Economy

Supporting Connecticut’s Economy and Working Families

We must support business owners who contribute to our communities and provide stable jobs for the people in Connecticut.

Connecticut workers should make livable wages, have access to affordable health care, child care, and other essential services.

Championing Connecticut Workers

Ensuring workers are safe in their workplaces, make a living wage, and can collectively bargain to improve conditions has been a top priority for me. I have supported the following proposals for Connecticut workers:

  • Ensuring a Living Wage: I supported the Raise the Wage Act to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and introduced legislation to ensure tipped workers make a full minimum wage.

  • Protecting Collective Bargaining Rights: I supported the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which is the most comprehensive proposal to secure the bargaining rights of workers in decades.

  • Solving the Multi-Employer Pension Crisis: I voted for the American Rescue Plan, which prevented the insolvency of 100 multiemployer pension plans that were expected to run out of money necessary to pay benefits to workers, including plans that were expected to go insolvent by 2025.

  • Equal Pay for Equal Work: I supported the Paycheck Fairness Act on the Education and Labor Committee and on the floor of the House. This legislation would prohibit gender-based discrimination in employment.

  • Expanding Access to Affordable Childcare: I championed the American Rescue Plan, which provided nearly $50 billion dollars in funding to stabilize the childcare industry, and the Build Back Better Act, which included universal childcare subsidies ensuring no family pays more than 7% of their income to childcare. I am a staunch advocate for universal, affordable childcare, and for investing in the childcare workforce.

Supporting Small Business Owners

Small business owners are the backbone of Connecticut’s Fifth District. I supported the following proposals to underpin their success:

  • Funding for Grants to Small Businesses: I have supported funding for minority business development and entrepreneurial development programs in every yearly budget process.

  • Ensuring Students Can Fill the Jobs of Tomorrow: I have supported funding for career and technical education programs, and Registered Apprenticeship programs, that connect a skilled workforce with local businesses. I introduced the YouthBuild for the Future Act, which would make critical improvements to YouthBuild, a program to provide education and career training for youth who previously dropped out of high school. This bill passed the House as part of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2022 – the most comprehensive package addressing workforce development in recent history.

  • Supported Small Business Administration Loans and the Paycheck Protection Program to bolster business during COVID-19: I have supported robust funding for grants and loans to small businesses to stabilize them and help keep employees on the payroll. I also supported amended legislation to give small businesses better access to paycheck protection loans.

Lowering Connecticut’s Unequal Tax Burden

I supported the repeal of the $10,000 State and Local (SALT) Tax dedication cap, implemented in the Republican 2018 Tax Plan. Intended to directly harm heavily populated states like Connecticut.  Connecticut officials estimated the SALT cap would increase Connecticut taxpayer liability by $2.8 billion in 2018, and cost Connecticut residents $10.3 billion in SALT deductions in 2019. Eliminating the cap will provide much-needed relief.