State Representative Stephen Harding (R-107) has set a great precedence for his second term: he proposed several new pieces of legislation that strengthen our fiscal responsibility, a more business-friendly climate, proper funding for education, more control for our local boards and commissions regarding housing development, greater and more consistent support for our veterans, and finally addressing lake preservation. Overall, he hopes to make our state government more efficient so that students, families, workers, businesses, and the elderly may continue to thrive here. For a full list of the bills Rep. Harding has introduced – with summaries – please visit www.repharding.com and click on the “Legislation” tab.
Fiscal Responsibility and a Better Life for our Businesses & Residents
Rep. Harding wishes to re-invigorate the business climate here in the State of Connecticut. The primary step in doing so, he believes, is to eliminate undue taxes, fees and regulations on businesses. He is also committed to assisting our senior citizens and young professionals through the elimination of estate, pension and social security taxes, as well as providing tax credits for student loan payments and businesses hiring graduates.
“One of my main objectives as your State Representative is to provide a climate in which our young men and women, and senior citizens, are incentivized to stay here in Connecticut,” says Rep. Harding, Chairman of the General Assembly’s Young Legislators Caucus. “We need to motivate businesses to hire our young professionals, perhaps by creating tax credits for businesses.”
Some proposals made by Rep. Harding in these regards include:
- Implement the constitutional spending cap
- Eliminate the municipal budget cap and provide aid to municipalities each year before March 1st to ease their local budgeting challenges
- Establish a tax credit for businesses that hire unemployed or self-employed persons
- Phase out personal property, entity and unitary taxes on businesses
- Establish a bipartisan group that will study job creation and retention of an educated and prepared workforce in the state
- Require the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development to establish the Learn Here, Live Here program that helps students save toward a down payment on their first home in Connecticut by segregating a portion of their state income tax payments for up to ten years after they graduate
- Establish a tax credit for businesses that match payments made by employees toward their student loans
- Establish tax credit for businesses that hire a recent high school or college graduate
- Establish a tax credit against the personal income tax for interest and principal paid on student loans
Funding for Education
“My goal is to restructure the Education Cost Sharing Formula (ECS) more in favor of supporting our schools,” Rep. Harding says. “This has long been an issue in our state, and in my opinion, Brookfield, Bethel and Danbury are not currently receiving the proper amount of state funding. I hope that my proposal to restructure the ECS funding formula, and add a cost of living adjustment to it, will provide a suitable, and deserving, amount of resources from the state.” Rep. Harding’s additional education-related proposals include:
- Study unfunded state education mandates and the effects they have on school district budgets and instruction to students
- Require the Commissioner of Administrative Services to approve an application for a roof replacement project at Brookfield High School
A key initiative of Rep. Harding’s this session is to provide more authority to local leaders, as opposed to allowing bureaucratic decisions to be merely passed down from Hartford. “This is where 8-30g comes in,” he says. “It is a hampered law that negatively impacts local communities and establishes a bypass on all local zoning control.” Here are his introduced ideas:
- Allow towns that have made good faith efforts to develop specific areas of their municipalities the ability to prohibit new affordable housing in such areas, provided said efforts were made prior to any application for such housing.
- Amend 8-30g so that burdensome affordable housing requirements on towns are eliminated
Veterans’ Support
“Connecticut’s veterans are some of our best citizens and we need to do everything possible to provide them with the proper resources to succeed here, as they have made so many sacrifices for us,” says Rep. Harding. He plans to help them through his efforts to sponsor the following legislative actions:
- Allow school districts to include a course or program about veterans and their military service to our country as part of the curriculum
- Study the hardships prevalent among Connecticut veterans
- Give veteran-owned businesses a ten percent price preference on state contracts and set aside five percent of all such contracts for award to such businesses
- Expand veteran benefits eligibility to certain veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a traumatic brain injury
- Name a portion of Route 53 in Danbury the “Danbury Veterans Memorial Highway”
Lake Preservation
Lastly, Rep. Harding has made a proposal to amend the Community Investment Act (CIA) to include state funds for the preservation of our local lakes. “I am dedicated to assisting our local municipalities in addressing invasive species prevention at both Candlewood and Lillinonah Lakes, two of our community’s greatest resources,” says Rep. Harding, Ranking Member of the Legislative Environment Committee.