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Committee approves radon mitigation assistance program; funding source draws opposition
Summary
The Connecticut Housing Committee voted to send House Bill 6942, establishing a radon mitigation assistance program for low-income households, to the floor. Debate centered on the bill's proposed funding mechanism'the Healthy Homes surcharge on property insurance policies'with objections from Republican members who called the fee a hidden tax.
The Connecticut General Assembly Housing Committee voted on Feb. 20 to send House Bill 6942, which would establish a radon mitigation assistance program for low-income households, to the House floor.
The committee approved the bill by roll call after a debate focused on how the program would be funded. Senator Sampson opposed the measure's funding mechanism, saying the bill would rely on the "Healthy Homes" surcharge, a $12 fee applied to property insurance policies that was created in response to crumbling foundations in parts of northeastern Connecticut. "I don't much care for having additional what I consider to be hidden taxes on homeowners insurance policies," Sampson said. "If the state of Connecticut wants to fund a program, it should go through the process of having a public hearing... and it should be made part of the state budget or not."
Representative Patrick Turkel (Representative Turkel), a proponent of the bill, described radon as a serious public-health risk. Turkel cited information from the Connecticut chapter of the American Lung Association that radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States behind smoking, and said mitigation systems can cost "a couple thousand dollars" to install, creating a barrier for low-income families. "For a low-income family, that extra expense is probably going to be difficult to budget," Turkel said, adding that other states, including Colorado, have programs to assist homeowners with mitigation costs.
Representative Scott and others signaled support for the bill's public-health goals but acknowledged the concerns about the funding source and said they are open to finding alternative funding. After discussion, the committee conducted a roll call and approved the motion to send HB 6942 to the floor with the committee recommendation (Joint Favorable). The roll call included recorded nay votes from several members; the committee chair noted the vote would remain open to allow additional members online to cast votes until 4 p.m.
Why it matters: Radon is an odorless, colorless gas that public-health authorities link to lung cancer risk; the bill seeks to reduce exposure for low-income households that may otherwise lack resources to test or mitigate high radon concentrations. The debate highlighted a policy trade-off between using a dedicated insurance surcharge that already exists and pursuing a general-fund appropriation or other revenue source.
What happened next: The committee put the bill on the consent calendar for a roll-call vote and then conducted the roll call that approved sending HB 6942 to the floor. Committee members asked staff and bill sponsors to continue discussions about alternate funding sources so the program could be implemented without expanding or permanently repurposing the Healthy Homes surcharge.
Quotations in this article come from the committee transcript of the Feb. 20, 2025, Housing Committee meeting.
