Connecticut legislators would like to improve live family entertainment in the state following the slowdown in the pandemic.
The State Senate voted on Wednesday to create a working group to study the question.
The bill initially sought to demand that the cinemas have a start of early start planned in certain cinematographic advertisements. However, it was modified to reflect a broader concern concerning the viability of live family entertainment places, including theaters and concert halls, after the pandemic.
The Republicans criticized the bill.
The head of the Senate minority, Stephen Harding (R-Brookfield), said that it was a distraction that prevented legislators from dealing with urgent problems such as the high energy cost.
“I think we divert our attention to what we should do for our voters when we are talking about movie time,” said Harding.
The president of the Senate, Martin Looney (D-New Haven), pushed back.
“Some of the comments concerning the amendment and the bill, I think, are absolutely absurd. To think that we divert the attention of the main question of the State by having a bill on another subject is really a means of making a political problem from something that should not be dealt with in this way,” said Looney.
The Senate voted massively to approve the bill.
If the bill is approved in the House and becomes law, the working group would make recommendations to next year’s legislators.