Connecticut lawmakers passed an inflation relief package during a special session on Monday.
The package includes an extension of the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax holiday that was set to expire on December 1.
It also extends free municipal bus fare through next spring, allocates an additional $30 million for the state’s heating oil assistance program and $75 million for “hero pay.” That’s the one-time bonus for about 155,730 eligible essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means many more frontline workers will get the full pandemic bonus, said Representative Sean Scanlon, the in-coming state comptroller.
“We are making sure that the grocery clerk from a Stop and Shop in Connecticut who makes less than $50,000 a year, 66,000 of them are getting the full $1,000 that they were promised,” Scanlon said.
The 25-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax holiday will stay in place until the end of the year. It would then return at 5-cent a month increments starting on January 1 until the full 25-cent tax is restored on May 1.
