Jillian Gilchrest

Gilchrest was elected in the 2018 Connecticut House of Representatives election on November 6, 2018, winning 72 percent of the vote over 28 percent of Republican candidate Mary Fay.[1]

Glichrest voted in favor of the Connecticut family medical leave act signed into law one June 25, 2019 by Governor Ned Lamont. The bill passed the house on May 31, 2019 by a 79–69 vote. Connecticut will join California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington and the District of Columbia in implementing a paid-family-leave insurance program. The bill provides employees with up to 12 weeks of paid leave in a 12-month period to care for themselves, family members—including a spouse, parents, in-laws, children, siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren—and anyone else whose close association, whether by blood or affinity, is the equivalent of a family member. Employees will fund the paid-family-leave program by contributing 0.5 percent of their income via a mandatory payroll tax, with contributions commencing in January 2021. Employers make no contributions toward the program. State government employees who belong to unions are exempt, a fact that did not go unnoticed by private business opponents to the bill. [2]

In 2020 Gilchrest proposed a bill H.B. 5040, which would require gun owners to pay a 35% ammunition tax. In the previous legislative session she proposed a 50% ammunition tax, that ended up being unsuccessful. The bill would use money raised from the ammunition tax to fund statewide gun violence prevention and intervention efforts.[3]

In July 2020 all three West Hartford representatives, Tammy Exum, Joe Verrengia and Gilchrest, voted in favor of the police accountability act passed by the Connecticut house of representatives. The bill includes a provision that would allow citizens to file civil lawsuits against police, eliminating the qualified immunity which protects officers from being sued in states courts.[4]