Impact

Legislature Passes, Governor Signs Anti-Predatory Towing Industry Reform Package in Response to Joint CT Mirror / Propublica Investigation.

Over the course of a two-year, joint CT Mirror / Propublica investigation we learned some surprising things about the towing industry in Connecticut. 

The state allows towing companies to sell some people’s cars in just 15 days, one of the shortest windows in the country.  Many cars are towed not for violating the law but instead for breaking a rule like parking the wrong way or failing to display a parking pass at their apartment complex.  The sales have particularly affected low-income people, who have lost jobs after they were unable to get their cars back.  In some cases, the towing companies refused to let owners of towed cars retrieve their belongings from their cars.  A Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles employee set up a quid pro quo relationship with a towing company that netted him thousands of dollars selling towed cars. While state law required that towing companies hold profits in escrow for a year in case the vehicle owner claims them, and then remit that money to the state, the DMV never set up a system for that process to occur.  Several of Connecticut’s most egregious towing laws are more than 100-years old.

Within days of our publishing the first story in the five-part series two bills were introduced in the state legislature to address some of the issues raised in our reporting. The Department of Motor Vehicles said it would undertake a “comprehensive review” of towing practices, and the speaker of the House promised that fixing the towing laws will be a “priority” this legislative session. 

And they were.

The legislature passed and on June 12, 2025 Governor Lamont signed a major towing reform package to end unsavory towing practices in Connecticut.  The package makes it easier for people to get their towed vehicles back, requires towing companies to take more time before selling a towed car, requires tow companies to accept credit cards, and allows car owners to retrieve their belongings from the vehicle, even if they don’t pay the towing fees.

Other provisions of the bill prohibit companies from towing vehicles quickly just because of an expired parking permit or registration. Vehicles can’t be towed from private property without notice unless they’re blocking traffic, fire hydrants or parked in an accessible space.

Insight From CT Mirror Analysis Leads Governor to Consider Loosening “Fiscal Guardrail” and Potential $300 Million Annual Impact

In 2017 the legislature hastily adopted a bi-partisan budget compromise four months into the fiscal year, the last state in the country to adopt a budget that year.  The most significant “fiscal guardrail” in that compromise was a “volatility cap.”  The idea was that tax revenue above a specific fixed amount would be considered “volatile” and would be placed in a reserve fund outside of the general fund or be used to pay down pension debt. 

Over the next six years, however, the “volatility” adjustment alone captured an average of $1.4 billion per year and never less than $530 million in a single year.  Meanwhile, Democrats in the legislature argued that high-need programs were struggling in an era of big budget surpluses. 

As CT Mirror State Budget Reporter Keith Phaneuf analyzed historical revenue trends he realized that the threshold volatility amount that was established in 2017 reflected one of the lowest amounts of “volatile” tax revenue in recent memory.  That meant that a significant portion of what the state had been considering volatile since 2017 wasn’t actually volatile.  It was revenue that the state regularly collected and that could be used to fund education, social services, health, and other financially struggling state programs.  Keith laid out this analysis in a three-part series in January of 2024 called “Fiscal Guardrails or a Straitjacket?”  That framed a year-long conversation between the legislature that wanted to loosen the volatility cap and the governor who resisted loosening any of the fiscal guardrails. 

The legislature’s argument was based largely on Keith’s insight that the volatile money wasn’t volatile and could be committed without risking a return to the budget deficits of the mid-2010’s.  After insisting this “volatility adjustment” didn’t need reform, in February 2025 Governor Lamont said he realized “that a reasonable revision can be made to the guardrails in one area, the volatility cap” and proposed “that an average of nearly $300 million per year be restored to areas of need in the general fund.”

Former Deputy State Budget Secretary Kosta Diamantis and Former State Rep. Christopher Ziogas Indicted on Federal Corruption Charges as Part of Medicaid Fraud Scheme.

CT Mirror reporting in the spring of 2024 contributed significantly to two indictments and other federal charges in February 2025 against former State Budget Secretary Kosta Diamantis and Former State Rep. Christopher Ziogas in a Medicaid fraud scheme. The indictments follow a guilty plea from a Bristol optometrist accused of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare and of conspiring with two unnamed public officials to ensure that an audit of her optometry practice was cancelled in 2020. 

The optometrist, Helen Zervas, had overcharged Medicaid by $600,000.  Diamantis and Ziogas hand-delivered a check from Zervas repaying that amount to the state Department of Social Services.  Her pending audit was cancelled shortly after that. 

Federal authorities were already investigating the optometry practice when CT Mirror published a story in April 2024 that showed, through a Freedom of Information request, how uncommon it was for the state to drop a scheduled audit of a Medicaid provider.  The FBI opened an investigation into Diamantis’ involvement in this matter the next day.  That investigation led to the guilty plea and the two indictments.

Lawmakers Read CT Mirror Exposé of Long-Term Care Insurance Industry, Promise Reform.

In January 2025 CT Mirror published an in-depth analysis of the broken long-term care insurance sector.  The investigation described how insurance company miscalculations and state approval of significant rate increases are leaving some policyholders with the three choices, none of them good, as they approach the age when they are most likely to need the long-term care coverage they have been paying for over several decades: continuing to pay rapidly escalating premium increases, reducing the amount of coverage, or dropping their long-term care coverage altogether.  A few days later legislative leaders publicly agreed that there is an urgent need to reform long-term care insurance and that they are considering a raft of legislation that would provide relief to policyholders and boost transparency around the state’s rate review process.

CT Mirror story about student who graduated from high school
without being taught to read or write leads to legislative promises of reform.

In late September 2024 CT Mirror’s Jessika Harkay published a story describing the journey of a Hartford Public School student who graduated without ever being taught to read or write — despite attending schools in Hartford since she was 6.  The story came about somewhat serendipitously, as recounted by Jessika: “I was at a Hartford City Council meeting earlier this year for a school budget story I was working on when a student spoke during the public hearing. She had the whole auditorium in tears by the end of her speech. Aleysha Ortiz spoke about the school system failing, abandoning and leaving her behind. For a teenager to speak so strongly about her education, I knew there was more to her story.”  Indeed there was.  And continues to be.  Immediately after we published the original story and its analysis of how the Hartford schools systematically ignored Aleysha lawmakers raised “concerns about oversight of public school funding and said they plan to push for several education reforms,” as captured in this story that we published two weeks after the original story appeared.

Legislature Adopts Elder Care Reforms Based on CT Mirror Reporting.

In response to CT Mirror’s early 2023 four-part series on elder care the CT House approved an overhaul to aspects of the elder care system that spring. The reform legislation included many of the issues we raised and reported on in our Elder Care series.  The Senate approved the overhaul in early June.  Governor Lamont signed it shortly after that. What’s striking about this is that the legislature had been talking about reforming the elder care system forever, but this year, after our series, they finally took action.

In 2024 the legislature adopted additional reform measures, including requiring more oversight of home care workers, creating a swifter process for accessing Medicaid and launching a registry to make it easier for consumers to find caregivers.  Once again, these measures closely tracked the deficiencies in the elder care system that we identified in our series. 

Earlier in February 2024 Governor Ned Lamont released a wide-ranging bill that proposed reforms across the elder care sector, from measures designed to increase transparency in nursing home operations to consumer protections for people in assisted living centers.

Jenna Carlesso and Dave Altimari, the CT Mirror reporters who published the elder care work won a prestigious National Press Foundation Award for their reporting on this series. Here’s an interview Jenna and Dave did with a national magazine about how they went about reporting the series.

CT Mirror Unearths Two “Rats.”

A “rat” is a provision, usually designed to benefit a very narrow constituency, that is slipped into a much larger and often unrelated piece of legislation at the last minute so as not to attract any attention.  We discovered and exposed two rats at the end of the 2024 legislative session.   The first exempted school construction projects from the 2022 procurement reform measure that was adopted in response to the Diamantis investigation (ironically, two weeks before he was arrested).  The legislature could reverse this rat at some point.  Our reporters also rooted out a “rat” that would have given state health benefits to a very select number of unpaid members at quasi-public authority boards, such as the former chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tem Marty Looney. That bill was abandoned after CT Mirror wrote about it. 

Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas submits legislation to address vulnerabilities in absentee ballot application process uncovered by CT Mirror.

In response to a CT Mirror investigation into the detailed mechanics of the unusual use of absentee ballots in the Bridgeport 2023 Democratic mayoral primary (which resulted in allegations of widespread absentee ballot fraud and abuse), Connecticut Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas proposed a large number of changes to the state’s election laws, including several reforms to the state’s absentee ballot system. Among other things, the 2024 bill that Thomas asked lawmakers to pass would limit the window of time that applications for absentee ballots are available and would prohibit political operatives from requesting replacement absentee ballots for voters.  Both of these issues came to light as a result of our reporting. A scaled-back version of Thomas’ proposed bill was adopted by the legislature this past session, including the provision specifying “that the voter must personally request a subsequent absentee ballot either in person or by having it directly mailed to the voter at a bona fide address they designate.” 

CT Mirror Story Prompts Speaker Ritter to Encourage Participation in Women Infants and Children Program (WIC).

Near the end of the 2024 legislative session Speaker of the House Matt Ritter referenced a story he had read in CT Mirror that mentioned CT’s low participation in the WIC program: “It was… the Connecticut…I think it was the Mirror.  It was an article that I read about how we’re one of the states that wasn’t doing this, so I called {State Rep} Jamie {Foster], and she was on it.  So, journalism matters.”  In early May, both the CT Senate and House passed legislation to “encourage state agencies to step up efforts to market WIC to people with income levels that qualify them for Medicaid and other programs.”

State Finds Funding to Resolve Health Complaints After CT Mirror Reports on Backlog.

Just weeks after The Connecticut Mirror exposed a backlog of over 3,000 complaints against nursing homes and hospitals that the state health department was struggling to wade through, the legislature approved $700,000 to help boost nursing home survey teams so they can speed up complaint inspections and help clear the backlog.

Governor Demands Full Accounting of Unspent Covid Funds After CT Mirror Reports That No Definitive Accounting Exists.

On March 15, 2024 CT Mirror disclosed that neither the legislature nor the governor’s office knew how much Covid relief funding remained unspent and therefore potentially available to the state.  Six hours last the state budget office ordered all agencies to submit a tally of unspent Covid ARPA funds by March 25.

Following the Trail: From a Cyberattack to a Warning of Financial Instability (or worse), to the potential unraveling of a deal to save community hospitals from the neglect of their for-profit owners.

In response to a CT Mirror investigation into the detailed mechanics of the unusual use of absentee ballots in the Bridgeport 2023 Democratic mayoral primary (which resulted in allegations of widespread absentee ballot fraud and abuse), Connecticut Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas proposed a large number of changes to the state’s election laws, including several reforms to the state’s absentee ballot system. Among other things, the bill that Thomas asked lawmakers to pass would limit the window of time that applications for absentee ballots are available and would prohibit political operatives from requesting a replacement absentee ballot for voters.  Both of these issues came to light as a result of our reporting.

Governor Asks Commissioners to Learn More About Workforce Housing Model Featured in CT Mirror.

In August 2023 CT Mirror published a story about a unique workforce housing solution.  A nonprofit pre-K childcare center in New Haven called the Friends Center was building housing for some of its teachers who were struggling to afford the cost of housing on their salaries.  The morning the story published a state agency commissioner shared the story with the governor who, in response, asked the commissioner to learn more about this kind of workforce housing model as one of a suite of strategies for addressing the affordable housing crisis in Connecticut.  A week later US Senator Chris Murphy toured the Friends Center housing initiative as part of his housing listening tour.  A month later the New York Times featured the Friends Center project.  Friends Center CEO Allyx Schiavone had been trying to raise awareness of their workforce housing project for several years, with minimal success.  She noted that CT Mirror’s story “flipped the script,” bringing widespread attention to the project for the first time, and more importantly, generating interest in replicating this concept in other parts of the state and the country.

Baby Bonds compromise reached after CT Mirror reports the Governor quietly stonewalled the landmark legislation that he had signed with great fanfare.

Baby Bonds are a small investment the state makes on behalf of children whose births are covered by Medicaid.  The investment grows and when the baby turns 18 they can gain access to the funds and use them for life-changing opportunities such as a down payment on a home, tuition for school, or seed capital to start or invest in a business. In early 2021, State Treasurer Shawn Wooden championed “Baby Bonds,” the legislature adopted a Baby Bonds bill, and the governor enthusiastically (seemingly) signed it.  In the summer of 2022 we began to explore the question of “whatever happened with Baby Bonds?”  It took Ginny Monk and Katy Golvala  four months to definitively answer that question, including wrangling texts and emails from the governor’s top staff through FOI requests.  On New Year’s Day 2023 we published the story: despite signing the Baby Bonds bill with great fanfare the governor’s office had been stonewalling its implementation for the previous 18 months.  At a chance social encounter a few weeks later newly inaugurated State Treasurer Erick Russell told our Publisher and Editor that he always planned to make Baby Bonds a priority, but our story had elevated it to a top priority. In May 2023 the governor, state treasurer, and members of the General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus reached a compromise to implement the program.

That compromise was a state commitment to invest $600 million in low-income households over the next 18 years, representing a staggering 2,667 to 1 return on out $225,000 investment in CT Mirror investigative reporting in 2022.

Mayor suspends Corporate Counsel 45 minutes after CT Mirror story publishes

CT Mirror investigative reporter Andrew Brown was a driving force behind exposing the West Haven corruption that began during Covid.  By the early spring of 2023 pleas, convictions, and sentencing had largely wrapped up.  That’s when Andrew decided to take a look at the list of routine legal actions that West Haven was involved in, just to see if anything jumped out at him.  Something did jump out: the private attorney handling some of the city’s work had the same last name as the corporation counsel.  Andrew easily determined the two were married.  He then spoke to the corporation counsel who acknowledged that he directed the work to the law firm in which he and his wife were partners and defended his right to do so.  Further, he said that the mayor had approved the arrangement in lieu of a salary increase.  About 45 minutes after we published a story reporting this arrangement, we received an email from the mayor saying she had suspended the corporation counsel and cited Andrew’s inquiries as the impetus for her investigation.

Private-sector essential workers discover, apply for pandemic bonuses

On Aug. 5, 2022, we published a story about a new state-launched, $1,000 pandemic bonus program for private-sector essential workers. It quickly received over 20,000 pageviews and was republished by many other news outlets in Connecticut. As a result more than 50,000 applications were received in the first week — crashing the state website multiple times and surprising state officials since other cash assistance programs struggled to get visibility.

State contracting watchdog avoids cuts, gets funds to expand instead

Shortly after the start of the 2022 legislative session, we reported that Gov. Ned Lamont had tucked a provision into his budget proposal to strip the State Contracting Standards Board of key enforcement powers and keep the agency funded at a level that only allows for one full-time employee. In the wake of this reporting, legislative leaders quickly denounced the proposal, leading the governor to retract it. Lawmakers then responded by budgeting $450,000 for the watchdog agency, allowing it to hire new employees and giving it its first investigative staff in its 15-year history.

State school construction program gets accountability overhaul

In 2022, we published numerous investigative stories on Kosta Diamantis’ dealings during his time as head of the state’s school construction office. Lawmakers responded by enacting a number of reforms to the multibillion-dollar grant program, tightening the bidding procedures for school construction contracts and setting stricter deadlines for completing audits of school building projects.

Taxpayers gain access to millions in unclaimed property

On Jan. 2, 2022, we published an investigation that found the state had returned less than 37% of the $2.3 billion in unclaimed property it collected in the past two decades. Lawmakers responded by including reforms to the program in this year’s budget bill, which will help return millions of dollars in uncashed checks, forgotten security deposits, unclaimed insurance policies and other misplaced financial assets to Connecticut residents.

Local COVID relief spending receives state scrutiny in wake of misuse

In the fall of 2021 CT Mirror took a leading role in reporting the misuse of COVID funds in West Haven. In the wake of our reporting and other reporting about this situation, the state budget office announced that it would audit the use of COVID funds by all 169 towns in the state. Our 2021 work continued to ripple in 2022, with multiple arrests, a deeper takeover of municipal finances by the state, and increasingly louder calls for the mayor to resign.

Unemployed workers facing clawbacks get lawmakers’ attention

On Sept. 19, 2021, we published a story detailing a recent surge in repayment requests, which are asking already cash-strapped people to pay back tens of thousands of dollars. Three days after our story published, the co-chairs of the General Assembly’s Labor Committee called on the state Department of Labor to figure out a solution to the growing number of “overpayments” being identified in the unemployment system.

Undocumented immigrants freed from indefinite hospitalizations

On June 15, 2021, we published a story describing how the state’s rules for administering Medicaid prohibit undocumented immigrants from accessing outpatient services or less-expensive nursing home care if they require ongoing treatment after hospitalization — effectively meaning some have to remain hospitalized indefinitely. Five weeks later, Gov. Ned Lamont changed the state’s policy, allowing dozens of undocumented immigrants to go home and saving taxpayers money from expensive hospitalizations.

People of color hidden in state vaccination data gain visibility

On Jan. 27, 2021, we published a story challenging the state’s initial contention that there was no white/Hispanic inequity in vaccine distribution. The state ultimately walked it back.

People seeking affordable housing in suburbs get boost from first state zoning legislation in years

Since 2019, our housing reporting has been a major driver of state legislation to address exclusionary zoning and conversations in suburban town council meetings around the state.