In the abbreviated, 13-week legislative session that convenes Feb. 7, southeastern Connecticut’s state lawmakers expect to tackle such issues as health care worker safety, taxation of the region’s two federally recognized Indian tribes, veterans’ benefits, energy costs and the proliferation of short-term rental properties.

Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, cited the need for health care worker protections in the wake of the Oct. 28 death of visiting nurse Joyce Grayson, whose body was found in the basement of a Willimantic halfway house for convicted sex offenders, where Grayson had made a home visit to a patient.

Since then, the accidental death of a caretaker killed in a Jan. 12 house fire in East Lyme has further focused attention on the plight of visiting nurses and home health aides.

Marx, a visiting nurse, is president of the union that represents Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut employees.

Her spokesman said she plans to propose that health care employers and law enforcement be required to collaborate to enhance health care employees’ safety. Legislation could require that health care employers “flag” patients with a history of violence or the potential to become violent, and require employers to determine whether staff should be escorted at certain work locations.

Marx believes employers should provide employees with safety assessments and safety information before sending them out on assignments.

Marx also plans to introduce bills that would improve employment opportunities for veterans, including one regarding the licensing of those trained in social work, audiology, speech language pathology and physical therapy. She will seek to increase protections and resources for victims of violence, and push for approval of the acquisition of land for the expansion of the Stones Ranch Military Reservation in East Lyme, a training facility.

Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, also expects to advocate for veterans through a number of bills, including one seeking tax abatements for permanently and totally disabled veterans.

Osten will introduce measures that would give municipalities more flexibility in regulating short-term rental properties, reverse a decision eliminating tax credits for housing projects and fix a loophole related to taxation of solar projects. She also plans to address a number of Native American issues, not the least of which is state and local taxation of personal property owned by third parties on the reservations of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes.

As co-chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Osten was a member of a panel appointed last year to study the so-called “dual taxation” issue.

In a report of the panel’s findings, Osten recommends that non-tribal businesses that operate on land the federal government has taken into trust for the tribes be exempt from local taxation. That would cost each of the towns of Ledyard and Montville, which are home, respectively, to the Mashantucket and Mohegan reservations, annual revenues of between $500,000 and $700,000.

Osten proposes that the towns be compensated for the lost revenues through greater shares of the Mashantucket Pequot-Mohegan Fund, which comes from the tribes’ payments to the state of slot-machine and online gaming revenues generated by Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.

As Jeffrey Beckham, secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management and the panel’s chairman, writes in the report, the issue is complicated by the fact that the tribes disagree on how it should be resolved.

A top priority for Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, is access to mental health services. She intends to propose bills that would make recovery coaches eligible for Medicaid reimbursement and prohibit long-term care facilities from rejecting patients solely on the basis of their prior treatment in mental health facilities or use of psychiatric medications.

Somers will propose that the Department of Motor Vehicles be required to design and issue license plates bearing the universal 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number.

As for environmental issues, Somers will propose protocols for testing wells, landfills and incinerator ash for PFAS, the harmful per- and polyfluoroakyl substances found in water, air, fish and soil, and will propose a study of the impact of stormwater sewage treatment on the oyster industry. She will seek to establish a fund to mitigate the offshore wind industry’s impact on marine mammals, birds and fishermen.

Somers also plans to advocate for funding to extend Shore Line East rail service between New Haven and Mystic on weekends and holidays during the peak tourism season from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

In honor of a state police K-9 killed in the line of duty in Stonington, she will call for legislation requiring individuals convicted of intentionally injuring or killing a police K9 to reimburse government for the cost of the K-9’s training and care.

Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, said her top priority is maintaining the fiscal guardrails put in place in previous legislative sessions.

“Connecticut is on a good trajectory because of those guardrails coupled with the federal funding out of COVID,” she said. “That funding has gone away, so we need to stay on the same sound financial path that was set out in the 2017 bipartisan budget. That’s the only way we can keep Connecticut successful and affordable for our residents.”

A report issued by the General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Research indicates the legislature is likely to deliberate tax relief and restructuring proposals in the upcoming session. “This could include,” the report says, “proposals to (1) establish a child tax credit or deduction against the personal income tax, (2) impose an income tax surcharge on capital gains, or (3) require income tax brackets to be indexed to inflation.”

Cheeseman will propose that Connecticut seek to reduce electricity costs by considering a “municipal aggregator program” similar to that adopted in Massachusetts. It involves municipalities buying electricity in bulk on behalf of residents and businesses.

Utilities’ purchase of power directly from Dominion, the nuclear power operator, also should be considered, Cheeseman said.

She also wants to address artificial intelligence abuses, including making it a criminal offense to produce fake pornography, and she would mandate the state require and pay for the training of firefighters who respond to lithium ion battery fires.

“If Connecticut is mandating electrification of the transportation sector, fire departments must be trained on how to respond to the very different nature of these fires with the danger of thermal runaway,” Cheeseman said.

Rep. Christine Conley, D-Groton, joined Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, at a news conference Tuesday in Hartford to introduce a bill that would provide tax cuts for businesses with 500 or fewer employees that offer their workers high-quality, affordable health insurance.

One in a series of bills aimed at health care affordability, the measure is seen as a way to attract both small businesses ― “the backbone of our state’s economy,” Conley said ― and residents to Connecticut.

Conley also will pursue the restoration of funding cut from Shore Line East service as well as illuminating the Gold Star Memorial Bridge. She said she is working with colleagues on veterans’ issues, including bills concerning military protection orders and assistance for National Guard members who are victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment.

Rep. Devin Carney, R-Old Saybrook, said among his top priorities are tackling the state’s solid waste management problem and reducing the property tax burden on homeowners. He said private universities should be made to pay “their fair share” to towns when they purchase properties that are removed from the tax rolls.

“We must also prioritize education and mental health, with a particular focus on how both were affected and continue to be affected as a result of the pandemic,” Carney said.

He plans to submit bills that would promote health by eliminating the sales tax on health club memberships; require public universities that offer on-campus housing to set aside housing for students who wish to refrain from drugs and alcohol; and establish a tax credit for student loan interest.

Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-Groton, said he will introduce a bill that addresses the proliferation of short-term rental properties in his district, which includes the southern, coastal portions of Groton and Stonington.

“I fundamentally believe that the unfettered proliferation of short-term rentals has exacerbated the housing crisis,” he said. “When houses are purchased by out-of-state LLCs (for conversion to short-term rentals) there are fewer homes available for families.”

Bumgardner said the state should consider what other states are doing and, at a bare minimum, require that towns establish registries of short-term rental properties. Massachusetts, he noted, has enacted a law that extends the room occupancy tax levied on hotels to short-term rentals and allows local governments to regulate short-term rentals.

According to the Office of Legislative Research report, the Connecticut legislature likely will continue to explore the affordable housing issue, “including proposals (1) encouraging municipalities to permit greater housing density near existing infrastructure and housing production in targeted commercial areas; (2) providing property tax relief to first-time homeowners; and (3) in an effort to prevent foreclosures on owner-occupied homes, restricting when liens for delinquent payments of sewer charges can be enforced.”

The legislature also is likely to revisit the proposed repeal of the motor vehicle property tax, the report says.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com