by Hudson Kamphausen CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT – The governor has been busy signing bills over the last several weeks, finishing up the task of vetting the Connecticut General Assembly’s work with a final bill signing notification going out early Thursday afternoon.
Of the 175 bills passed by the legislature during the regular session this year, he signed a total of 173 and vetoed two.
Among those he signed were a bill that prevents medical debt from impacting people’s credit scores, another aimed at improving the availability of affordable housing, and another focused on election security and transparency.
Public Act 24-6, formerly Senate Bill 395, was signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in the days after the legislative session ended, and will provide a form of assistance to some Connecticut residents dealing with medical debt.
Lamont said when he signed the new law that a person’s medical debt is “not necessarily representative” of their financial responsibility, and that it shouldn’t factor into credit agencies’ decisions.
“By prohibiting medical debt from being reported to creditors, we are protecting patients who may have otherwise been apprehensive about seeking essential medical care,” he said.
The bill excludes debts charged to a credit card unless the card is issued specifically to pay for medical goods and services. It does not void the debt and healthcare providers have normal recourse to sue or take other actions to force people to pay.
Proponents of the bill said that it would protect those who are forced to get certain expensive surgeries, such as major joint operations for the elderly.
One Republican legislator decried the legislation as “madness,” saying that it would include cosmetic surgeries like breast augmentation and facial reconstruction.
The bill passed through both chambers with some Republicans voting in favor in both the House and Senate.
Short-Term Rentals and Housing Incentives
One of the major bills that Lamont signed this week was the House majority leader’s housing bill, which will require towns to submit reports on available short-term rental housing and will allow towns to set liens against properties that have unpaid zoning violations.
Most notably, the law – when it goes into effect in October – will offer towns certain incentives for creating middle- and as-of-right housing. The idea behind creating more housing through incentives – like with the Work, Live, Ride bill that didn’t get through the Senate this year – has gained more traction in the state recently.
The bill also includes provisions that would require landlords to provide at least 45 days notice prior to increasing a tenant’s rent, encourage the use of surplus land for the purposes of constructing affordable housing, and allow towns to set liens against property with unpaid zoning violations.
Some Republicans in the Senate said it would take too much control away from municipalities, which they said know best how to regulate their own communities.
The legislation passed both chambers with bipartisan votes.
Election Security and Transparency
Another bill signed by the governor this week deals with a hot-button topic in Connecticut and around the nation: the security and transparency of elections and voting boxes.
Public Act 24-148 – formerly House Bill 5498 – aims to put in place more protections that will ensure that recent election violations do not happen again in Connecticut.
Among many provisions, the bill would require video surveillance of any ballot boxes in the state, and would require town clerks to record the method of receipt of any absentee ballots.
Republicans criticized the bill, saying it does not do enough to prevent and penalize the violations and ballot stuffing that was caught on video in the widely reported Bridgeport controversy.
Other bills signed this week include:
• Public Act 24-130 – formerly House Bill 5367 – which would make genome tests that are critical for the treatment of critically ill infants covered by Medicaid.
• Public Act 24-145 – formerly House Bill 5426 – which creates working group to study fair compensation for fuel delivery vendors.