Sen. Gordon Statement on 2024 Legislative Session Opening Day

State Sen. Jeff Gordon (R-Woodstock) today issued a statement on the 2024 Legislative Session Opening Day and his legislative priorities throughout the session, which concludes on May 8.

“I had the honor today to attend my second legislative session opening day. This year, the session is a short three months, so it will be a whirlwind of activity. I believe that government works best when it listens to people. This is my approach as I represent people and families throughout the 35th District to address their concerns.

“There are many challenges before us. We need to make Connecticut more affordable for more hard-working people, families, and retirees. We need to restore resources to law enforcement so that they can do what they are trained to do to keep us safe. And, when criminals are caught, we need to reverse measures that loosen accountability, allowing certain criminals to be released prematurely for their serious crimes. We must continue to support public education, which can reduce the pressure on our towns to increase property taxes.

“We also need to continue to advance workforce development measures so that we can provide opportunities to people to learn and gain skills that will serve them well at good-paying jobs. And, we need to better support the job-creating businesses in our communities. Regarding our climate, we must address environmental and climate concerns realistically, responsibly, and reasonably.

“Healthcare must also be a priority. We need to do more to help citizens get the timely and necessary medical care they need when they need it, including keeping patient care services (including labor and delivery, women’s health care, and reproductive care) available in our rural parts of Connecticut. Most important, we need to defend our individual rights, parental rights, and medical freedoms.

“These issues and more have kept me very busy working for people of the 35th State Senate District.

“I had a front row seat at Governor Lamont’s State of the State address. I listened. I agree with the Governor that the legislature needs to be very careful if it makes any changes or disregards the strongly bipartisan and unanimous renewal of the state’s spending cap and fiscal guardrails. These have moved us away from the huge ups and downs of budget difficulties, growing debt, and tax hikes. In fact, I was proud to be a champion of the historic income tax cuts for low- and middle-income people and families enacted last year. Furthermore, the state has been able to pay down billions of dollars in debt (lower interest payments have freed up money for other purposes) and pay down some of its big pension liabilities. The state must not go back to the ‘bad’ days of racking up huge debt and kicking the can down the road, saddling future generations with big bills to pay,” he said.