You asked for information about the cost of printing certain publications produced for the General Assembly. Specifically, you wanted to know (1) what publications are required to be produced for the General Assembly by statute or special act, (2) how much it costs to print these publications, and (3) what other parties receive these publications.

According to the Legislative Library, Connecticut General Statutes and special legislative acts mandate approximately 500 publications to be produced for the General Assembly in a given year. These range in scope from the complete set of Connecticut General Statutes to one-time reports by legislative task forces. By far the most costly publication is the 16-volume set of Connecticut General Statutes, which cost approximately $490,000 to print in FY 09, followed by the State Register and Manual, which cost approximately $75,000 in FY 09. However, beyond a handful of major publications, the printing costs for individual reports are generally not itemized.

Under CGS § 11-4a, reports produced for the General Assembly must be filed with the House and Senate clerks, Office of Legislative Research (OLR), and state librarian. Other recipients may include legislative committees, the governor, state and federal agencies, and municipalities. Some publications are offered for sale to the public, and some are available online.

According to the Legislative Library, Connecticut General Statutes and special legislative acts mandate approximately 500 publications to be produced for the General Assembly in a given year. These publications fall into three broad categories: (1) major publications, such as the Connecticut General Statutes and the State Register and Manual; (2) reports produced on a regular basis, such as an annual report by an agency; and (3) special one-time reports, such as the report of a legislative task force.

The Legislative Library reports that 419 reports are required to be produced regularly. The frequency of these reports varies, but most are produced annually. In addition, each year the General Assembly mandates a number of special, nonrecurring reports. In 2008, it passed legislation requiring 80 such reports. In 2007, it required 96.

According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA), the state in FY 09 spent $4,332,172 on printing and binding and $249,381 on photocopying. These figures represent expenditures from the state's 10 operating funds. OFA notes that these line items generally reflect the cost of contracts with outside vendors and do not include agencies' internal printing costs.

Besides certain major publications described in the next section, agencies are generally unable to isolate the cost of printing individual reports. According to the Department of Administrative Services, agencies' internal printing costs are not uniformly accounted for statewide. Internal printing costs are often reflected in an office supplies line item, but this line item is an aggregate total of many supplies beyond paper and printing equipment, and agencies generally do not itemize the costs of mandated reports printed internally.

Under CGS § 11-4a, reports produced for the General Assembly must be filed with House and Senate clerks, OLR, and state librarian. For archival and recordkeeping reasons, the State Library and the House and Senate clerks generally require hard copy submissions of mandated reports. In addition, some major publications, such as the statute books, have their own specified distribution requirements, as described in the next section.

Beyond these printing requirements, agencies increasingly disseminate their reports electronically. A May 2009 executive directive from Governor Rell required state agencies to “cease printing all brochures, leaflets, annual reports, and similar communications or informational materials, unless such materials are required to fulfill a federal or state mandate.” This directive follows a 2003 executive order by then-Governor Rowland that directed state agencies and employees to make every effort to reduce printing costs and, whenever possible, to make information available electronically.

Table 1 shows the FY 09 printing costs of certain major publications. Most of these publications are also available online.

Source: Figure for State Register and Manual provided by Secretary of State's office. Figure for governor's budget documents is in vendor contract. All other figures provided by Office of Legislative Management

The 16-volume set of the Connecticut General Statutes is by far the most expensive of the mandated publications to produce, with printing costs of $489,921 in FY 09. The Legislative Commissioners' Office (LCO) currently publishes 5,402 complete sets of statute books annually and 3,962 individual volumes.

The secretary of state is required to distribute a complete set of the Connecticut General Statutes to a number of parties as follows:

1. 500 sets to the State Library for its general purposes and for exchange with other states and libraries;

2. 400 sets to the Judicial Department for the use by state-maintained courts, plus additional copies if certified as necessary by the executive secretary of the Judicial Department;

3. as many sets as necessary to state agencies for the performance of their duties;

4. one set each to the governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general, comptroller, and adjutant general;

5. one set to each town clerk, probate court, municipal police department, assistant to the attorney general, and county law library; and

6. one set to each legislator, the House clerk, and the Senate clerk (CGS § 2-61).

The Secretary of State's Office estimated that it cost $75,000 to print the State Register and Manual in FY 09. Under CGS §3-90, the secretary of state determines the number of copies to be published in a given year and allocates these copies to federal, state, and municipal agencies. CGS § 7-35 requires town clerks to have the latest edition.

According to the contract with the vendor, 9,500 soft cover copies of the manual must be produced, as well as 500 hard cover versions and 15,000 copies of a 16-page color section. Under the contract, softbound copies of the Register and Manual are distributed as follows:

1. 3,205 to Connecticut's town clerks, each clerk receives between eight and 53 copies depending on the town's size;

2. 1,500 to the State Board of Education;

3. 545 to the Commission on Official Legal Publications;

4. 475 to the State Library;

5. 100 to the Attorney General's Office; and

6. all remaining softbound copies, along with the 500 hardbound copies, to the secretary of state.

For the 2009-2011 biennium, the base cost for printing the governor's budget documents is approximately $47,000, according to the vendor contract. The actual cost may be higher or lower depending on the number of pages and copies ultimately produced. These budget documents include the (1) biennial budget, (2) biennial budget summary, (3) biennial budget highlights, (4) governor's biennial economic report, (5) midterm budget adjustments, (6) midterm budget highlights, and (7) governor's midterm economic report. The most costly of these documents is the biennial budget, with a base cost of $12,246 for 900 copies.

The FY 09 printing cost of the public and special acts is $46,356. According to LCO, 5,215 sets of Public and Special Acts are now produced annually. The distribution of the public and special acts, with some exceptions, is similar to that of the statute books, as described above.

Legislative Record Index. The Legislative Record Index cost $4,663 to print in FY 09. Copies of the publication must be made available to representatives of the press, the State Library, the Governor, the secretary of state, the attorney general, and such other persons as the House speaker or Senate president may designate.

House and Senate Journals. Together, the House and Senate Journals cost $4,663 to print in FY 09. By law, 375 copies of both the House and Senate journals must be published within three months of the end of the legislative session. One copy of each journal is certified to be the true record of proceedings and deposited with the secretary of state (CGS § 2-49). The journals of each house are distributed as follows:

1. 50 copies to the secretary of the state;

2. 50 copies to the State Library;

3. one copy to each requesting incorporated or associated library in the state;

4. one copy to each county bar library;

5. one copy to each state officer and each legislator;

6. one copy to each town, at the request of the town clerk; and

7. the remaining copies to the secretary of state.

Resource Publications. The OLR Summary of Public Acts ($7,270 FY 09 printing cost), OFA's Budget Book ($5,372), and the Connecticut Legislative Guide ($5,961) are produced as a resource for legislators and the public, but are not mandated by statute.

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