🔒Finance Committee considering bills on affordability, tax credits and more

Now more than halfway through the 2026 session, the legislature’s powerful Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee will conduct a public hearing Friday on a baker’s dozen of bills. The 13 bills on the agenda include Senate Bill 1, which is titled “An Act Concerning Affordability,” one of the themes of the current session. The bill — which has 29 Democratic co-sponsors from both chambers — would make several changes, including exempting certain clothing items costing under $100, school supplies, household appliances, and prepared foods such as sandwiches, grinders, coffee and tea sold by grocery stores from the state’s sales and use tax. It also proposes to increase the maximum allowable credit against the personal income tax for a person's primary residence or motor vehicle; would establish a credit against the personal income tax for expenditures paid or incurred by certain taxpayers for the care and support of eligible family members, and for a portion of rent actually paid by certain taxpayers for their primary residence in the state. Finally, it would allow all taxpayers, regardless of income, to deduct the full amount of their Social Security benefit. Affordability for businesses is also on the agenda via SB 2, which proposes to exempt gas and electricity used by certain commercial and industrial businesses from the sales and use tax. The bill also would dedicate 50% of the additional 1% sales and use tax collected on certain meals sold by restaurants, caterers and grocery stores to the state Tourism Fund, with the remaining 50% to be given to each municipality in which that revenue was generated. Also on the agenda is House Bill 5570, which seeks to establish a refundable tax credit to provide financial assistance to milk producers for the months when the federal price for milk falls below “the minimum sustainable monthly cost of production.” Dairy farmers have been lobbying the legislature this session for assistance, saying the cost of utilities, supplies and production have greatly increased while the federally imposed price for milk has fallen. Another, fairly complicated bill, SB 513, would establish a new framework for employers to remit funds through a centralized system designed to improve efficiency and consistency in revenue collection. The intent is to streamline administrative processes while generating savings that can be redirected to address rising household costs. Under the bill, the projected savings — described as a “structural efficiency dividend” — would be used in part to offset the public benefits charges on electric bills. Legislators have debated removing the public benefits charges from electric bills as a way to reduce costs for consumers, and instead using the state’s General Fund to pay for the programs funded by the charge. The bill also creates a mechanism to increase contributions to qualifying retirement investment plans, tying long-term savings to payroll systems. The Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee is scheduled to convene the public hearing Friday at 11 a.m. in Room 2E of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.