Scott Names Priorities For 2025 CT Legislative Session

**News Release Submitted by Connecticut House Republicans**

Feb. 13, 2025

State Representative Tony Scott (R-112) announced his legislative proposals for the 2025 Connecticut Legislative Session.

As Ranking Member of the Housing Committee, many of the concepts introduced by Rep. Scott were referred to that committee.

A couple of the bills would reform certain aspects of the 8-30(g) statute. This is Connecticut’s Affordable Housing Land Use Appeals Procedure and is meant to increase the stock of affordable housing in municipalities. If a city or town doesn’t meet the 10-percent threshold, developers can essentially override local zoning regulations because municipalities cannot deny their application unless there is a specific significant health or safety concern. The burden of proof for this concern is on the municipality.

One of his proposals is to include accessory apartments in the calculation of the threshold for exemption from the affordable housing appeals procedure and another would include workforce housing in that calculation.

“In a similar effort, which residents and officials from Easton have been asking for, I also proposed that municipalities containing aquifer protection areas be included in the exemption from the affordable housing appeals procedure. The House Minority Leader introduced a bill on this subject,” said Rep. Scott.

The aquifer protection area proposal was reserved for a subject matter public hearing.

To help agricultural businesses, Rep. Scott proposed a bill to establish a tax credit program to incentivize investments in local farms and agricultural operations.

“There are a lot of farms in Easton, and some in Monroe, and this bill would help take some of the burden off these mostly family-owned small businesses. We, as a state, should be doing everything we can to help businesses thrive, especially ones that are passed down from generation to generation,” said Rep. Scott.

The proposal has been referred to the Joint Committee on Finance, Revenue and Bonding.

Another priority bill was referred to the Transportation Committee.

“We made progress in 2023 by passing a bill to address wrong-way driving to install detection systems on some highway ramps, but there’s more that can be done to prevent these incidents. I’ve introduced a bill to require the use of retro-reflective paint when painting lines on all state highways to increase roadway safety and prevent wrong-way driving,” said Rep. Scott.

Connecticut has had legal sports gambling for about a year now and there’s data to see what’s working and what’s not working. Rep. Scott has introduced consumer-friendly bills on this topic, including one that one that people have been asking for and could benefit businesses – betting on CT college teams.

“DraftKings and FanDuel, who are the ones who run the websites that these bets go through, have technology and the ability to find betting irregularities. It's going to be detected immediately and they’re going to shut that down. By bringing it out of the underground and into the light, we have ability track these things a lot better and find out immediately when there's issues,” said Rep. Scott.

Rep. Scott has submitted several other bills, and the entire list can be viewed at RepScott.com and clicking on the ‘Legislation’ tab.

The 2025 Connecticut Legislative Session adjourns at midnight on June 4th.

State Representative Tony Scott represents Connecticut’s 112th General Assembly District including the towns of Monroe, Easton, and Trumbull