Marijuana, sports betting and 7 more things Connecticut legislators plan to tackle this year

State lawmakers will have a full plate when the 2020 legislative session kicks off Wednesday, having already pledged to tackle issues ranging from marijuana legalization to age discrimination.

Many of the topics have been discussed at length in past years. Some had broad support but failed to pass when lawmakers simply ran out of time in the frenetic final days of past sessions.

Here are nine issues lawmakers have committed to taking on:

Vaping

Lawmakers plan to consider a ban on flavored electronic cigarettes and vaping products, following up on a suggestion from the state Department of Public Health. The federal Food and Drug Administration recently announced such a ban, but Connecticut’s law would be stricter and include more products. Supporters of the ban say flavored tobacco products are particularly popular with younger users and have helped to fuel a significant increase in the number of high schoolers who vape.

“Flavored vaping is the thing that’s particularly geared toward the young,” Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said recently. “It’s really a cynical manipulation to try to attract teenagers to use vaping devices.”

Vaccines

The push to eliminate the state’s religious exemption to vaccination for school-age children will return this session. Support for the move grew last year after state statistics showed an increase in the number of schoolchildren who were not vaccinated and amid a nationwide measles outbreak that included three cases in Connecticut. A public hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Feb. 19.

“Since we started this debate last year, a bunch of states have passed laws on this issue,” House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said recently. “There’s a tendency to give people some time -- but a limited amount of time -- to comply with the new law. We’re wrestling with that.”

Expanded ‘bottle bill’

Several legislators have said they will once again propose expanding the state’s bottle redemption system, raising the deposits consumers pay on cans and bottles of beer, soda and water from 5 cents to 10 cents and including juice, tea, sports drinks, energy drinks and 50ml alcohol “nips” for the first time.

Redemption centers that handle recyclables have lobbied for an increase for several years, noting the deposit has been 5 cents since 1980. Unclaimed bottle deposits are returned to the state, so an expansion of the so-called bottle bill would also provide a financial benefit to the state.

Supporters say the changes would also lead to more people recycling beverage containers instead of tossing them in the trash.

Sports betting

Lawmakers will once again tackle sports betting, hoping to authorize a new form of gambling that is already legal in neighboring Rhode Island and a dozen other states. The issue was raised last year but got bogged down amid protracted negotiations between the Lamont administration and the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, who say they have the exclusive rights to operate sports betting.

“We should right now be enjoying revenue from sports betting, as other states are doing,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said at a recent news conference in support of a comprehensive gambling bill that included sports betting as one component.

Fiscal analysts have predicted Connecticut could raise $20 million a year from sports betting.

Marijuana

The legalization of marijuana is expected to be discussed once again at the state Capitol this year. Gov. Ned Lamont has said he wants to work collaboratively with other states in the region that are considering legalizing marijuana, like New York and Rhode Island. The drug is already legal and available for sale in Massachusetts.

A key component of any marijuana legalization bill will be provisions that call for the erasure of criminal records for those convicted in the past of low-level drug offenses and create an entry point for minority entrepreneurs into the lucrative marijuana business.

Revenue estimates for legalizing marijuana in Connecticut vary widely, depending on tax rates. Fiscal analysts predicted last year a windfall of $55 million in state and local taxes in the first full year of sales.

Public option

Legislation to create public option health care will also return this year after it failed to advance in 2019 amid pushback from Connecticut’s influential insurance industry. The bill is part of a larger health care agenda that Senate Democrats announced recently.

“I think we’re willing to push the question and look at what we can do to provide real relief this year,” said Sen. Matt Lesser, a Middletown Democrat who is a co-chair of the legislature’s insurance committee.

A Connecticut insurance trade group said it remains opposed to government-subsidized health care that would compete with private plans, and Lamont was cool to the concept in a recent interview.

“A public health care option, to me, means the existing stakeholders are bad actors,” he said during an appearance on a CT Mirror podcast.

Senate Democrats’ health care agenda also includes a cap on insulin prices, expanding dental and vision insurance to cover those under 26 that remain on their parent’s plans and cost controls for prescription drugs.

Age discrimination

Employers would be prohibited from asking a job applicant’s date of birth or when they graduated from school under age discrimination legislation that will be introduced this year. A similar bill failed to pass last year, but a bipartisan group of legislators has pledged to push the issue once again.

“This is a huge deal, especially for Connecticut because we have the sixth-oldest workforce in the country,” said state Sen. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford.

More than a quarter of Connecticut’s workforce is over 54, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Supporters said the bill is particularly aimed at online job applications.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the state’s largest business lobbying group, supports the bill.

Statute of limitations

Advocates will push to eliminate the statute of limitations to file lawsuits in cases of sexual assault and abuse, opening a window for people who were abused decades ago as children to sue.

New York passed such a law, and it resulted in a spike in child sexual abuse claims against priests, camp counselors, scout leaders and teachers when it took effect in August. Ten other states have approved similar legislation.

“The difference this bill will make if it is signed into law will be huge,” said Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, who led a task force examining the issue. “It will recognize the years of injustice suffered by many sexual abuse victims in Connecticut and allow them to seek justice and truly begin their own healing process.”

Under current law, those in Connecticut who were victimized before they turned 21 have until their 51st birthday to file a claim.

‘Clean slate’ law

A bill that would have automatically eliminated certain criminal records for those who complete their sentence and remain crime-free didn’t pass last year, but similar legislation will be raised again this session, and the concept has the support of the Lamont administration.

“People with criminal records in Connecticut and around the country face a litany of collateral consequences that create barriers to employment, education and housing,” said Max Reiss, a spokesman for the governor. “These barriers exist long after their sentences have been completed.”

Those convicted of violent crimes or sex crimes would likely not be eligible.

Under the current system, people with criminal records can apply to the Board of Pardons and Parole to have them expunged, but supporters of a so-called clean slate law say that process is cumbersome and confusing.

Information from The Connecticut Mirror and The Associated Press is included in this report.

Russell Blair can be reached at [email protected].

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