After 13 hours of discussions, debates, and voting, the House of Representatives approved all four bills that were introduced for this special session.
This includes the contentious housing bill, HB 8002, or “An Act Concerning Housing Growth.”
HB 8002 is an updated iteration of HB 5002, which passed the legislature during the normal session but was vetoed by Gov. Ned Lamont. In the version of the bill that was passed by the legislature during the regular session, local municipalities were required to build a certain number of housing units, which would be determined by state-determined “fair share” housing quotas.
HB 8002 replaced the “fair share” quotas with regional needs assessments that will be conducted by “councils of government.” The bill also expands state grants for water and sewer projects to support housing infrastructure and reduces parking space requirements.
“This bill is focused on middle housing, smaller-scale development,” House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said. “This bill empowers public housing authorities to work with the state housing authority to actually try to get more housing built, and that’s the type of housing that is going to meet the needs for our most vulnerable neighbors, who are (spending more than 30% of their income on housing) or are on the verge of homelessness.”
The bill passed 90-56, with four members of the House either not voting or absent. Earlier that day, Democratic Representative Bobby Sanchez stepped down from his position in the House and was sworn in as the Mayor of New Britain.
Even though the bill was praised by both the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Council of Small Towns, House Republicans voted against the bill.
“We talk about affordable housing, of course, we all want to tackle that issue,” House Minority Speaker Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said. “But to think that we can write a hundred-page bill and add layers of bureaucracy on top of already broken zoning laws… to somehow think that we’re going to get affordable housing out of this piece of legislation is a fallacy.”
Legislators went on to approve UConn Health Center’s takeover of Waterbury Hospital and increased UConn’s aggregate bond cap by $390 million with a 133-11 vote.
Representatives also appropriated an additional $500 million from the Budget Reserve Fund to the Office of Policy and Management to address reductions in federal fundingwith a 126-20 vote. This bill was introduced in response to the government shutdown, which ended hours before the vote. Its proponents argue that it will be useful for future reductions in funding that can be caused by any reason, including changing policy. Its detractors say it is unnecessary and does not put enough guardrails on how the Governor can spend this money.
HB 8004, which was a “catch all” bill that combined five bills, was the last bill discussed during the session. HB 8004 expands funding for behavioral health services for children, addresses what types of information about state employees can be shared between state and federal agencies, and limits ICE operations around courthouses, among other things. This bill passed with a 96-48 vote at 11:40 p.m.
The Senate will enter special session to review these bills on Thursday, Nov. 13.
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