06/09/2025
AMVETS Call to Action
AMVET Members, Veterans, and Veteran supporters,
As many of you know, last year, Connecticut passed a law that eliminated Property Taxes for veterans with a 100% Disability Rating. Please see the information provided by John Chan and the VFW Call to Action.
As Veterans, we must stand together to ensure that our Veterans are not forgotten and receive the benefits that they deserve for their service to this great Nation. Please call Gov. Lamont and let him know that he needs to take action to fulfill the promise made to our Veterans. Please pass this on to all AMVETS and Veterans in CT.
Thank You
Respectfully,
Albert J. Duff
AMVETS Department of CT.
Commander
Friends, Your Urgent Help is Needed! CT Lawmakers quietly inserted SB 1276 into the State budget to gut the tax exemptions promised to 100% Disable Veterans in Public Act 23-46 as passed last year. Please call Gov. Lamont ☎️ (860) 566-4840 (Mon-Fri 9am to 6pm) to tell him to line-item veto SB 1276 as budget implementer. CT promised full property tax relief to disabled vets last year — now they have taken it all back. We need to fight this!
Thank you!
Background and talking points:
Last year, Connecticut’s legislature passed Public Act 24-46, granting 100% Permanently and Totally disabled veterans a full property tax exemption on their primary homes. It was not just a policy — it was a promise to those who have already paid with their health and their futures in service to this Nation, our State and you. Towns have interpreted that Act as not applicable to the land the homes sit on, and therefore not exempt.
Veterans and their families made financial and life decisions based on that law. Some even purchased homes, believing the state of Connecticut was honoring their service with long-promised tax relief. Veterans were relieved believing their surviving spouses would be able to stay in their homes without the burden of taxes that otherwise would force them to sell and move into nursing homes.
SB 1276 was drafted to specifically add the land to the exemption, and to make that change retroactive to Oct 2024, restoring what was promised to the Disable vets and their surviving spouses. While waiting for SB 1276 to be passed in the Senate, the Senators secretively amended the original SB 1276 to strip all the benefits to the vets. It betrayed the veterans by:
• Amended 1276 made the exemption of land optional for municipalities -- precisely what the original SB 1276 was designed to correct.
• Inserted a cap on the dwelling that was never in the original statute or legislative debate.
• Made the exemption on the dwelling from a full to a fractional exemption.
• Fundamentally reversed the protections that veterans thought they had secured.
• It made the extension of those exemption to Gold Star Spouses optional for municipalities.
This Amended bill passed the Senate on May 29th and transmitted to the House. Twice now that promise to Disable vets and their families has been being broken. Veterans started to emailed their Representatives pleading them not vote for this Amended SB 1276.
The House, on the last night of the 2025 Legislative session passed Amended SB 1276, which undermines the core of Public Act 24-46. It was not passed as a stand-alone bill but quietly slipped in on a vote as a budget implementer - without public debate, without public hearing, without a full and fair vote on the merits, avoiding full public scrutiny and accountability. As a budget implementer, Amended SB 1276 was added to the State Budget and passed within the Budget.
The third time now, that promise to Disable vets and their families has been being broken. Veterans and their families were blindsided again, by this betrayal. We fought for this country with integrity when called upon to serve our Country. We believed our State’s leaders would show some integrity by standing by their word and not secretively betray us.
Now the decision rests with Governor Ned Lamont. He alone has the power to use his line-item veto to strike the SB 1276 provisions from the budget.
Please ask Governor Lamont to not allow the State of Connecticut to betray its veterans. Do not allow the budget process to be used to quietly undo promises made to those who have sacrificed so much.
Ask the Governor to honor the intent of Public Act 24-46, which he signed into Law. To use his line-item veto to veto the SB 1276’s provisions from the Budget. To keep the promises to our Connecticut Disabled Veterans. Connecticut’s veterans, residents, and history — will remember whether you stood with us.
Thanks,
John Chan
Capt, USAF, Retired (1968-1988)
CT Veterans Hall of Fame 2023
(860) 518-3553
