You asked for synopses of certain bills currently before the Public Safety and Security Committee.

This bill makes it a class D felony, punishable by one to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both, to impersonate a Division of Criminal Justice inspector. A person commits this crime if he or she pretends to be a DCJ inspector or wears or displays a DCJ inspector's uniform, badge, or shield to induce someone to submit to, or rely on, that pretense.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009

This bill authorizes the State Bond Commission to issue up to $40 million in bonds for funding the projects in the Connecticut Firefighters Education Committee Facilities study (capital improvements to Connecticut's regional fire schools).

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009

This bill requires, rather than allows, local and regional school boards to conduct a crisis response drill every three months. Under current law, the boards must conduct fire drills at least once every month but may substitute a crisis response drill for the fire drill once every three months.

The bill requires the boards to develop the drill content in consultation with the appropriate law enforcement agency and have at least one agency representative supervise and participate in it.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009

This bill allows subscriber information in the enhanced 9-1-1 database to be used for enabling emergency notification systems in life-threatening emergencies. Under current law, it may be used only in responding to emergency calls or investigating false or intentionally misleading reports of incidents requiring emergency service. The bill defines “subscriber information” as the name, address, and telephone number in the enhanced database of a telephone used to place a 9-1-1 call or in connection with an emergency notification system.

It defines an “emergency notification system” as a service that notifies the public of emergencies. It makes confidential and exempt from the Freedom of Information Act subscriber information provided for (1) enabling any such system and (2) the other purposes specified under current law. The bill outlines procedures governing release and use of the database information by database providers, the Office of State-wide Emergency Telecommunications, the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and public safety answering points.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009

This bill eliminates the duty of the state to reimburse towns for (1) compensation and actual and necessary travel, subsistence, and maintenance expenses to first responders while in training as members of a mobile support unit and (2) payments for employee death, disability, or injury incurred in the course of such training. The bill also extends state reimbursements to local first responders ordered to emergency duty by the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) commissioner. These changes apparently conform the law to current practice.

The bill specifies that the reimbursements and certain rights, immunities, and powers afforded to first responders apply only when they are ordered to emergency duty by the governor or commissioner. By law, state or municipal employees engaged in officially authorized civil preparedness duties as members of civil preparedness units have (1) the powers, duties, rights, privileges, and immunities and receive the compensation incident to their employment. Other employees have the same rights and immunities as state employees and are entitled to state compensation for their services.

The bill also changes, from (1) November 1 to May 1 annually, the deadline by which DEMHS must submit to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) the nuclear safety emergency preparedness program plan and (2) from December 1 annually to June 1 the deadline by which

OPM must approve the plan.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009

This bill immunizes from liability fire departments installing smoke, carbon, or combination smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, or batteries in such detectors, in any building, provided the installations are made in accordance with manufacturers' instructions and in the department's official capacity.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009

This bill requires the Connecticut Lottery Corporation (CLC) to deduct and withhold delinquent taxes owed from any lottery claim worth $5,000 or more submitted at its central office on or after January 1, 2009 by a delinquent taxpayer. (The bill is similar to the existing withholding program for delinquent child support, but unlike that program, it contains no claimant notification requirement and no hearing or appeal process.)

Before paying prizes of $5,000 or more, CLC must check the claimant's name and other identifying information against a Department of Revenue Services (DRS) list of delinquent taxpayers. If the claimant is delinquent, CLC must deduct and withhold from the winnings the amount of taxes owed, plus penalties and interest, after deducting and withholding any amount owed for child support. The CLC president must notify and forward the amount withheld to the DRS Commissioner in accordance with the commissioner's instructions.

The bill allows the commissioner to disclose to the CLC president (1) any information necessary to identify a delinquent taxpayer and (2) the amount of taxes, penalty, and interest the taxpayer owes. It applies to taxes, including penalties and interest that are more than 30 days overdue and not the subject of a timely filed administrative appeal to the commissioner or a timely filed appeal pending before a court.

For the bill's purposes, CLC employees are state employees. As such, they are barred from disclosing any tax information they receive, except as the law requires. A violation carries a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009