What Happens at the State Capitol Impacts Your Kitchen

Policy decisions don’t stay in Capitol committee rooms, they show up in your payroll, your staffing and your profitability

For many restaurant owners and operators, the conversations happening at the State Capitol can feel far removed from the realities of running a kitchen, managing staff, and serving guests. With so much to manage, it’s understandable that legislative hearings and policy debates don’t always feel urgent to the hospitality industry.

The reality is this: decisions made at the Capitol shape what happens in your restaurant every single day. And turning a blind eye doesn’t make their impact any smaller.

Policies related to minimum wage, tip credit, paid leave, predictive scheduling, credit card fees and more directly shift how you operate your business, impacting your margins, your workforce and your long-term sustainability. These decisions don’t stay in Capitol committee rooms, they show up in your payroll, your staffing and your profitability. When restaurants don’t have a seat at the table, decisions are made without the perspective of those who will ultimately bear the cost.

The Risks of Staying Silent

Restaurant owners feel the consequences of new legislation long before lawmakers see the impact. If your voice isn’t heard, policies get decided without understanding how restaurants actually operate. That can mean higher costs, new reporting obligations, limits on operational flexibility and more, all directly affecting your day-to-day operations.

The Connecticut Restaurant Association ensures your experience and insight isn’t overlooked. By uniting thousands of operators across the state, the CRA gives the industry a stronger, collective, more credible voice than any individual business could have alone.

Advocacy is not about resisting change or opposing progress: it’s about ensuring adaptions to policies are realistic, necessary, beneficial and workable for small and independent businesses that are the backbone of Connecticut’s communities.

The CRA works to translate real-world restaurant challenges into clear, credible input during the legislative process and before policies become law. That can include educating lawmakers, providing testimony, meeting with elected officials, writing to legislators, mobilizing members when their voice is needed most, and more. Without that voice, decisions affecting hospitality businesses could be made without any perspective represented at all.

Even small contributions of time, from responding to an action alert, to sharing a brief insight from your operation, or reading Advocacy in Action updates, make a real, tangible difference. When restaurant owners step forward, lawmakers gain perspective, and the risks of poorly designed policies hitting your business are reduced.

Protect Your Business Before Policies Hit

As Connecticut begins the 2026 Legislative Session, hundreds of bills will be introduced that could impact restaurants, hospitality and foodservice businesses across the state. Without coordinated industry input, these proposals risk increasing costs, limiting operational flexibility and adding new burdens to businesses already under pressure statewide.

Being actively involved with the Connecticut Restaurant Association ensures your business is represented where it matters most: before decisions become law. In addition to year-round advocacy, CRA membership provides access to cost-saving programs, education, networking, and tools designed to support restaurant owners at every stage of operation.

If you wait, someone else decides what happens in your kitchen. Take the lead and make sure it’s your voice that counts. Make 2026 the year that you add your voice to the conversation and ensure your business needs are represented when decisions are made at the State Capitol.

Questions? Email our team: info@ctrestaurant.org