STATE REPRESENTATIVE
Jason Rojas
Serving the 9th Assembly District
Legislative Office Building, Room 4023
Hartford, CT 06106-1591
Capitol: 800-842-8267
Jason.Rojas@cga.ct.gov
Investing in Prevention with Youth Services
Under the new state budget, both East Hartford Youth Services and Manchester Youth Services will receive $170,000 over the next two years to continue their work in providing prevention services for youth in our communities. Our youth service bureaus do an incredible job of working with our youth to direct them toward positive relationship-building and decision-making skills and away from the criminal justice system. It is far more cost-effective to invest in prevention, which results in better long-term outcomes for our youth and communities.
Variable Electricity Rates
This year Connecticut became the first state in the nation to protect residents from electricity providers who offer a low introductory rate that increases rapidly afterwards. The protections enacted require competitive electric suppliers to give their customers a 60-day notice before the end of their contracts. Suppliers cannot charge these customers a termination or early cancellation fee and must allow customers who want to switch to standard service the ability to do so within 72 hours. We also set up a process for PURA to further investigate and take measures to completely eliminate variable electric rates when a customer’s contract expires.
Patient-Designated Caregivers
Public Act 15-32 is an important law that will help improve the quality of life for our aging population. Known as the CARE (Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable) Act, this law will assist the increasing numbers of family members who are becoming primary caregivers for their loved ones. Many patients are discharged from hospitals without being given proper instructions for post recovery at home. As a result, patients far too often end up returning to the hospital because of lack of awareness of necessary follow-up care. This new law also requires a hospital to document a designated caregiver in the patient’s discharge plan, attempt to notify the caregiver of the patient’s discharge, and instruct the caregiver on any post-discharge tasks with which the patient will need assistance.
Property Tax Reform
The General Assembly took a significant step towards property tax reform by enacting legislation that caps the property tax rate levied on vehicles. There will be statewide car tax mill rate of 32 mills (approximately $32.00 for every $1,000.00 of vehicle value) beginning July 2016 and further reduced to 29.36 mill rates in July 2017.
In addition, the state will redirect existing funds to town and cities that have mill rates that exceed the capped amount. East Hartford currently has a mill rate of 45.86 and Manchester has a mill rate of 39.40. The change in law will equalize mill rates for similar vehicles across towns while reducing car taxes.
We also redirected existing revenue, a portion of our sales tax revenue, to investments in our transportation. Maintaining and expanding capacity in our transportation infrastructure is critical to our state’s economy. By investing in transportation projects, I-84 Viaduct, the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail line, our roads, bridges and ports, we are encouraging smart growth and bringing sustainable jobs to Connecticut.
Security Freezes on Children’s Credit Reports
A bill that I proposed, House Bill 6403 An Act Concerning Security Freezes on Children’s Credit Reports, passed this year. It will empower parents and guardians to better combat child identity theft. We live in an increasingly technical society in which our personal information is at risk of being compromised. Minor children are particularly vulnerable because as parents we do not expect our children to have a credit file and are therefore less diligent in monitoring their credit scores. This new law allows parents to create a credit file on behalf of their children and place a freeze on it which will not allow the file to be used to create credit lines. Once a child is no longer a minor, their credit will be automatically unfrozen.
Improving School Climate While Reducing School-Based Arrests
Safe school environments are critical for student success but when it comes to the role of School Resource Officers (SROs), the line between being a resource officer and policing is not always clear. 1 in 10 kids who appear in juvenile court are there because of a school-based arrest. This year, we passed legislation that requires boards of education to develop agreements with police departments to articulate roles and responsibilities for SROs and implement a graduated response model that would outline alternative interventions to arresting youth. This legislation also improves upon data collection, adding school-based arrests and out-of-school suspensions to the annual Strategic School Profile.
Enhancing Services for Students with Dyslexia
Most students with learning disabilities also struggle with a reading disability. It’s essential to identify and help these students as early as possible. Under Public Act 15-97, the State Department of Education (SDE) will designate a point person who will help parents and local boards of education detect students with dyslexia and intervene with appropriate help. Newly credentialed teachers will be required to undergo 12 hours of preparation in effective literacy instruction using current best practices. Finally, the legislature granted the SDE an extension in their rollout of new reading assessments that will help identify students at risk for dyslexia. The additional time ensures successful implementation of a terrifically important program.
