Legislative Update
The 2024 Legislative Session ran from the first week of February to the first week of June to adjust the State Budget and to take up other smaller issues ahead of the long session in 2025.
For the second year in a row, I served as the House Chairman of the Public Safety & Security Committee, which has cognizance and oversight of the CT Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP). In the committee, we focused on positioning the state to coordinate better with towns to combat the growing shortage of volunteer firefighters and EMS responders. Eastford, like many small towns in northeastern Connecticut, are getting the job done with limited resources and people. DESPP will now be reconfigured to include a Division of Fire Services and a Volunteer Commission on Fire Prevention & Control to work with local Fire Chiefs and town leaders to build a Statewide Fire Plan that is sustainable for the future.
In this session, we opted not to adjust the budget, so the two-year budget that was adopted in 2023 remains unchanged for 2024. The 2023 budget extended fiscal guardrails put in place in 2017 and provided tax relief for the first time in decades.
Highlights include:
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Reduces the state income tax by lowering the 5.0% rate to 4.5% and the 3.0% rate to 2.0% for the income year 2024. The benefits will be capped at $150,000 for single filers and $300,000 for joint filers.
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One million tax filers will benefit from the rate cuts — nearly 60 percent of all filers; 82 percent of the benefit will go to filers making less than $150,000.
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Increases the Earned Income Tax Credit from 30.5 percent to 40 percent; 211,000 filers will benefit from the EITC increase.
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Eliminates retirement income tax cliff by adding a phase-out for allowable pension and annuity and IRA distribution deductions against the Personal Income Tax.
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Total personal income tax relief between the above three items is approximately $460.3 million.
It has been the honor of my life to serve Eastford and six other communities In the State House. If I can be of any help to you or your family, please feel free to reach out at [email protected] or visit my website at [www.housedems.ct.gov/boyd(https://www.housedems.ct.gov/boyd).