The most effective way you can make your voice heard is to send testimony for the official record. Use your own words, or use this model testimony to guide you. Email a PDF of your comments to finance@cga.ct.gov by 8:30 AM Thursday morning, and please send us a copy at tarcher@ctenvironment.org. (If you need help turning your testimony into a PDF, please send it to us by 4:00 PM on Wednesday and we'd be happy to help.)

If you can do more, please come to the hearing and speak! Let us know if you'd like to attend in person and we'll get you all the information you need.

What's in the bill?

Funding for a Strong Transit System

Public transportation funding generates thousands of jobs for the engineers, operators, and construction workers who make that infrastructure work. Combined with efficiently moving people from place to place, and it's easy to see why focusing more on transit is good for the environment and the economy.

We are glad to see the bus operation budget is holding steady and that the Transportation Capital Program has increases for improvements on the New Haven and New Haven - Hartford - Springfield rail lines, clean-up of hazardous waste, and improvements to keep our deepwater ports and marinas open for business and boating.

The Office of Policy & Management is also allocated $7 million to work on Transit-Oriented Development. TOD strives to create vibrant and efficient hubs of housing, shopping, and recreation around our transit stations. It's a proven economic strategy that's good for people, our businesses, and our natural resources.

Funding for Long Island Sound and the Shoreline

State bonding for Long Island Sound is another great investment. In addition to that deepwater port funding, the bill's $25 million in coastal resiliency funding will pay dividends in protecting our communities from storm damage. Severe storms like Irene and Sandy will become more common as the ocean and atmosphere warm, and rising sea levels in Long Island Sound make them more dangerous to our shoreline communities. Coastal resiliency programs can move key infrastructure inland or adapt it to flooding, take advantage of natural landscapes like dunes and marshes that absorb wave impacts, and help towns plan for their futures.

...And much more! You can read the full bill here.