2025 Legislative Session Review

More than 4,000 bills were introduced during the 2025 General Assembly session, with only 286 gaining final legislative approval. The CBIA BizCast team sat down with CBIA vice president of public policy Chris Davis to break down the session and some of the important bills that will impact the business community. “There were a lot of long nights right at the end of session, especially in those last few days,” Davis said. Much of the focus in the last days of the session centered on the state budget. The $55.8 billion budget adopted by the state legislature uses fiscal guardrail workarounds and business tax hikes to increase state spending by $2.6 billion over the next two years. Davis said the workarounds to the fiscal guardrails are troubling for businesses. “For us in the business community, they’re not just talking points these caps,” he said. “They are truly what gives us predictability, sustainability, and stability. “Boosting up that spending beyond what we can really afford is what gives us a lot of pause, because that’s going to lead to future tax increases, something that we know that businesses simply can’t afford here in Connecticut.” The budget did create a new endowment that will pay for early childhood development programs. “We’re happy to see that this expansion happens because getting more people back into the workforce, having them have the ability to afford that childcare in order to go back to work is very important,” Davis said. “We just felt like there was much better ways that we could have funded it and be more sustainable over a longer period of time.” Davis said the session did feature some important “wins” for the business community and state economy. Those bills include reforming the apprenticeship hiring ratios for trades industries, raising the R&D tax credit for bioscience companies, and addressing potentially costly changes to the workers’ compensation system. Davis also highlighted the importance of key permitting reforms and replacing the outdated Transfer Act with new release-based cleanup regulations. “We really see this as one of the biggest economic wins that we’ve had in decades here,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to working with our partners in state government in order to implement them.” Davis did note that there was a lot of focus on preventing costly labor mandates and healthcare policies from being enacted. While the 2025 session may be over, that does not mean the work ends for CBIA’s policy team. They’re working with state agencies to implement the new regulations and other bills. And the team will also spend the coming months engaging with members and legislators. That includes coordinating legislator visits at businesses around the state, listening tours, and reviewing CBIA’s annual Survey of Connecticut Businesses. Those conversations and feedback will help inform CBIA’s policy solutions for the 2026 legislative session. “It’s important for businesses to know that we are here getting your feedback, not only from things that just passed this past session, but also things that you would like to see change going forward,” Davis said. Related Links: CBIA Website: https://www.cbia.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cbia/ Chris Davis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-c-davis/

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