Trump signs his tax and spending cut bill at the White House July 4 picnic

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House gives final approval to Trump's big tax bill and sends it to him to sign

How could Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' impact CT? A look at the winners and losers

Fairfield first selectman recovering from brain surgery

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News 12 Staff

RTCTPowerPolitics07052025BBlock230pm

I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. State rep Matt Blumenthal joins us. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me. Well, you have been vocal about the deployment of active duty Marines to LA. You say it's illegal. Why is that? Well, look, first of all, the mission of the Marine infantry is to locate close with and destroy the enemy by fire maneuver or repel the enemy assault by fire or close combat. That is not a law enforcement mission and that's why. Active duty military troops like these Marines are not supposed to be deployed on American soil under the Posse Comitatus Act, the Constitution, and other elements of our law and government. Ultimately people signed up to the Marines like I did. I was a Marine infantry officer to defend our country against its enemies, not to police its civilians on American soil. And the image and precedent of active duty troops on the streets of a major American city, it's very damaging not only to the US armed forces but also to our rule of law. It's provocative, it's escalatory, and it's deeply dangerous. Now, of course, depending on the temperature of the country, is this going to continue, you think, or? There is no reason why it should, even in this case, if we look at what the LAPD was saying at the time these troops were deployed, they were saying that the situation was well in hand. They had calmed it down. They were commending most of the protesters for being peaceful, so this move was deeply provocative by the president. I think frankly it was aimed as a distraction. He was looking for an excuse to escalate the situation and that's deeply dangerous and damaging to the country. There is no reason to see these sort of troop deployments, and I'm really hopeful that we won't see them in the future. We have to resist them by every legal means necessary. Now back here at home, uh, the governor just reappointing uh Marissa Gillette is the head of Pura. Is she the right person for that job? What do you think? Well, I, I, I think it's less important to talk about the personalities and more important to look at what Pura can and should be doing and what she's been doing in this role. The utilities have been complaining loudly about how she's too hard on them, how she's been denying their rate hikes or cutting their rates when they're seeking to increase our electric bills. Look, if that is interference or bias or being too hard on them. I think Connecticut residents deserve more of it. So is this small reduction in electric rates enough? No, and we made some progress this session in decreasing rates and providing for measures that are gonna try to decrease them in the future, but. We have to take more institutional long term stronger action to prevent rate increases and decrease our rates in the future. We have to get more energy into Connecticut. We have to make sure that the institutions and agencies that are supposed to. Check the utilities and vet all their rate hike requests are doing their jobs, have the powers, the resources, the backbone to stand up for the people of Connecticut against these increases to to our bills. Now the governor just vetoed that affordable housing bill been very controversial. Where do you stand on this bill and what can be done? So housing is one of the. Biggest sources of unaffordability here in our state, it's one of the biggest impediments to business growth. Um, it is a huge problem. We need more housing and, and I believe that this bill was a good step in the right direction. Unfortunately there was a lot of demonization of parts of the bill that were not really accurate. This bill was really. Nearly all carrots, almost no sticks. It was designed to allow towns to lead the way in building housing across our state. We need, right, exactly, yeah, so there were some modifications to zoning, but they were pretty reasonable. They would have decreased, you know, mandatory extreme. Requirements or obstacles that have been thrown up in the way of building new housing, they still would have allowed the towns to designate what that housing should look like, where exactly it should go. I thought that this bill was a step in the right direction. That's why I voted for it. So what past this session that you are happy about? Well, we got a lot of good stuff done on the reproductive Rights caucus we strengthened our shield law bill. It was first in the nation. We've been continuing to strengthen it to protect privacy. Um, we passed measures to protect emergency care for individuals, um, for reproductive health care across the state. Um, especially with the federal government indicating that it's not going to enforce some of these laws, um, we expanded access to the ballot, um, we took some measures that are gonna make voting easier and better for people here in the state of Connecticut, and we took measures towards affordability. I think probably the most important thing we did this session. Was attacking the problem of child care. Child care is completely unaffordable in this state. We created a trust fund that is gonna help increase the supply of child care, reduce costs, help families afford it better. That's gonna be a huge, huge help to people. The current situation is completely unsustainable. What didn't pass you wanted to see. Man, um, I think there's always we don't have that much. I know there's always a lot of things that get left on the cutting room floor, unfortunately I think for the future I'm looking forward to enacting uh absentee voting for all in this state. The voters spoke on it this past fall and they said. That's what we want. We want the ability to vote absentee if we're eligible regardless of our reasons, and I think it's incumbent on us to implement that as soon as possible. I'm looking forward to doing that in the upcoming sessions, so in the 2026 elections. Everyone who wants to will be able to get an absentee ballot and vote that way so long as they're eligible to vote more broadly. Yeah, governor going to run again. Look, I, I, I don't pretend to know what the governor is gonna do, um, you know, I think he's been, uh, doing a good job with the state, and I think it's important that he continues to do that. I've been enjoying working with him. I'm hoping we're gonna be able to get to a solution on this housing bill, but I think he's been focused and. We've been focused on doing the job of the people here in the state of Connecticut whether he decides to run again, that is up to him. Well, we'll find out next week when he's our guest. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, well, still ahead, one new state law that some say is overdue.

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RTCTPowerPolitics07052025CBlock230pm

Governor Lamont signing the new state budget for fiscal years 26 and 27. The budget includes free or reduced costs child care for parents starting in 2028, plus there's a $250 tax credit for lower income families. Lawmakers have said they will be back in Hartford soon for a special session to tweak the budget. The governor wants them to lower a $375 million increase in the hospital tax. Well, over 90 new state laws went into effect this week, including the expansion of special education programming and video surveillance of ballot boxes after election scandals in Bridgeport. Also stricter penalties for street takeovers. Towns like Stanford with more than 20,000 residents can adopt an ordinance allowing for the destruction of vehicles seized during street takeovers after holding them for 30 days. If you don't pay your fine within the first fine in all to fees in the within 6 months the the city can now take possession of your vehicle and they own it. By October 1st, if you get caught multiple times for street takeovers, there's a mandatory minimum $2000 fine. Shelton is getting almost $3 million for a major riverfront development. Two old industrial sites along Canal Street will become retail stores and 120 apartments. Half of them will be income restricted, so they're affordable. The money will go toward environmental cleanup. If you were on this site 30 years ago. You wouldn't be able to be on the site. It was a war zone. It was the, the remnants of the old B of Goodridge fire. Over the past few years, Connecticut's brownfields program has redeveloped more than 2000 acres of property. Well that's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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State Reps. Tom O’Dea and Matt Blumenthal join the show.

Power & Politics: Gov. Lamont doubles down on top utility regulator

State Reps. Tom O’Dea and Matt Blumenthal join the show.

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