Lawmakers are taking notice of your calls for HUSKY, SNAP, and a renter’s tax credit
Lawmakers need to step in to protect and promote affordability – and they need to do it now.
With about a week left in the Connecticut legislative session, dozens of Connecticut Project Action Fund supporters got loud outside the capitol for the Opportunity Means Everybody Rally.
Child care isn’t affordable. Rent is getting more expensive. More than 30,000 people have been kicked off SNAP due to unfair and cruel federal cuts, and looming changes to HUSKY will yank healthcare away from single moms, kids, veterans, people with disabilities, and more.
“I’m here because I know how much our state is struggling to get by,” Marlena, from New Britain, said. “I’ve seen how important SNAP is to family members and neighbors in my community where I live. This is how I feel and it’s unfair to not be seen or heard by the very people we rely on and voted for. I am asking the governor and legislature to fund SNAP now, to pass the renter’s tax credit, and to make Connecticut a place where we can afford to live.”
Tamaya, a nurse from Naugatuck, has tried to get her children enrolled in HUSKY. She said she felt empowered rallying at the capitol and marching around Bushnell Park alongside more than a hundred people.
“[I like] standing up for what you believe in and what you think is right,” she said. “It feels good.”
Here’s how you can help:
Marisa, with the Meriden/Middletown area community action team, previously testified to state leaders about why HUSKY and SNAP matter. She continued to advocate for affordability at the rally because she knows her voice is being heard.
“I continue to show up to continue to build a community,” Marisa, with the Meriden/Middletown action team said. “And so the state legislators, the governor, knows that this is real, and we need to be seen, and heard, and we need to make Connecticut more affordable again.”
When she needed help the most, she was turned down from HUSKY and SNAP for making only a few dollars a month over the limit. She said costs are getting out of control and it’s getting harder to simply get by.
“I have growing children,” she said, “And the paycheck never goes up…The inflation on food alone is just crazy. It’s just really crazy.”
We dropped off 3,200 empty paper plates in Gov. Lamont’s office – with each one symbolizing a hundred people who have lost SNAP because of the federal government. We also marched around Bushnell Park demanding action on the affordability crisis.
If our representatives at the state capitol aren’t listening to the voices of working class people, we don’t give up. We get a microphone. We show up in a wave of pink “Opportunity Means Everybody” shirts and refuse to be ignored. Opportunity truly should mean everybody, not just the rich and powerful.
With the legislative session ending next week, now is the time to stay loud. Take action to defend affordability today.