By State Senator
Dan Debicella
Nearly 70 new state laws, took effect on July 1st.
While some of these are minor technical changes, some
of them can have a significant impact on the lives of
families in our communities.
Below are the some of the more important new laws that
you should be aware of. A complete list of all the state
laws taking effect on July 1st is available on the Connecticut
State Library website at www.cslib.org/08actsJul.htm.
• Money Follows The Person:
Requires the state Department of Social Services to
develop a plan to establish a demonstration project
to provide home and community-based long-term care services
to eligible adults, 18 and older, who are institutionalized,
or at risk of being institutionalized. This program
will be based on the federal government’s five-year
Money Follows The Person demonstration project to move
eligible nursing home residents to less restrictive
community settings. Connecticut participates in the
federal Money Follows The Person program.
• Unemployment Benefits For Military
Spouses: Makes permanent a military spouse’s
eligibility for unemployment benefits if he, or she,
voluntarily quits to accompany a spouse required to
relocate for active for active duty service. Previously,
this provision applied to military spouses to who left
their jobs between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.
• Care-4-Kids Program: Requires
the state Department of Social Services to permit eligible
parents to remain in this child-care subsidy program
during temporary interruptions in employment or participation
in approved education, training or other job preparation
activities. Under prior program rules, parents became
ineligible as soon as they stopped working or participating
in other approved activities.
• Fire Safe Cigarettes: This
new law requires that cigarettes sold or offered for
sale to Connecticut consumers by cigarette manufacturers
to be fire-safe. Fire safe cigarettes are self-extinguishing;
they stop burning when left unattended.
• Veterans Eligibility: Modifies
eligibility standards for admission to the Veterans
Home by adding certain federal criteria to the standards
veterans must meet, and by extending eligibility to
certain current and former service members based on
their entitlement to federal military retirement pay.
This new law also extends eligibility for burial in
the state veterans’ cemeteries to these service
members.
• Grandparent Caregivers: Allows
grandparents and other relative caregivers appointed
as guardians of children through the Superior Court
who are not receiving subsidized guardianship or foster
care payments from the state Department of Children
and Families to apply for grants under the probate court
administered Kinship Fund and Grandparents and Relatives
Respite funds. Until now, only those relative guardians
appointed through the probate court were eligible. The
grants are subject to available appropriations.
These are just a few of the new laws, or portions of
new laws, that became effective on July 1st. Those interested
in following the legislative history of a new law, or
proposed legislation, can easily do so by visiting the
General Assembly’s website at www.cga.ct.gov.
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