Rep. Simmons has worked hard to make health care more affordable and to protect health care rights and basic health care coverage for residents of CT. She was proud to co-sponsor legislation aiming to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, in order to reduce the opioid addiction crisis, and has increased transparency requirements on drug companies. Caroline is proud to sponsor legislation protecting health care coverage for women and families, including preventative screenings and prenatal care.
As House of Chair of the Commerce Committee this past session, Rep. Simmons led passage of over a dozen bi-partisan, pro business bills. These included the Entrepreneur Learner's Permit, which waives start up costs for certain businesses, the Small Business Express expansion, providing loans to small businesses to help them create jobs, the Angel Investor Tax Credit expansion, to help start-ups access capital, the Made in Connecticut Logo Launch, to promote locally made products, Expedited Permitting and Reduced Regulations on Small Businesses, the Manufacturing Apprentice Tax Credit Expansion, and bills to support the growth of Bio-science companies in CT. Caroline will continue to fight to support business growth and job creation.
Education
Supporting Stamford Schools continues to be one of Rep. Simmons' top priorities. Over the past several years she helped secure funding for the new Strawberry Hill, additional ECS funding overall for Stamford, and more resources for early childhood education. Caroline will continue to work hard to improve education in Stamford and CT to ensure all students have access to equal education.
Public Safety
Ensuring CT residents are safe is one of Rep. Simmons' top priorities. Caroline has worked hard to fight for more resources for our police and firefighters, including polices to provide more mental health resources and support for our first responders. She has worked hard on a common-sense gun safety legislation over the past several years, including helping pass legislation to protect victims of domestic abuse from gun violence, as well as passing legislation to ban rapid fire bump stock enhancements to guns.
Protecting the Environment
Rep. Simmons has worked hard on policies to protect our environment and improve our air and water quality in CT. She has supported legislation to clean up Long Island Sound, to increase the use of clean energy, and to fight climate change! Caroline will continue to fight to protect our environment.
Business Growth and Job Creation
Health Care
Transportation
Fixing our transportation infrastructure is vital to improving quality of life, public safety and economic growth in CT. Over the past several years, Rep. Simmons has supported legislation requiring greater oversight of DOT to hold the agency accountable for transportation projects and for the transportation lockbox, to protect taxpayer’s dollars intended for transportation projects from diverted for other purposes. She also fought for additional transportation funding for projects in Stamford to fix our roads and bridges, and, with your support, Caroline successfully fought back against DOT’s proposed fare increases on trains and buses.
Fiscal Sustainability
Getting our fiscal house in order is critical to CT’s future, Rep. Simmons has called for fiscal sustainability measures over the past several years, including opposing additional tax increases, more responsible budgeting and spending within our means, implementing a bonding cap to stop increasing our state’s debt, as well as putting surplus revenues in to our Rainy Day fund in order to improve our long term fiscal sustainability. We still have significant work to do to reduce our long-term debt and Caroline is committed to working on creative solutions to fix our state’s finances.
Bi-Partisanship
Rep. Simmons believes strongly in bi-partisanship and that instead of attacking each other, we should attack the problems facing our state. That is why Caroline introduced or co-sponsored over 74 bi-partisanship bills, co-founded the bi-partisan Young Legislator’s Caucus, and joined the bi-partisan Women’s Caucus.