the future.

Thanks to our work, we have:

• Cut over $650 million in taxes
• Paid off billions in pension debt
• Invested in preschool education and children's mental health programs

We accomplished this while maintaining record savings for our rainy-day fund to continue our efforts for a fiscally responsible future.

This fiscal year, we will continue to cut taxes for working families, reduce debt levels, save for the future, and most importantly continue our commitment to invest in our communities.

We also voted to invest in Connecticut's students.

By utilizing $60 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, we are able to ensure every child in Connecticut can access free school lunches for the remainder of the school year. Equitable access to proper nutrition in school is necessary to supporting a child's ability to learn and thrive.

I would also like to highlight more than $27 million in special education funding that has been allocated to schools across the state, including $859,173 for Stamford. 

I had the supreme privilege of honoring our CT National Air Guardsmen. 

We held an official welcome home ceremony for the Soldiers, Officers, and Noncommissioned Officers of the 103rd Airlift Wing who recently returned home from their deployment in Africa. During the deployment, our brave men and women flew 643 hours on more than 100 combat missions. These missions delivered more than 1,750 personnel, 2.1 million pounds of cargo, and a 150,000 pounds of fuel, which were de-fueled from the unit’s aircraft tanks to combat outposts in austere and often contested areas of Somalia and Kenya. 
 
 Click here to see the news article and official DoD images of the event!

I stood with my colleagues to advocate for the Voting Rights Act, a bill that would give CT some of the strongest voting protections in the country.
 
Our elections should safe, equitable, and reliable, and I am proud to stand up for this initiative.
 
However, this fight would not be possible without an army of help. So, I would like to thank Senator Matt Lesser for your fellowship. I would like to thank the co-chairs of the Government and Elections Committee: Senator Mae Flexor and Matt Blumenthal for your leadership. And I would also like to thank all of the advocacy groups who have helped to champion this issue:
 
Thank you LatinoJustice, ACLU CT, Common Cause in Connecticut, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), and Hispanic Federation for standing with us.
 
Link here:https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2023/02/01/civil-rights-advocates-push-for-a-connecticut-voting-rights-act/