🔒CT lawmakers approve aid package for dairy farmers

Connecticut’s struggling dairy farmers didn’t get everything they wanted from the state legislature this session, but lawmakers still took steps to provide help. By the end of the 2026 session on Wednesday, lawmakers had nearly unanimously approved a wide-ranging agriculture bill intended in part to stabilize the state’s dairy industry as farmers continue to face rising costs, low milk prices and shrinking profit margins. The legislation, Senate Bill 148, was approved in the state Senate on April 29 by a unanimous 36-0 vote and in the House on Tuesday by a 150-0 vote with one member absent. The bill now awaits Gov. Ned Lamont’s signature. It includes tax relief, expanded grants and a new working group focused on the long-term sustainability of dairy farming in Connecticut. The measure is intended to preserve one of Connecticut’s oldest agricultural industries at a time when the number of dairy farms in the state has fallen below 80. Among its provisions, the bill creates a Dairy Farming Sustainability Working Group within the state Department of Agriculture. The group will develop recommendations on issues including tax credits, grants, milk processing capacity and farmland preservation. It also rolls back farmland property tax assessment increases that took effect after statewide revaluations last year, easing the financial strain on farmers struggling with volatile milk prices and rising operating expenses. The bill also establishes new grant opportunities to help dairy farms modernize equipment and improve long-term viability. Farms generating at least $250,000 annually are eligible. The proposal complements roughly $8 million in dairy-related tax credits included in the approved state budget, though some farm advocates and Republican legislators had pushed for as much as $20 million in direct relief. Seth Bahler, a member of the family that operates Oakridge Dairy in Ellington and CEO of the milk delivery service The Modern Milkman, said he believes the legislation is “a step in the right direction.” Bahler is also a member of Very Alive, a coalition of state dairy farmers that lobbied lawmakers this year for a $20 million refundable tax credit program aimed at helping dairy farmers offset cyclical downturns in milk prices. Several bills seeking to establish that program never crossed the finish line before the session ended. Bahler said farmers realize it is difficult to get “a lot done in a short session” of the legislature, which convened on Feb. 4 and had just 13 weeks to conduct its business. “It’s a bit complex,” he said of the tax credit. “So, giving us some more time with a working group and working with the Department of Agriculture and the (state Department of Revenue Services) to work through those, I think we can get a final product that works for our industry, but that’s going to take time.” He is encouraged, though, because of the overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers for the bill that was approved. The bill also contains broader agriculture provisions, including updates to aquaculture laws and other farming-related statutes.