PA 17-2, June 2017 Special Session—SB 1502

Emergency Certification

The act appropriates money for state agency operations and programs in FYs 18 and 19. Table 1 shows the net annual appropriations for each year from each appropriated fund.

Table 1: FY 18 and FY 19 Net Appropriations by Fund

§	Fund	Net Appropriation
		FY 18	FY 19
1	General Fund*	$18,738,791,590	$18,907,409,174
2	Special Transportation Fund (STF)	1,510,906,625	1,628,068,939
3	Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund	57,649,850	49,942,796
4	Regional Market Operation Fund	1,067,306	1,067,306
5	Banking Fund	27,413,284	27,386,848
6	Insurance Fund**	87,299,099	92,100,163
7	Consumer Counsel and Public Utility Control Fund	25,571,954	25,571,954
8	Workers' Compensation Fund	24,652,430	24,940,502
9	Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund	2,934,088	2,934,088
10	Tourism Fund***	--	12,644,988

*PA 17-4, JSS (§ 16) reduces total General Fund appropriations to $18,690,090,670 in FY 18 and $18,790,627,454 in FY 19.

**PA 17-4, JSS (§ 17) increases total Insurance Fund appropriations to $90,234,868 in FY 18 and $95,035,932 in FY 19.

***Section 639 of this act establishes the Tourism Fund.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act earmarks, from the Passport to the Parks account (established in § 331), $400,000 for soil and water conservation districts and $253,000 for environmental review teams. (Section 557 contains an identical provision.)

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires a General Fund lapse in each year of the biennium for achieved labor concessions ($700 million in FY 18 and $867.6 million in FY 19) (see § 1). In order to achieve these savings, the act allows the OPM secretary to reduce allotments in any budgeted state agency and fund to reduce labor-management spending by these same amounts. In doing so, the act supersedes laws that, among other things:

1. require the state budget act to specify budgeted reductions by branch of government (CGS § 2-35);

2. require OPM, when preparing the governor's budget recommendations for submission to the legislature, to include the expenditure estimates for the legislative branch, Judicial Department, and Public Defenders Services Division submitted by each respective agency (§ 4-73); and

3. authorize the higher education constituent units to establish and administer operating funds (§§ 10a-77, 10a-99, 10a-105, and 10a-143).

Under the act, any allotment reductions applied to the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, UConn, or the UConn Health Center must be credited to the General Fund.

For FYs 18 and 19, the act authorizes the OPM secretary to reduce allotments for each branch of government in order to achieve unallocated lapses in the General Fund (see Table 2). Under the act, the legislative reductions must be determined by the top six legislative leaders, and judicial reductions must be determined by the chief justice and chief public defender.

Table 2: FY 18 and FY 19 General Fund Spending Reductions by Branch

Branch	FY 18	FY 19
Executive	$ 42,250,000	$ 45,000,000*
Judicial	3,000,000	8,000,000
Legislative	1,000,000	1,000,000

The act authorizes the OPM secretary to reduce spending in any budgeted state agency to achieve targeted budget savings in the General Fund. These amounts correspond to budgeted lapses designated as “Targeted Savings” and “Statewide Hiring Reduction” in § 1 (see Table 3).

Table 3: FY 18 and FY 19 Budgeted Savings

§	Lapse	FY 18	FY 19
14	Targeted Savings	$111,814,090	$150,878,179
28	Hiring Reduction	6,500,000	7,000,000

The act authorizes the OPM secretary to reduce allotments in any budgeted agency to achieve $7.5 million in General Fund budget savings in FY 18. Under the act, any such reductions must be due to savings (1) achieved between July 1, 2017 and September 30, 2017 or (2) that result from the delay in implementing newly funded programs.

For FYs 18 and 19, the act allows the OPM secretary to reduce allotments in any budgeted state agency to achieve STF savings of $12 million in each year.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act bars the OPM secretary from allotting funds for the Nonfunctional – Change to Accruals line item accounts in each of the state's 10 appropriated funds, regardless of the law requiring the governor, through OPM, to allot appropriations before they can be spent. These line items represent the change to accruals in agency budgets due to the conversion to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)-based budgeting.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act authorizes the OPM secretary to transfer:

1. personal services appropriations in any appropriated fund from agencies to the Reserve for Salary Adjustments account to reflect more accurately collective bargaining and related costs and

2. General Fund appropriations for Reserve for Salary Adjustments to any agency in any appropriated fund to implement salary increases; other employee benefits; agency costs related to staff reductions, including accrual payments; or any other authorized personal service adjustment.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act carries forward the unexpended funds appropriated for FY 17 that relate to collective bargaining agreements and related costs, as determined by the OPM secretary, and requires the funds to be used for the same purpose in FYs 18 and 19. It also carries forward the same unexpended funds appropriated for FY 18 and requires the funds to be used for the same purpose in FY 19.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the governor, with the Finance Advisory Committee's (FAC) approval, to transfer all or part of an agency's appropriation at the agency's request to another agency to take advantage of federal matching funds. Under the act, both agencies must certify that the receiving agency will spend the transferred appropriation for its original purpose. Federal funds generated from such transfers can be used to reimburse General Fund spending, expand services, or both, as the governor, with FAC approval, determines.

The act also allows the governor, with FAC approval, to adjust agency appropriations to maximize federal funding to the state. The governor must report on any adjustment to the Appropriations and Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the OPM secretary to transfer all or part of any General Fund appropriation for the UConn Health Center or the Department of Veterans Affairs to DSS's Medicaid account to maximize federal reimbursement.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires DSS to (1) spend money appropriated to it for FYs 18 and 19 for DMHAS – Disproportionate Share payments when and in the amounts OPM specifies and (2) make disproportionate share payments to DMHAS hospitals for operating expenses and related fringe benefits. It requires the hospitals to (1) use the funds they receive from DMHAS for fringe benefits to reimburse the comptroller and (2) deposit the other DMHAS funds they receive into “grants – other than federal accounts.” Unspent disproportionate share funds in these accounts lapse at the end of each fiscal year.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act requires SDE to transfer $1 million of the federal special education funds it receives each year to the Office of Early Childhood for the Birth-To-Three Program to carry out federally required special education responsibilities. 

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act suspends per diem and other rate adjustments for private residential treatment facilities licensed by DCF.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

During FYs 18 and 19, the act requires private and nonprofit organizations providing services under contract with the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) or DMHAS to reimburse these agencies at 100%, or an alternate amount identified by the DDS or DMHAS commissioners and approved by the OPM secretary, of the difference between the actual expenses incurred and the amount the organization received from these agencies under the contract.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By June 30, 2019, the act requires Hartford to issue an RFP for the purchase of the civic center and coliseum complex (i.e., XL Center) in Hartford.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act transfers $750,000 in each of FY 18 and FY 19 from the THTF to DSS to implement recommendations from a study on enhancements and improvements to supports and services for individuals with autism and their families. It also transfers $1 million in each of FY 18 and FY 19 from the THTF to UConn to support the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act specifies that it is intended that Even Start be integrated into the coordinated state planning and implementation of the Office of Early Childhood's (OEC) statewide, two-generational initiative.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By December 31, 2017, the act requires any municipality with more than one family resource center in its public schools established under the state's family resource center program to close one of the centers.

Under the act, each center existing on January 1, 2018 must receive a $100,000 grant in each of FY 18 and FY 19 from the appropriation to SDE for family resource centers. The act establishes the “family resource center grant account” as a separate, nonlapsing General Fund account and requires the account to contain all funds required by law to be deposited into it.

Under the act, any amount remaining from SDE's family resource center appropriation after distributing grants to centers must be deposited into the account. SDE must use the account funds in FYs 18 and 19 to establish a competitive grant program for family resource centers. Under the act, centers may apply for a grant from the program in the manner and at a time determined by the education commissioner.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

PA 17-89 establishes conditions under which MMCT Venture, LLC may operate an off-reservation commercial casino gaming facility in the state and requires it to pay the state 25% of the gross gaming revenue from video facsimile games once the casino is operational. The act increases, from $4.5 million to $7.5 million, the amount of such revenue that must be annually deposited in the municipal gaming account. The act also adds four towns, Bridgeport, New Haven, Norwalk, and Waterbury, to the list of towns receiving annual $750,000 grants from the account. PA 17-89 provides grants from the account to East Hartford, Ellington, Enfield, Hartford, South Windsor, and Windsor Locks. By law, the grants are reduced proportionately in any fiscal year that the total grant amount exceeds the available funds.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FY 18, the act extends, from September 1, 2018, to November 1, 2018, the date by which the OPM secretary must inform the insurance commissioner of the amounts appropriated for various immunization-related purposes. The commissioner uses the information to determine the health and welfare fee insurers must pay each year.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the OPM secretary, with FAC approval, to transfer appropriations between budgeted agencies in FY 18 in order to reconcile the act's appropriations with those made in Governor Malloy's Executive Order 58.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act allows DSS, DCF, and the Judicial Branch to establish receivables for anticipated reimbursement from approved projects, as long as they do so (1) with OPM's approval and (2) in compliance with any U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-approved advanced planning document. Generally, establishing receivables (i.e., an amount due from another source) allows the agencies to make payments before receiving the federal reimbursement.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act increases the frequency of license renewal for outpatient clinics from every four years to every three years. It specifies that the fee applies to outpatient clinics that provide urgent care services, conforming to another provision (§ 674) that requires urgent care centers to be licensed as outpatient clinics starting April 1, 2018. (Section 675 contains the same provisions as section 39, effective December 1, 2017.)

As under prior law, there is a $1,000 licensing fee for outpatient clinics except those operated by municipal health departments or districts or licensed nonprofit nursing or community health agencies.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act extends for the next two fiscal years (FYs 18 and 19) a freeze on payment standards (i.e., benefits) for DSS's TFA and SAGA cash assistance programs at FY 15 rates. The law generally requires the DSS commissioner to raise the payment standards by the increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers (a measure of inflation) but changes to the law have frequently prohibited this increase.

TFA provides temporary cash assistance to families that meet certain income and asset limits. In general, SAGA provides cash assistance to single or married individuals without children, who have very low incomes, do not qualify for any other cash assistance program, and are considered “transitional” or “unemployable.”

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act generally freezes rates paid by DSS at FY 17 levels for room and board at private residential facilities and similar facilities operated by regional educational service centers that provide vocational or functional services for individuals with certain disabilities (non-ICF-ID boarding homes). Within available appropriations, the act allows these rates to exceed the FY 17 level only for capital improvements made in FY 18 or FY 19 and approved by DDS, in consultation with DSS, for residents' health and safety.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Under the act, regardless of rate-setting laws or regulations to the contrary, the rates the state pays to residential care homes, community living arrangements, and community companion homes that received the flat rate for residential services in FY 16 remain in effect through FY 19. State regulations permit these facilities to have their rates determined based on a flat rate rather than submitted cost reports.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act caps rates for residential care homes at FY 17 and 18 levels, respectively, with an exception for homes that receive certain proportional fair rent increases. The act allows the DSS commissioner to provide such increases within available appropriations to homes with documented fair rent additions (1) placed in service in the cost report years ending September 30, 2016 or September 30, 2017, respectively, and (2) that are not otherwise included in the issued rates.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By law, the DSS commissioner must issue lower rates to facilities that would have been issued a lower rate due to their interim rate status or an agreement with DSS were it not for any rate freeze or other provisions in effect. The act eliminates a provision also requiring lower rates for facilities that experience a change in allowable fair rent.

For FY 18 and effective July 1, 2017, the act also reverses a rate decrease for facilities that received a rate decrease due to a 2015 fair rent asset expiring.

For FY 18, the act requires DSS to determine nursing facility rates based on 2016 cost reports but also limits any change in rates to no higher than, and not more than 2% less than, rates in effect at the end of calendar year 2016.

For FY 19, the act caps rates at FY 18 levels but allows the DSS commissioner to provide higher rates in the form of proportional fair rent increases, which may, at his discretion, include increases for facilities that have had a material change in circumstances related to fair rent additions or moveable equipment placed in service in the cost report year ending September 30, 2017 and not otherwise included in issued rates.

Generally, when DSS computes a facility's rates, it divides the facility's allowable costs by the facility occupancy at 95% of licensed capacity so that homes with more empty beds receive lower rates than higher occupancy homes. The act lowers the licensed capacity used for this calculation from 95 to 90% for FY 14 and succeeding fiscal years. (In practice, DSS has used a 90% occupancy rate since FY 14.)

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FY 18 and FY 19, the act caps Medicaid rates for ICF-IDs at FY 17 levels, except that the state may pay a higher rate, within available appropriations, to facilities that have made a capital improvement, approved by DDS in consultation with DSS, for residents' health or safety during FY 18 or FY 19. The act also extends through FY 18 and FY 19 a provision allowing the DSS commissioner to provide fair rent increases to facilities that have an approved certificate of need and undergo a material change in circumstances related to fair rent.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act suspends rate adjustments, including adjustments to allowable daily payments, for DCF-licensed private residential treatment facilities in FYs 18 and 19.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act caps DSS's Medicaid payments for nonemergency adult dental services at $1,000 per calendar year per individual, but excludes from this cap medically necessary services, including dentures.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2018

The act reduces eligibility for each of the Medicare Savings Program (MSP) tiers (see below) by lowering income limits as a percentage of the federal poverty level (FPL)(see Table 4). The act also makes a conforming change to require that DSS post regulations on its website and on the eRegulations system rather than in the Connecticut Law Journal.

Table 4: MSP Income Limits

MSP Program Tier	Cost-Sharing Payments Covered	Prior Law		Under the Act
		Income Limit (% FPL)	Annual Income Limit* (Individual)	Income Limit (% FPL)	Annual Income Limit* (Individual)
Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program (QMB)	● Medicare Part B Premium ● All Medicare deductibles ● Co-insurance	Less than 211%	$25,447	Less than 100%	$12,060
Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary Program (SLMB)	● Medicare Part B Premium	211%-231%	27,859	100%-120%	14,472
Qualified Individual (QI)	● Medicare Part B Premium	231%-246%	29,668	120%-135%	16,281

The federal MSP consists of three separate program tiers: the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB), the Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB), and the Qualified Individual (QI). To qualify, individuals must be enrolled in Medicare Part A. Program participants get help from the state's Medicaid program with their Medicare cost sharing, including premiums and deductibles.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2018

The act requires each local and regional board of education, by December 1, 2017, to (1) enroll as a Medicaid provider, (2) participate in DSS's Medicaid School Based Child Health Program (SBCH), and (3) submit billable service information electronically to DSS or its billing agent. It also makes technical changes.

The act allows any local or regional board of education to contract with a third-party vendor or other local or regional board of education to comply with the above requirements. The contracts may require costs for the contracted services to be paid from, and contingent on sufficient receipt of, the grants DSS makes by law to boards of education based on their Medicaid claims for certain special education services.

The act prohibits DSS, in a Medicaid audit, from assessing or extrapolating overpayments to a third-party service provider that contracts with the local or regional board of education to provide Medicaid services if DSS determines the error is caused by (1) clerical error, (2) information the board of education provides, or (3) another third party vendor in the submission of billable service information.

In Connecticut, the SBCH Program is the mechanism by which a school district may seek federal Medicaid reimbursement for many of the covered special education services (e.g. assessment and occupational therapy) that are provided to an eligible student with disabilities pursuant to his or her individualized education plan. The act requires, rather than allows, local and regional boards of education to determine a child's Medicaid enrollment status. It also requires planning and placement teams to comply with federal requirements (34 C.F.R. 300.154) (e.g., parental consent and written notification) prior to billing for services under the SBCH Program. In addition, the act requires private schools, hospitals, and other institutions that provide special education instruction under an agreement with a local or regional board of education to submit to the board all documentation required to submit claims to the SBCH Program.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By law, money in the STF must be used first for debt service on special tax obligation bonds and to pay for certain transportation projects. The act eliminates a requirement that remaining STF funds pay for DSS's transportation for employment independence program. Existing law, unchanged by the act, requires that such funds also be appropriated to pay for (1) general obligation bonds issued for transportation projects, (2) Department of Transportation (DOT) and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) budget appropriations, and (3) Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) boating regulation and enforcement.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) commissioner to continue or extend, through December 31, 2018, any candidate list scheduled to expire on or after June 7, 2017.

By law, positions in the state employee classified service must be filled from a list of qualified people, known as a candidate list. The lists must generally remain in force for at least three months, but not more than one year, unless the commissioner grants an exception under certain circumstances.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

PA 17-192 requires the transportation commissioner to develop, and obtain legislative approval for, a method to evaluate “transportation projects” and use this method to evaluate these projects before seeking funding from the legislature for them.

Under PA 17-192, a transportation project included a transportation planning or capital project, begun by the state on or after July 1, 2018, that (1) is estimated to cost $150 million or more or (2) expands capacity on a limited access highway, transit or railroad system, or parking facility.

This act specifically excludes from the definition of “transportation project” and therefore from PA 17-192's evaluation requirements, any project begun on or after July 1, 2018 that (1) the commissioner finds necessary to maintain the state's infrastructure in good repair and (2) is estimated to cost less than $150 million.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes the TRS Viability Commission, consisting of Teachers' Retirement Board members and a global consulting firm with significant experience and expertise in human resources, talent development, and health and retirement benefits and investments.

The commission must develop and implement a plan to maintain TRS's financial viability. In developing the plan, the commission must hold at least one public hearing and solicit the input of TRS members (i.e., participating Connecticut teachers). It must also consider the state's financial capability, including the state's:

1. fiscal health;

2. Budget Reserve Fund balance;

3. long- and short-term liabilities, including its ability to meet minimum funding levels required by law, contract, or court order;

4. initial budgeted revenue compared to actual revenue received for the previous five fiscal years;

5. revenue projections for the fiscal years during the proposed plan's term;

6. economic outlook; and

7. access to capital markets.

The act specifies that the state's financial capability does not include its ability to raise revenue through new or increased taxes.

The commission must submit the plan and any proposed legislation for implementing it to the Education and Appropriations committees within 90 days after contracting with a consulting firm (see below). The commission must terminate within one year after it submits the plan.

The act establishes a process for selecting and contracting with a consulting firm for the commission. Within 60 days after the act takes effect, the OPM secretary must, within available appropriations, contract with a global consulting firm with significant experience and expertise in human resources, talent development, and health and retirement benefits and investments. If he does not do so within 60 days, then the Office of Legislative Management (OLM) must do so.

The OPM secretary or OLM executive director, as applicable, must identify candidates with significant experience to undertake the act's required duties through the solicitation of qualifications and any other factors that may bear on the ability to perform the duties. Each solicitation and response must be written. The secretary or executive director must select a contractor from at least four eligible candidates. (The act does not specify what happens if fewer than four contractors respond to the solicitation.) Under the act, any resulting contract is not subject to (1) the state law on state consultants and personal services agreements and (2) state purchasing laws or laws under the State Contracting Standards Board's jurisdiction.

If the OPM secretary contracts with a firm, the act requires the governor, with the Finance Advisory Committee's approval, to transfer to OPM any funds appropriated to OLM for the contract. If OLM contracts with a firm, OLM must retain the funds appropriated for the contract. The act also allows the state to accept gifts, grants, and donations for purposes of contracting with the consulting firm. However, it may not accept these from any candidate that also submits a bid for the contract.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For the school years beginning July 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018, the act prohibits Sheff host magnet school operators from charging school districts tuition for their students who attend the magnet school. The ban, which had been in place for years, expired at the end of the school year beginning July 1, 2016.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act makes numerous changes to the school construction grant program. This includes altering how school construction reimbursement rates are determined, requiring additional information with each application, expanding the types of projects eligible for emergency grants, increasing the amount of money the state must withhold pending a final audit, and changing the definition of a renovation project.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the DAS commissioner to use three years, rather than one, of adjusted equalized net grand list (AENGL) per capita when ranking all of the state's towns for school construction reimbursement rates. She must do this for grant applications made on or after July 1, 2017. AENGL per capita is a measure of property wealth in a town.

The act expands the information that must be provided to the legislature in the school construction project approval process. Under prior law, the DAS commissioner had to provide a review of the student enrollment projections for each project on the school construction priority list she submits to the legislature, governor, and OPM secretary every December. The act requires her to include the following more extensive information for each project instead:

1. a substantiation of the estimated total project costs;

Procedures. Under the act, a superintendent must notify DAS in writing of the need for an emergency grant within seven calendar days of discovering a condition that could qualify for an emergency grant in order for the project to be eligible. The superintendent must submit a full application within six months of the notification in order to receive a grant.

The act makes conforming and technical changes in these sections.

The act requires one of the governor's five appointees to the TRB to be a municipal mayor, first selectman, or chief elected official. The governor must fill the next vacancy among his five appointments with such an individual.

By law, the board administers the Teachers' Retirement System and consists of four active teacher members; two retired teacher members; five gubernatorial appointees; and the education commissioner, state treasurer, and OPM secretary, or their designees.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage and applicable to appointments made on and after that date.

The act extends YSB grant eligibility to those YSBs that applied for a state grant during FY 17, if the town approves its required contribution before making its application. By law, a town must contribute an amount equal to the state grant amount. YSBs are multipurpose youth-serving organizations that provide prevention and intervention programs for delinquent, pre-delinquent, pregnant, parenting, and troubled youths.

The act also specifies that the state grant amount of $14,000 is awarded to eligible YSBs within available appropriations, and it removes obsolete language from prior law.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes a 12-member task force to conduct a feasibility study of alternative methods of funding special education and addressing the factors impacting the increasing cost and predictability of special education services. The study must examine a state special education predictable cost cooperative model and other alternative funding models used in other states. The task force must submit the study and any legislative recommendations to the Education and Appropriations committees by January 1, 2019.

The act defines “special education predictable cost cooperative” as a special education funding model that:

1. aggregates special education costs at the state level to compensate for local level volatility by (a) providing predictability in special education costs to local and regional boards of education, (b) maintaining current state special education funding, (c) differentiating funding based on student needs, (d) equitably distributing special education funding, (e) providing boards with flexibility and encouraging innovation, and (f) limiting local financial responsibility for students with extraordinary needs;

2. is funded by (a) a community contribution from each school district, calculated based on the number of special education students enrolled in the district and the district's previous special education costs, with each town's community contribution reduced by an equity adjustment based on the town's ability to pay, and (b) the state contribution, which is a reallocation of the special education portion of the education cost-sharing grant and the excess cost grant;

3. ensures that a school district's community contribution will be lower than its actual per pupil special education cost;

4. provides all school districts with some state support for special education services; and

5. reimburses school districts for 100% of their actual special education costs for each fiscal year.

The act requires the study to, at a minimum, address a number of specific areas including:

1. an actuarial analysis of the cooperative model and other alternative models;

2. state and municipal funding for the cooperative model and other alternative models, including how towns contribute to the cooperative, how they are compensated for special education costs by the cooperative, and how such compensation would affect their contribution in the next fiscal year;

3. the possible legal status of the cooperative model and other alternative models (i.e., state agency, quasi-public agency, nonprofit organization, or private entity);

4. governance structure, including a process for nominating and selecting members for the board of directors, qualifications for an executive administrator, and the accountability of the board and administrator to the participating towns and boards of education, including a complaint process;

5. staffing levels and funding sources for hiring and employing necessary staff;

6. a funding sources analysis for necessary initial capital costs, including the impact on state special education funding if $50 million in state special education funding is used;

7. an implementation timeline, including prerequisites such as the number of voluntarily participating towns necessary for the cooperative model and other alternative models to function or whether participation should be mandatory;

8. a legal analysis, including whether it is allowed under state law and the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act and the cooperative or alternative model's accountability to the General Assembly.

When conducting the study, the task force cannot cause any state agency to incur costs of more than $1,000, exclusive of costs associated with reimbursing any agency staff person for mileage expenses. The task force may also receive funds from any nonprofit organization or accept pro bono services from any public or private entity to conduct the feasibility study. The Office of Legislative Management must help the task force administer any funds or services it receives or seeks pursuant to the act.

The act requires the task force to include the OPM secretary and the education commissioner, or their respective designees, plus one representative from each of the following entities:

1. Connecticut Association of School Business Officials,

2. Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents,

3. Connecticut Council of Administrators of Special Education,

4. Connecticut Association of Boards of Education,

5. Connecticut Captive Insurance Association,

6. Connecticut Association of Schools,

7. Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center,

8. Connecticut Conference of Municipalities,

9. RESC (Regional Educational Service Centers) Alliance, and

10. UConn Actuarial Science Program faculty.

The task force must hold its first meeting within 30 days after the act's effective date. It must elect one of its members as chairperson of the task force.

The task force terminates on January 1, 2019.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes the 16-member Connecticut Achievement and Resource Equity in Schools Commission to provide analysis and recommendations on state funding for education and resources needed to ensure that all public school students have an opportunity to succeed. The commission must report its findings and recommendations by April 1, 2018 to the Appropriations and Education committees, governor, and OPM secretary.

The act requires the commission to develop a strategic plan that includes recommendations for implementing a system for distributing state public education funding that:

1. includes a funding formula that (a) uses an appropriate foundation level, (b) addresses the issue of unequal local tax burdens, and reduces the reliance on unequal local property taxation to fund services, (c) increases equity and fairness, and (d) reduces segregation;

2. depends on a stable, fair, reliable, and identifiable funding source;

3. addresses students' educational needs from preschool through grade 12; and

4. provides predictability and sustainability in grant allocations to towns and school districts.

The commission members must reflect the state's geographic, population, socio-economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. Table 5 lists the appointing authorities and member qualifications.

Table 5: Appointing Authorities and Commission Appointments

Appointing Authority	Number of Appointments	Member Qualifications
House speaker	Two	One representative of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education One representative of the Connecticut Education Association
Senate president pro tem	Two	One representative of the Regional Educational Service Centers Alliance One economist with expertise in poverty measures
Senate Republican president pro tem	Two	One representative of the Connecticut Federation of School Administrators One representative of a regional agricultural science and technology education center
House majority leader	Two	One representative of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents One representative of the American Federation of Teachers-Connecticut
Senate majority leader	Two	One representative of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities One representative of the Connecticut Council of Administrators of Special Education
Senate deputy Republican president pro tem	Two	One employee of SDE's School Choice Bureau One representative of the Connecticut PTA
House minority leader	Two	One representative of the Connecticut Association of Schools One representative of the Connecticut Administrators of Programs for English Language Learners
Joint appointment by the House speaker and minority leader	One	One representative of the Connecticut Association of School Business Officials
Joint appointment by the Senate president pro tem and the Republican Senate president pro tem	One	One representative of the State Education Resource Center

Appointments must be made by 30 days after the act takes effect. Vacancies must be filled by the appointing authorities, except for Senate chairpersons as described below.

Under the act, the commission has two chairpersons, appointed as follows: (1) the House speaker selects a chairperson from among the members and (2) the Senate president pro tempore and the Senate Republican president pro tempore must jointly select the other chairperson from among the members.

If the chairperson appointed by the Senate president pro tempore vacates the position, the Senate president pro tempore and the Senate Republican president pro tempore, or the Senate president pro tempore, as the case may be, must fill the vacancy.

The chairpersons must schedule the first commission meeting to be held no more than 60 days after the act's effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act makes various changes to the three-year process outlined in existing law for the technical education and career system (hereinafter “the system”) to transition into an independent state agency. It also makes several technical and conforming changes, including § 82 in its entirety.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except provisions concerning the system's educational offerings (§ 73) and executive director (§ 74) take effect July 1, 2019.

By law, the system must offer full-time programs in vocational, technical, technological, and postsecondary education and training and may offer these programs on a part-time or evening basis. The act specifies that the full-time programs must be comprehensive secondary education programs, but it does not define “comprehensive secondary education.”

The act prohibits system employees from accepting any gift, grant, or donation as an individual, or on the system's behalf, for personal use. It requires any gifts, grants, and donations accepted on the system's behalf to be subject to the State Code of Ethics for Public Officials (CGS §§ 1-79 to 1-90). The act also requires both the system board and its executive director to report quarterly to OPM about all gifts, grants, and donations received.

The act requires anyone appointed by the governor to serve as the system's executive director to have experience with education systems.

The act requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to review all system admissions policies, rather than just those policies on enrollment of students with disabilities and students receiving special education services. Under prior law, the review had to include consideration of (1) applicable principles of state and federal law, (2) the system's purposes and public character, and (3) enrollment data on students receiving special education and related services compared to statewide and district averages. Under the act, the broader review must also include consideration of the following:

1. the use of placement tests and wait lists;

2. the admissions policies relating to the enrollment of students with disabilities, students receiving or eligible to receive special education and related services, and students who are English language learners; and

3. diversity standards for the inclusion of minority students.

The act requires SDE to consult with the system's administrative and professional staff for the review and any subsequent revisions to the admissions policy.

Existing law requires (1) SDE to develop and update as necessary, beginning with the 2018-19 school year, uniform standards and curricula for all career technical education programs offered by local or regional boards of education and (2) the standards and curriculum to be aligned with professional certification requirements. The act specifies that these standards and curriculum must be aligned with relevant professional certification requirements.

Existing law also requires SDE to evaluate, within available appropriations, any existing standards relating to career technical education used by the system and examine whether the standards are aligned with professional certification requirements and uniform across the system. The act specifies that this evaluation must examine whether the standards are aligned with professional certification requirements already in existence.

Existing law requires the system superintendent to consult with the community colleges and certain local or regional school boards to establish partnerships, reduce redundancies, and consolidate programmatic offerings. The act additionally requires him or her to do so to fulfill state workforce needs.

The law requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to hire a consultant for FY 18 to help the system board develop a transition plan to become an independent agency. The act requires the consultant to consult with the system's administrative and professional staff when (1) assisting the system's board with developing a transitional plan and (2) providing recommendations about services that the system could provide more efficiently in conjunction with another board of education, municipality, or state agency.

It also requires the consultant to identify deficiencies, best practices, and cost savings in procurement, in addition to the above tasks.

As a state agency, SBE is required by law to establish and keep an inventory account of real and personal state property with a value of $1,000 or more; secure the inventory to prevent theft or loss; and establish controls over the disposal of such inventory. The act specifies that this account must be an inventory of all property owned by and in the custody of SDE.

The act resolves an ambiguity in prior law about the system's representation on SBE by requiring the system board chairperson to serve as an ex-officio, nonvoting member of SBE. Under prior law, both the system superintendent and the system board chairperson served simultaneously on SBE in the same seat (PA 17-237, §§ 1 & 37).

PA 16-66 eliminated the Office of Protection and Advocacy (OPA) and the Board of Advocacy and Protection for Persons with Disabilities, effective July 1, 2017. It instead established a nonprofit entity (Disability Rights Connecticut, Inc. (DRCT)) to serve as the state's protection and advocacy system and client assistance program for people with disabilities.

This act transfers to the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) OPA's investigatory responsibilities for alleged abuse or neglect of individuals (1) with intellectual disability or (2) who receive funding or services under DSS's Division of Autism Spectrum Disorder Services. Under prior law, these responsibilities were transferred to DORS. In practice, DDS has been performing them since March 2017 under a memorandum of understanding with DORS.

The act requires the DDS commissioner to receive and investigate complaints from such individuals, their legal representatives, or other interested persons. The act makes various other conforming changes to the existing laws on such abuse investigations to effectuate the transfer of these responsibilities to DDS.

The act allows the subject of such an investigation, his or her legal representatives, or other interested parties to contact DRCT with any concerns about the conduct of the investigation. It prohibits the DDS commissioner from taking, or threatening to take, any action, against any such person who contacts DRCT with such concerns.

Under existing law, if an investigation determines that a person with intellectual disability was abused, the matter must be referred to a prosecutor and in some cases, immediately to the police. The act extends these provisions to investigations of persons receiving services under DSS's Division of Autism Spectrum Disorder services and requires the DDS commissioner to notify the DSS commissioner of any such referral involving a division client.

The act makes other changes to the laws on such abuse investigations. For example, it replaces various references to “guardian” with “legal representative” and defines this term to include conservators as well as guardians.

Prior law required the OPA director to maintain a statewide registry of the complaint reports and associated evaluations, findings, and recommended actions. The act requires the DDS commissioner to keep electronic copies of such documents (evaluation reports) but eliminates the reference to a statewide registry. Under the act, an “evaluation report” is the written documentation of an investigation of abuse or neglect conducted by DDS's Abuse Investigation Division and includes allegations of abuse or neglect, evaluations, findings, and recommended actions.

The act also makes related minor, technical, and conforming changes.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except a technical change is effective July 1, 2018.

The act transfers the CJIS Governing Board, which oversees criminal justice information systems, from OPM to DESPP for administrative purposes only.

It also requires DESPP, rather than OPM, to provide office space and such staff, supplies, and services as required by the board's executive director to perform his duties, such as overseeing the design and implementation of a comprehensive statewide information system to share criminal justice information according to law.

Additionally, it requires the DESPP commissioner, rather than the OPM secretary, to provide anyone who submits a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for data from criminal justice agency information systems with the name and address of the agency where the data originated. (Under existing law, the originating agency is responsible for providing requested data that is available to the public under FOIA.)

The act also makes technical changes to the CJIS laws.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act delays the date by which the ACIR must submit its quadrennial report to the legislature from the second Wednesday after the 2018 regular session convenes to October 1, 2019, and every four years thereafter. By law, the report must analyze, among other things, the cost that each state mandate imposes on local governments.

The act also suspends, until January 1, 2019, a requirement for the ACIR to submit to the legislative leaders a list of each state mandate enacted during a regular or special session. By law, the ACIR must otherwise submit this list within 90 days after the regular or special session adjourns or by September 1 immediately following the regular session adjournment, whichever is sooner.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act pushes back the deadline by two years, from February 15, 2018, to February 15, 2020, by which DRS must submit the first biennial tax incidence report to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and post it on the department's website. By law, the report must indicate the extent to which groups of people and types of businesses bear the burden of different taxes.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the OPM secretary to develop sensitivity and stress test analyses for the Teachers' Retirement System and the State Employees' Retirement System and annually report on them to the Appropriations Committee. The report must include projections of benefit levels, pension costs, liabilities, and debt reduction under various economic and investment scenarios. The secretary must post and update the report on OPM's website at least annually.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act specifies that (1) a COG or (2) two or more municipalities acting jointly, may appoint one or more tax assessors. Under the act, municipalities must make the joint appointments in the same manner as other tax assessor appointments: the town meeting or legislative body must vote to appoint the assessor.

This authorization applies regardless of any conflicting special act, municipal charter, or ordinance. “Municipalities” are towns, consolidated cities and towns, and consolidated towns and boroughs.

The act also (1) eliminates prior law's cap on the number of assessors (five) a municipality may appoint and (2) makes conforming changes.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act exempts motion picture shows from the local option admissions surcharge. By law, municipalities may impose the surcharge (generally up to 5%) on the admission charge for events held at a range of amusement, entertainment, or recreation facilities.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act transfers responsibilities for the APCD and consumer health information website from the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange (“Access Health CT”) to the state's health information technology officer. It also eliminates the APCD Database Advisory Group.

Additionally, the act makes certain changes to reporting requirements related to the consumer health information website. It also makes various minor, technical, and conforming changes.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act also requires the officer to designate and post on its website a list of systems, technologies, programs, and entities that constitute Access Health CT.

The consumer website must contain comparative price and cost information for the items on these lists.

Existing law requires each health care provider with an electronic health record system capable of connecting to and participating in the Statewide Health Information exchange to begin doing so no later than two years after the exchange begins operating.

The act requires, by the same deadline, health care providers without an electronic health record system capable of connecting to and participating in the exchange to be capable of sending and receiving secure messages that comply with the Direct Project specifications published by the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (The Direct Project was created to specify a simple, secure way to send authenticated, encrypted health information directly to known, trusted recipients over the internet.)

By law, an “electronic health record system” is a computer-based information system used to create, collect, store, manipulate, share, exchange, or make available electronic health records for the delivery of patient care.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act increases the membership of the State Health Information Technology Advisory Council by (1) adding the comptroller or his designee and (2) authorizing its chairpersons to appoint up to four members who must serve at the chairpersons' pleasure. By law, the council is charged with, among other things, developing priorities and policy recommendations for advancing the state's health information technology and health information exchange efforts and goals.

The act also authorizes the council's chairpersons to (1) establish subcommittees and working groups and (2) appoint individuals who are not council members to serve as members of the subcommittees or working groups.

The act places the All-Payer Claims Database Advisory Group under the State Health Information Technology Advisory Council. The health information technology officer, in consultation with the council, must maintain written procedures for implementing and administering an all-payer claims database program established by the act (§§ 112 & 113). The act allows the members of the advisory group who are public officials to each appoint a designee. The advisory group's statutory purpose is, among other things, to develop a plan to implement a statewide multipayer data initiative to enhance the state's use of heath care data.

The act also allows the health information technology officer, instead of the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange's chief executive officer, to appoint additional members to the advisory group.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the state, acting by and through the OPM secretary, in collaboration with the health information technology officer, and the lieutenant governor, to establish a program to expedite the development of the State-wide Health Information Exchange. The program must:

1. assist the state, health care providers, insurance carriers, physicians, and all stakeholders in empowering consumers to make effective health care decisions;

2. promote patient-centered care;

3. improve the quality, safety, and value of health care;

4. reduce waste and duplication of services;

5. support clinical decision-making;

6. keep confidential health information secure; and

7. make progress toward the state's public health goals.

The program's purpose is to:

1. help the State-wide Health Information Exchange establish and maintain itself as a neutral and trusted entity that serves the public good for the benefit of all state residents, including Connecticut health care consumers, providers, and carriers;

2. perform, on behalf of the state, the role of intermediary between public and private stakeholders and customers of the State-wide Health Information Exchange; and

3. fulfill the responsibilities of the Office of Health Strategy.

The health information technology officer must design, and the OPM secretary, in collaboration with the officer, may establish or incorporate, an entity to implement the program. The entity may be organized as a nonprofit entity and must be owned and governed, in whole or in part, by a party or parties other than the state.

Under the act, any entity established or incorporated to implement the program must have its powers vested in and exercised by a board of directors. The board of directors must consist of the following members who must each serve for a term of two years:

1. one with expertise as an advocate for consumers of health care, appointed by the Governor;

2. one with expertise as a clinical medical doctor, appointed by the Senate president pro tempore;

3. one with expertise in hospital administration, appointed by the House speaker;

4. one with expertise in corporate law or finance, appointed by the Senate minority leader;

5. one with expertise in group health insurance coverage, appointed by the House minority leader; and

6. the chief information officer, the OPM secretary, and the health information technology officer, or their designees, who serve as ex-officio, voting members of the board.

The health information technology officer, or his or her designee, must serve as chairperson of the board.

All initial appointments must be made by February 1, 2018 and any vacancy must be filled by the appointing authority for the remainder of the unexpired term. If an appointing authority fails to make an initial appointment within 60 days after the entity is established, or fails to fill a vacancy in an appointment with 60 days after the date of the vacancy, the governor must make the appointment or fill the vacancy.

The act authorizes the entity to:

1. employ staff and fix their duties, qualifications, and compensation;

2. solicit, receive, and accept aid or contributions, including money, property, labor, and other things of value from any source;

3. receive, and manage on behalf of the state, funding from the federal government and other public sources or private sources to cover costs associated with planning, implementing, and administering the State-wide Health Information Exchange;

4. collect and remit fees set by the health information technology officer and charged to persons or entities for access to, or interaction with, the State-wide Health Information Exchange;

5. retain outside consultants and technical experts;

6. maintain an office in the state at a place or places the entity designates;

7. procure insurance against loss in connection with the entity's property and other assets in amounts and from insurers as the entity deems desirable;

8. sue and be sued and plead and be impleaded;

9. borrow money to obtain working capital; and

10. do all acts and things necessary and convenient to carry out the act's purposes subject to the powers, purposes, and restrictions of the uniform information and technology standards and regulations, the State-wide Health Information Exchange, the State Health Information Technology Advisory Council, and the health information technology officer.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By law, state agencies requesting criminal history record checks (1) must reimburse DESPP for the cost and are permitted to charge the applicant or employee a fee equal to the amount charged for the check (CGS § 29-17a). Under existing law, employers are prohibited from (1) basing employment decisions on erased criminal records and (2) asking about criminal history, unless required to do so by law (CGS § 31-51i).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires Connecticut Innovations, Inc. (CI) to provide an annual $350,000 grant to the Women's Business Development Council in Stamford in FYs 18 and 19.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes a 16-member working group to devise a roadmap to make Connecticut a national leader in developing and commercializing microbiome-based treatments, products, and services. Microbiome refers to the DNA record of all the microbes that inhabit our bodies and support many of their functions, including digesting food and fighting disease. Microbiome research and commercialization seeks to improve these functions by understanding and manipulating the microbes' DNA. (SA 17-16 also creates a microbiome working group with identical members and reporting requirements, but different charges.)

The act specifies the task force's membership, which consists of state officials, leaders of state higher education institutions, and gubernatorially appointed academic, bioscience, and venture capital industry representatives (see Table 6).

Table 6: Microbiome Working Group Membership

State Officials	Leaders of State Institutions of Higher Education	Governor Appointments
		Representative of State's Independent Institutions of Higher Education	Representatives of Connecticut Based Businesses and Hospitals
Commissioners of the following departments or their designees: ● Economic and community development ● Public health ● Revenue services Chairperson of CTNext's board of directors, or his designee (CTNext is a subsidiary of the quasi-public Connecticut Innovations, Inc.)	Leaders of the following state higher education institutions or their designees: ● UConn president ● UConn School of Medicine dean ● Board of Regents for Higher Education president	● Independent institution of higher education ● Independent medical school ● Yale University or Yale University School of Medicine	● Two from a bioscience company in business for at least five years ● Two from a bioscience company in business for less than five years ● One from a venture capital firm ● One from a hospital

The governor must select the group's chairperson from among the group's members, and the chairperson must call the group's first meeting by December 30, 2017. The members are not reimbursed for mileage or given an allowance to cover their costs of traveling to and from a meeting. The Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee's administrative staff must provide administrative support to the group.

The act allows the group to consult with others it deems necessary or appropriate to learn about the microbiome sector. It specifically allows the working group to consult with industry stakeholders, microbiome company representatives, experts in the medical application of microbiome-based products and services, and representatives of educational and research institutions focused on the microbiome sector.

In addition to devising a roadmap for establishing Connecticut as a national leader in the microbiome industry, the working group must examine specific factors that affect whether the state can achieve that goal. It must examine the relative importance of and interrelationship between pure microbiome research and commercialization activity and the best practices that stimulate both activities and assess the state's ability to develop and sustain that activity.

The working group must determine the type of workforce needed to develop and sustain a leading microbiome industry sector. It must determine (1) the talent pool and skills the sector needs, (2) the educational curricula and training levels necessary to meet those needs, and (3) whether the state's public and independent higher education institutions are reaching those levels.

The group must assess the current capacity of these institutions to support microbiome research. It must examine their strength and level of expertise in this field, including the extent to which their expertise is aligned with the working group's roadmap. In making this determination, the working group must consider the institutions' plans to grow and deepen their microbiome expertise and faculty efforts to commercialize microbiome technology.

The group must also determine the steps the state must take to develop microbiome talent and skills. It must (1) identify the types of skills and the number of skilled workers needed to make the state a national leader in the microbiome industry and (2) recommend how to strengthen the microbiome-related academic and practical training provided at the state's public and independent higher education institutions.

The group must also look beyond Connecticut, identifying and examining the best microbiome-related practices of nationally recognized states and institutions, including, without limitation, the UC San Diego's Center for Microbiome Innovation and its associated initiatives, partners, business networks, and connections. It must also assess the state's capacity to attract people outside the state with microbiome talent and skills.

Lastly, the working group must determine if it would be in the state's best interest to develop one or more specializations within the human, animal, or environmental microbiome fields or any of their subfields.

By January 1, 2018, the working group must submit a report on the roadmap to the Commerce; Finance, Revenue and Bonding; and Public Health committees. The report must include recommendations for legislative and programmatic changes needed to implement the roadmap and, for each recommendation, a range of funding options, measurable and achievable goals, and a timeline for completing the recommended change. By February 1, 2018, the working group must present its report to the governor and at a joint meeting of these committees.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act removes the requirement that the position of director of UConn's construction assurance office be a full-time position. Under existing law, the director is responsible for reviewing the construction performance of the UConn 2000 infrastructure improvement program and reporting at least quarterly to (1) UConn's president and (2) the construction management oversight committee established by law to review and approve policies and procedures developed for UConn 2000.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act designates members of CTNext's Higher Education Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee as “members of an advisory board” under the state Code of Ethics rather than “public officials” as prior law provided, thus removing them from the code's applicability. By law, members of advisory boards are not subject to the code'.

By law, the advisory committee advises CTNext, a subsidiary of Connecticut Innovations, Inc., on applications it receives for entrepreneurial grants from higher education institutions. Under the Code of Ethics, a member of an advisory board is an individual who exercises no state power and receives or expends no state funds.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act permits, rather than requires, the DSS commissioner to adopt regulations on:

1. audit protocols for long-term care facilities (e.g., nursing homes and residential care homes), including requirements for related facility training, entities conducting the audits on the department's behalf, and ensuring the fairness of the audit process (§ 135);

2. the selection and qualifications of temporary managers DSS appoints to oversee the operation of nursing homes found to be noncompliant with certain federal laws (§ 136); and

3. implementing and administering the state's weatherization and fuel assistance programs (§ 137).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By law, DSS provides Medicaid coverage to children under age 19 and their parents or caretaker relatives through HUSKY A. Under prior law, the income limit for this program was 150% FPL (e.g., $30,630 for a family of three for 2017). The act further limits HUSKY A eligibility by lowering the income limit for non-pregnant adults (i.e., parents or caretaker relatives) to 133% FPL (e.g., $27,158.60 for a family of three for 2017).

However, federal law requires state agencies to include a 5% income disregard when making certain Medicaid eligibility determinations. Thus, under the act and including this disregard, the HUSKY A income limit for parents and caretaker relatives in a family of three is effectively 138% FPL.

The act requires the DSS commissioner to review whether those who lose eligibility under the act qualify for Medicaid coverage under the same coverage group or a different coverage group before terminating their coverage.

The act eliminates the annual requirement for the OPM secretary to publish a notice of funding availability and solicit proposals for funding under the nonprofit collaboration incentive grant program. By law, the program provides grants to nonprofit organizations for infrastructure costs related to the consolidation of programs and services resulting from the collaborative efforts of two or more such organizations. Eligible nonprofit organizations may apply for such funding at times and in a manner the OPM secretary prescribes.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act replaces the Two-Generational School Readiness and Workforce Development Pilot Program, which expired on June 30, 2017, with a permanent statewide initiative to foster family economic self-sufficiency in low-income households through a comprehensive two-generational service delivery approach. In doing so, it expands the pilot program's scope and replaces oversight by the interagency working group with an advisory council.

The act designates the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) as the initiative's coordinating agency for the executive branch. It also establishes the initiative's components and required reporting.

The act requires the initiative to promote systemic change to create conditions across local and state public sector agencies and the private sector to support early childhood care and education, health and workforce readiness, and self-sufficiency across two generations in the same household. Areas the initiative may review and consider, within available appropriations, include the following:

1. improvements to the coordination and delivery of early learning programs, adult education, child care, housing, job training, transportation, and financial literacy, and other related support services;

2. alignment of existing state and local support systems around the household, including how to leverage Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant funds and services to equip households with the tools and skills needed to overcome obstacles and engage opportunities;

3. development of a long-term plan to coordinate, align, and optimize service delivery of relevant programs statewide, which may include targeted use of TANF funds; state incentives for private entities that develop two-generational programming; streamlined resource, practice, and data sharing; and the development and assessment of two-generational programming outcomes;and

4. partnerships between state and philanthropic organizations, as available, to provide support, technical assistance, guidance, and best practices to participating communities and the initiative's advisory council.

The act also specifies the intention to integrate Even Start, OEC's family literacy program, into the initiative's coordinated state planning and implementation (§ 568).

The expired pilot program required sites to be in Bridgeport; Colchester; Greater Hartford (defined as Hartford, East Hartford, and West Hartford); Meriden; New Haven; and Norwalk. Under the act, the initiative must be implemented in learning communities that include the pilot program's sites, except for Colchester, as well as Enfield, Waterbury, and Windham. As with the pilot program, the initiative must be informed by members of low-income households within these communities and foster a peer-to-peer exchange and technical assistance in best practices that must be shared with the advisory council.

The act does not require the initiative to include a workforce liaison, which was a pilot program requirement; however it requires the staff of the Commission on Women, Children, and Seniors' (CWCS) to serve as the learning communities' organizing and administrative staff.

The act establishes an advisory council to oversee the initiative and to advise the state on how to foster family economic self-sufficiency in low-income households through a comprehensive two-generational service delivery approach for early care and education and workforce readiness. The council membership must include legislators, executive and judicial branch officials, representatives of the nonprofit and other sectors, and members of low-income households.

Under the act, the council consists of the following members:

1. one legislator appointed by the House speaker, who must serve as co-chairperson;

2. one senator appointed by the Senate president pro tempore, who shall serve as co-chairperson;

3. one member representing the interests of business or trade organizations, appointed by the Senate majority leader;

4. one member with expertise in health and mental health issues, appointed by the House majority leader;

5. one member with expertise on issues concerning children and families, appointed by the Senate minority leader;

6. one legislator, appointed by the House minority leader;

7. a member of a low-income household, selected by CWCS;

8. representatives of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations and scholars who are experts in two-generational programs and policies (the act does not specify how these representatives must be selected or how many there must be); and

9. other business and academic professionals as needed to achieve goals for two-generational systems planning, evaluations, and outcomes, selected by the co-chairpersons.

In addition, the chief court administrator and the commissioners of Correction, Early Childhood, Education, Housing, Labor, Public Health, Social Services, and Transportation, or any of their designees, must serve as ex-officio members of the advisory council. CWCS staff must also serve as the council's organizing and administrative staff.

The act requires the advisory council, by December 31, 2018, to report to the Appropriations, Education, Housing, Human Services, Public Health, and Transportation committees on the following:

1. the challenges and opportunities in working with a parent and child concurrently in a two-generational service delivery model;

2. recommendations to improve systems, policy, culture, program, budget, or communication issues among agencies and service providers at the local and state levels to achieve outcomes; and

3. recommendations on the elimination of barriers to promote two-generational success.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For local boards of education whose towns have fewer than (1) 10,000 residents, (2) 2,000 resident students, or (3) three public schools, the act gives them the option to either employ a local superintendent or receive direction from another board of education's superintendent. The other board of education must authorize the use of its superintendent.

The act limits the requirement to employ a superintendent to (1) local boards of education that do not meet the above criteria and (2) regional boards of education. Existing law, unchanged by the act, allows boards of education to jointly employ a superintendent.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows a municipality and its board of education, upon joint approval, to enter into a cooperative agreement for performing administrative and central office duties.

Similarly, it allows two or more boards of education, upon written agreement, to enter into a cooperative arrangement to provide administrative and central office duties, just as they may already do for certain programs, services, and activities. By law, cooperative arrangements among boards of education may include the establishment of a supervisory committee whose membership is determined by the cooperating boards.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires a local board of education to notify the municipal legislative body before the start date of any person hired to fill a central office administrative personnel position (1) with an annual salary of $100,000 or more and (2) for which the proposed or approved education budget does not provide funding. It also specifies that this requirement does not apply to positions paid for with grants, gifts, or donations to the board.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows a regional board of education to establish a finance committee for the regional school district to inform the board about member towns' local budget issues and help prepare the district's budget proposal upon request. It requires each member town's local board of education, or the legislative body in a town without a local board, to appoint two representatives to the committee.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes an irrebuttable presumption that 15% of a municipality's budget reserve is not available to pay the costs of any item subject to municipal employee contract arbitration.

Under the municipal employee arbitration law, arbitrators must prioritize the public interest and the municipal employer's financial capacity, including other financial demands on the employer, when considering a union contract case. In effect, the act requires the panel to ignore 15% of the municipality's budget reserve when considering the municipal employer's ability to pay an arbitration award (e.g., a town with a $1 million reserve would be treated as if it had an $850,000 reserve for arbitration purposes). The act does not change the other factors a panel must also consider (e.g., changes in the cost of living).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the DSS commissioner, annually by December 15, to notify the Appropriations and Human Services committees of potential Medicaid waivers and amendments to the Medicaid state plan that may result in state cost savings. Under prior law, the commissioner had to notify these committees if, in developing the next fiscal year's budget, the commissioner considered applying for a federal waiver for any assistance program or submitting a proposed Medicaid state plan amendment to the federal government. Existing law, unchanged by the act, requires the commissioner to submit applications for waivers and waiver renewals to the committees for approval before submitting them to the federal government.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires municipal legislative bodies to consult with their local boards of education, when possible, about jointly purchasing property, casualty, and workers' compensation insurance. It applies to any town, city, borough, consolidated town and city, or consolidated town and borough.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires a local board of education, after receiving bids for a good or service, to consult with its municipal legislative body to determine whether the municipality provides or uses the good or service. If so, and it is provided equivalently by the municipality or through a municipal contract at a lower cost than the lowest qualified bid received by the board, the act requires the board to consider a cooperative agreement with its host municipality for the good or service.

Under the act, a “good” or “service” includes portable classrooms; motor vehicles; and materials and equipment, such as telephone systems, computers, and copy machines.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires a municipality's local board of education to consult with its legislative body before purchasing payroll processing or accounts payable software systems to determine whether they may be purchased or shared regionally.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act renames the “Detective Bruce Boisland Memorial Bridge” as the “Detective Bruce Boislard Memorial Bridge.” (PA 17-230 designated the bridge on Route 229 in Southington, passing over I-84, as the “Detective Bruce Boisland Memorial Bridge.”)

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes an Office of Health Strategy, headed by an executive director appointed by the governor with confirmation by the House or Senate. It places the office in the Department of Public Health (DPH) for administrative purposes only and makes it the successor to the:

1. Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange for the purpose of administering the all-payer claims database and

2. lieutenant governor's office for purposes of (a) consulting with DPH to develop a statewide chronic disease plan; (b) housing, chairing, and staffing the Health Care Cabinet; and (c) appointing the state's health information technology officer and overseeing the officer's duties.

Any order or regulation of the above entities in force on July 1, 2018 continues in force and effect until amended, repealed, or superseded by law.

Under the act, starting by July 1, 2018, the office is responsible for:

1. developing and implementing a comprehensive and cohesive health care vision for the state, including a coordinated state health care cost containment strategy;

2. directing and overseeing the (a) all-payers claim database program and (b) State Innovation Model Initiative and related successor initiatives;

3. coordinating the state's health information technology initiatives;

4. directing and overseeing the Office of Health Care Access and all of its duties and responsibilities; and

5. convening forums and meetings with state government and external stakeholders, including the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange, to discuss health care issues designed to develop effective health care cost and quality strategies.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2018

The act prohibits the DSS commissioner from extrapolating overpayments or assessing penalties against providers of Birth-to-Three early intervention services for errors made from November 1, 2017 to April 30, 2018 during the implementation of a fee-for-service payment methodology.

The Birth-to-Three program is a private, provider-based system that provides services to families with infants and toddlers who have developmental delays or disabilities.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act provides a package of tax incentives to property owners after they remediate, redevelop, and use property that was contaminated, abandoned, or underutilized. Owners must apply to DECD for these incentives and provide certain information, including a commitment to hire students to work at the redeveloped property.

The incentives are available in two seven-year stages, with the second stage available only to contaminated and remediated properties (i.e., brownfields).

During the first seven years after an owner redevelops an approved property, the owner qualifies for (1) corporation, business, or personal income tax credits against the income attributed to business operations at the redeveloped property and (2) a sales and use tax exemption applicable to items purchased for use at the property. Also during this period, the owner may have the redeveloped property's tax assessment frozen for five years at its predevelopment assessed value.

If the property was a brownfield, the owner qualifies for an additional seven-year benefit beginning in the eighth year after the property's redevelopment. The benefit is a business or personal income tax deduction of up to 8.57% of the eligible expenses the owner incurred in remediating the property.

The act requires the DECD commissioner, in consultation with the DRS commissioner, to adopt regulations to implement the program.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage and applicable to taxable years and income years beginning on or after January 1, 2017.

The act establishes the “7/7 program” and opens it to any person, firm, limited liability company, nonprofit or for-profit corporation, or other business entity that owns (1) an abandoned or underutilized property (i.e., problem property) or (2) property where actual or potential pollution has discouraged the owner or other parties from redeveloping, reusing, or expanding it (i.e., brownfield).

An abandoned or underutilized property qualifies for 7/7 program benefits if its host municipality certifies that the property has been in that condition for at least 10 years. A brownfield qualifies if its owner (1) is not responsible for pollution or a source of pollution on the property and (2) did not establish, create, or maintain a source that polluted the state's water.

Contents. Eligible property owners seeking 7/7 program tax incentives must submit an application to DECD, providing:

1. a description of the property and its proposed reuse,

2. a written certification that the property is a brownfield or has been abandoned or underutilized for at least 10 years,

3. a plan of anticipated workforce needs and a commitment to hire trained students to work at the redeveloped property (see below),

4. a written certification from the property's host municipality stating that it supports the property's approval for 7/7 program incentives, and

5. any other information the DECD commissioner requests.

Under the act, the owner provides the certification that the property is a brownfield. The host municipality must provide the certification if the property has been abandoned or underutilized for at least 10 years.

The commissioner must approve an owner's application if it includes all of the required information and notify the DRS commissioner when she does so.

Worker Training and Hiring Requirements. A property owner applying to be a 7/7 program participant must include in his or her application a plan outlining anticipated workforce needs and a commitment to hire trained students. The owner must submit the plan to the area's high schools and the regional technical community colleges identifying the (1) types of jobs to be performed at the redeveloped property and (2) training requirements for the jobs so that the schools and colleges can prepare students for them. The owner must also commit to hiring at least 30% of the workers at the property from among the enrollees of the educational programs developed to train workers for jobs at the redeveloped property.

The owners of brownfields approved for 7/7 incentives qualify for them only after they remediate the property, file the necessary documents verifying remediation, and notify the host municipality and the DRS and DECD commissioners to that effect. Neither owners of a remediated brownfield or a redeveloped problem property approved for 7/7 incentives can claim the incentives until they begin business operations on the property.

Brownfield and problem property owners qualify for the same types of benefits during the first seven years after they begin operations on the property (i.e., Stage 1 incentives). Brownfield owners qualify for an additional incentive over the next seven years (i.e., Stage 2 incentives).

Table 8 summarizes the schedule of 7/7 Program incentives.

Table 8: 7/7 Program Incentive Schedule

Stage	Eligible Property	Time Period	Incentives
1	Remediated and redeveloped former brownfields Redeveloped and reused previously abandoned and underutilized property	First seven years after business operations begin at redeveloped property	Personal income or corporation business tax credit equal to 100% of the taxes attributable to business operations at the redeveloped property Sales and use tax exemption for items purchased for use at redeveloped property Five-year property tax assessment freeze
2	Remediated and redeveloped former brownfields	Years eight to 14 after business operations begin at redeveloped property	Maximum 8.57% deduction against personal income or corporation business taxes for eligible remediation expenses

Business and Personal Income Tax Credits. Brownfield and problem property owners are eligible for a tax credit for seven years against their annual personal income or corporation business taxes equal to 100% of the taxes attributable to business operations at the property during the taxable year, after deducting any other available credits.

The credit against the personal income tax is available to owners organized as “S” corporations, limited liability partnerships, or limited liability companies. These business entities do not pay corporation business taxes, but the owners and partners pay personal income taxes on the income they derive from the entity. (These entities are commonly referred to as “pass-through entities,” meaning that the income flows from the business to the owner where it is taxed as personal income.) Consequently, the act allows these members, shareholders, and partners to claim a credit equal to their share of the taxes attributable to the property's operation during the taxable year.

Sales and Use Tax Exemptions. Brownfield and problem property owners qualify for sales and use tax exemptions for any item they purchase and use at the redeveloped property in the ordinary course of business. Like the personal and corporation business tax credit, the sales tax exemption is available for seven calendar years from when business operations start at the property.

Owners may claim this exemption by presenting a certificate indicating that the purchased item is exempt from the tax. The certificate must be substantially in a form the DRS commissioner prescribes and bear the purchaser's name, address, and signature. If the purchaser does not use the item in the ordinary course of business at the property, the purchaser must pay the sales and use tax.

Property Tax Assessment Freeze. Property owners also receive a property tax incentive. Under the act, municipalities must freeze, for five assessment years after the owner receives a building permit to begin construction, the assessed value a property had at the time the DECD commissioner approved it for the program.

Brownfield owners receive an additional incentive, which is available for seven years, beginning in the eighth year after business operations began at a remediated program property. The incentive is a deduction against the personal income or corporation business tax for up to 8.57% of the eligible expenses the owner incurred to remediate the property.

Eligible expenditures are those the owner incurred to investigate and assess the nature and extent of the contamination and to remediate it. They include:

1. investigating soil, groundwater, and infrastructure;

2. assessing the property's condition;

3. remediating soil, sediments, groundwater, or surface water;

4. abating contamination;

5. removing and disposing of hazardous material or waste;

6. implementing long-term groundwater or natural attenuation monitoring;

7. implementing institutional controls, such as environmental land use restrictions or activity and use limitations;

8. paying reasonable attorneys' fees;

9. retaining planners, engineers, and environmental consultants; and

10. remediating building and structural issues, such as demolishing structures, abating asbestos, and removing PCBs, contaminated wood, or paint.

Expenditures funded under a DECD brownfield cleanup program do not qualify for the exemption.

The act extends the eligibility for boards of education that are required to provide bilingual education programs to apply for grants through FY 19, but it limits the grants to available appropriations. The act also limits certain other State Board of Education grants and aid to available appropriations. These include:

1. grants to boards of education for a percentage of eligible costs for adult education,

2. special education aid in excess of the basic contribution paid by the local or regional board, and

3. aid for public school feeding programs to ensure that nutrition standards are met.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the OEC commissioner to require, within available appropriations, comprehensive background checks (that include national and state criminal history record checks already required by existing law) of (1) prospective employees of child care centers and group child care homes, (2) initial applicants and prospective employees of family child care homes (including each household member age 16 or older), and (3) Care 4 Kids providers. It specifies that a prospective employee of a child care center or group child care home cannot have unsupervised access to children until the checks are completed and the OEC commissioner approves the hiring.

The act also requires the comprehensive background checks to be done at least once every five years and waived for any applicant who (1) is currently employed, or was employed in the past 180 days, at a Connecticut child care facility and (2) successfully completed such a check in the previous five years. It gives the OEC commissioner the discretion to require a child care facility employee to submit to such a check more frequently than every five years.

Additionally, the act eliminates the criminal history record check exemption for relatives participating in Care 4 Kids (the state's subsidized child care program) and subjects them to the comprehensive background check as well.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the DAS commissioner to delegate, to another executive branch agency commissioner, the authority to establish policies and procedures for using and maintaining order in parking areas on property under that commissioner's supervision. Prior law gave her sole authority to establish the policies and procedures for parking areas on executive branch property, excluding those on community-technical college, state college, and UConn property.

The act also eliminates provisions (1) requiring the policies and procedures to be enforced by special policemen for state property and DAS's buildings and grounds patrol officers and (2) allowing only the special policemen to tow vehicles or have them towed. Instead, it allows the DAS commissioner or her designee, including a third-party contractor, to issue a citation to, or tow the vehicle of, anyone violating the established policies or procedures.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the OPM secretary and DAS commissioner to jointly develop recommendations to reduce workers' compensation costs (presumably of state employees). The recommendations must include:

1. methods to better manage contracts with third-party administrators,

2. guidelines for the administrators to use when informing employees about available benefits and programs,

3. plans for increased light duty work options,

4. recommendations for necessary or appropriate legislation, and

5. any other recommendations to implement workers' compensation cost reductions.

The secretary and commissioner must submit a report of their recommendations to the Labor and Public Employees and Appropriations committees by February 1, 2018.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The commission must report its findings to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee by January 1, 2019, and the committee's administrative staff must serve as the commission's administrative staff. The commission terminates when it submits its report or on January 1, 2019, whichever is later.

The commission consists of (1) eight appointed members, one each appointed by the governor and seven legislative leaders (including the deputy Senate Republican president pro tempore) and (2) five ex officio members (the DAS commissioner, OPM secretary, attorney general, state comptroller, and state treasurer) or their respective designees. The House majority leader's appointee must have experience in banking and private sector financial management; the Senate majority leader's appointee must represent a state employee collective bargaining unit that benefits from the state pension system; and the deputy Senate Republican president pro tempore's appointee must have expertise in private sector real estate development. The act does not specify qualifications for the other appointees, but the House speaker, Senate president pro tempore, House minority leader, and Senate Republican president pro tempore may appoint state legislators. All appointments must be made by November 20, 2017. Any vacancy must be filled by the appointing authority.

The House speaker and Senate president pro tempore must select the commission's chairpersons from among the commission's members. The chairpersons must schedule and hold the commission's first meeting by December 10, 2017.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act extends, from December 31 to January 15, the deadline by which (1) hospitals and hospital systems with affiliated group practices and (2) unaffiliated group practices of 30 or more physicians must annually report information about the group practices to the attorney general and DPH commissioner. Existing law specifies information the report must include, such as (1) the name and specialty of each physician practicing within the group practice and (2) a description of services provided at each location.

The act also extends, from December 31 to January 15, the deadline by which hospitals and hospital systems must annually file reports with the attorney general and DPH commissioner describing their affiliation with any other hospital or hospital system.

To conform to current DPH practice, the act limits the above reporting requirements to short-term acute care general hospitals and children's hospitals, including UConn's John Dempsey Hospital.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires nursing homes, residential care homes, and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disability (hereinafter, “facilities”) to obtain a certificate of need (CON) from DSS before relocating any of their licensed beds to a new or replacement facility. It specifies that the department is not required to hold a public hearing on these CON applications, as it must do for applications proposing to terminate or significantly reduce a facility's total bed capacity.

Existing law, unchanged by the act, requires these facilities to obtain a CON when (1) transferring ownership before initial licensure, (2) adding or expanding functions or services, (3) terminating or substantially decreasing their total bed capacity, and (4) making certain capital improvements. (These facilities are exempt from DPH's CON requirements for health care facilities.)

The act modifies exemptions to DSS' moratorium on accepting or approving certificate of need (CON) applications to add new nursing home beds. Prior law exempted from the moratorium Medicaid beds relocated from one licensed facility to another, provided at least one facility is closed in the transaction and the new facility's bed total is at least 10% lower than the number of relocated beds. The act instead exempts Medicaid beds relocated from one nursing facility to a new nursing facility if:

1. no new Medicaid-certified beds are added,

2. at least one licensed facility is closed in the transaction as a result of the relocation,

3. the relocation is done within available appropriations,

4. the facility participates in the federal Money Follows the Person demonstration program,and

5. a CON is obtained for the new facility or facility relocation and associated capital expenditures.

As under prior law, the relocation cannot increase state expenditures or adversely affect bed availability in the area of need. However, the act removes this requirement for the relocation of Medicaid-certified beds relocated from one licensed nursing facility to another to meet a priority need identified in the state's strategic plan to rebalance long-term care services and supports.

The act also specifies that the exemption from the moratorium for non-Medicaid beds associated with a continuing care facility applies only if the ratio of proposed beds to the facility's independent living units is within applicable industry standards.

Lastly, the act allows, rather than requires, the DSS commissioner to adopt CON regulations. EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By law, DSS must pay up to $1,200 toward funeral and burial expenses for State Administered General Assistance, Temporary Family Assistance, or State Supplement Program recipients and certain other indigent individuals. Prior law required DSS to reduce this payment by certain funds from other sources, including any prepaid funeral contract and the face value of any life insurance policy owned by the decedent. The act bars DSS from subtracting the face value of a life insurance policy unless that policy names a funeral home, cemetery, or crematory as a beneficiary.

When the payment is reduced due to liquid assets in the decedent's estate, the act allows the DSS commissioner to disclose information on the liquid assets to the funeral director, cemetery, or crematory providing services for the decedent.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Under prior law, the maximum allowable cost Medicaid paid for Factor VIII pharmaceuticals (i.e., hemophilia A drugs) was the actual acquisition cost plus eight percent. The act (1) specifies that the actual acquisition cost is the one reflected on the manufacturer's invoice and (2) adds the outpatient drug professional dispensing fee to the calculation of the maximum allowable cost. The act also applies the maximum allowable cost formula to Factor VII, IX and X products (i.e., drugs that treat hemophilia A, B, and other bleeding disorders).

Additionally, the act eliminates the social services commissioner's authority to (1) designate specific Factor VIII drugs suppliers a dispensing pharmacy must order from and (2) pay the dispensing pharmacy a handling fee of eight percent of the actual acquisition cost for each prescription from a designated supplier.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act prohibits the DSS commissioner from imposing cost-sharing requirements for prescription drugs on the department's preferred drug list on parents or needy caretaker relatives enrolled in HUSKY A.

Under the act, the commissioner may impose cost-sharing requirements for nonpreferred drugs or other Medicaid services if he determines it is necessary and notifies the Human Services Committee and the affected parent or caretaker relative 30 days before imposing them. But he cannot impose such a requirement for a nonpreferred drug that a physician certifies as medically necessary. The act requires the notification to parents and caretaker relatives to specify that they will not be denied Medicaid coverage due to their inability to meet these cost-sharing requirements.

If the commissioner imposes a cost-sharing requirement, the act requires him to submit a quarterly report to the Human Services Committee on:

1. any decrease in the number of Medicaid provider visits by these parents or caretaker relatives compared to the same time period (presumably, quarter) before the cost-sharing requirement began and

2. any difference in the average number of Medicaid provider visits made by parents or caretaker relatives with a cost-sharing requirement compared to other Medicaid recipients of comparable health who are not subject to a cost-sharing requirement.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act eliminates the requirement that certain individual and group health insurance policies cover specified services related to mental and nervous conditions and, therefore, the state's requirement to pay for them. These services were new mandates imposed effective January 1, 2017 under PA 15-5, JSS. The state is required to pay for these mandated benefits under the federal Affordable Care Act because they exceed that act's essential health benefit requirements.

Specifically, the act repeals provisions requiring insurers to cover the following benefits:

1. evidence-based maternal, infant, and early childhood home visitation services designed to improve health outcomes for pregnant women, postpartum mothers, and newborns and children, including maternal substance use disorders or depression and relationship-focused interventions for children with mental or nervous conditions or substance use disorders;

2. intensive, family- and community-based treatment programs that focus on addressing environmental systems impacting chronic and violent juvenile offenders;

3. other home-based therapeutic interventions for children;

4. chemical maintenance treatment (i.e., when a person is admitted for the planned use of a substance under medical supervision); and

5. extended day treatment programs for children or youth with emotional disturbance, mental illness, behavior disorders, or multiple disabilities.

The act applies to individual and group health insurance policies issued, delivered, renewed, amended, or continued in Connecticut that cover (1) basic hospital expenses; (2) basic medical-surgical expenses; (3) major medical expenses; or hospital or medical services, including those provided through an HMO.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2018

The act increases, from 10 consecutive days to 60 individual days, the number of days a “Class No. 3” permittee may operate a bazaar in a six month period following the permit's issuance. By law, a bazaar is a place maintained by a sponsoring organization to award merchandise by means of chance (CGS § 7-170).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Under the Elderly/Disabled Circuit Breaker Program, municipalities reduce property taxes owed by certain elderly or totally disabled homeowners and may be reimbursed for lost revenue by OPM (CGS § 12-170aa et seq.; Conn. Agencies Regs. § 12-170aa-1 et seq.). The act, with specified exceptions, allows the OPM secretary to reduce reimbursements to municipalities by up to 100%.

The act prohibits OPM from reducing reimbursements to a municipality that is eligible for a certain payment in lieu of taxes grant for manufacturing facilities because it is (1) a distressed municipality, (2) a targeted investment community (i.e., contains an enterprise zone), or (3) part of an airport development zone. However, it is unclear whether these municipalities will receive reimbursements because:

1. the legislature did not appropriate any money for the Circuit Breaker Program in FYs 18 and 19 and

2. existing law, unchanged by the act, requires OPM to proportionately reduce grants to municipalities if appropriations are insufficient to fully reimburse them.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act extends by one year, from FY 18 to FY 19, a requirement that certain municipalities waive payments due from certain state-financed housing authorities.

Existing law (1) requires state-financed housing authorities for moderate rental housing projects to make payments to the municipalities in which the project is located instead of paying property taxes, special benefit assessments, and sewer system use charges and (2) authorizes the Department of Housing (DOH) to make payments on the authorities' behalf as part of its Payment in Lieu of Taxes Subsidy Program. Prior law required municipalities to which DOH made a payment on a housing authority's behalf in FY 15 to waive such payments in FYs 16-18. The act extends this requirement by one year, through FY 19.

Under both existing law and the act, no waiver is required if federal funds are made available for the payment.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act appropriates $3,187,174 in both FYs 18 and 19 to the Judicial Branch for Youth Services Prevention (§ 1). It also specifies the grant amount for certain organizations, totaling $3,079,996.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

By law, members of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration who preside over an arbitration proceeding as a three-member panel each receive $325 when the proceeding concludes, and the member who writes the panel's decision receives an additional fee. The act increases the writer's additional fee from $175 to $500. Under existing law, unchanged by the act, if the proceeding lasts more than one day, each panel member also receives $150 for each additional day.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the state to retain use of the old Litchfield County Courthouse and associated land, unless the holder of the reversionary interest (i.e., heir of the lease holders) preserved that interest by recording certain documents in the Litchfield land records within the last 40 years. The act specifies that the reversionary interest is terminated unless the holder recorded a notice, deed, probate certificate, or other instrument of conveyance describing the interest within that time frame.

Previously, because the land is not being used as a courthouse, ownership of the property would revert to the holder of the reversionary interest (based on deeds from the early 19th century).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act authorizes any regional council of government (COG) to establish a regional sharing agreement with one or more COGs.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the legislature, starting in the FY 18-19 biennium, to identify for each biennium at least one budgeted agency (see Background) to transmit specified information and analyses for a performance-informed budget review for the next biennium. The Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA) must provide technical support in identifying the agency or agencies.

Under the act, “performance-informed budget review” means that the legislature and governor, when developing a budget, must consider specified information and analyses prepared by the agency for each program it administers. For the purposes of the act, a “program” is a distinguishable service or group of services within budgeted agencies designed to accomplish a specific public goal and result in specific public benefits.

By October 1, 2018, and by October 1 of each even-numbered year afterwards, the administrative head of the selected agency or agencies must transmit the required information and analyses to the (1) OPM secretary; (2) Appropriations Committee (through OFA); (3) Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee; and (4) relevant committee of cognizance. He or she must do so using the results-based report format developed by the Appropriations Committee's accountability subcommittee.

The governor and legislature must consider this information and analysis in developing each biennial budget, and a public review of the reports transmitted by each agency must be incorporated in the budget hearing process conducted by the relevant Appropriations Committee subcommittee.

The act also creates a joint bipartisan subcommittee on performance-informed budgeting consisting of seven members each from the Finance and Appropriations committees.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The performance-informed budget review must involve a results-oriented approach to planning, budgeting, and performance measurement of programs designed to improve recipients' quality of life. Specifically, selected agencies must include the following information and analyses for such program they administer:

1. any basis, in statute or otherwise;

2. its history;

3. a description of how it fits within the agency's strategic plan and goals;

4. an analysis of its quantified objectives;

5. a description of its goals, fiscal and staffing data, the populations served, and levels of funding and staff needed to achieve its goals if these are different than the actual maintenance level;

6. data demonstrating the amount of service it provided, its effectiveness, and the measurable impact it has on recipients' quality of life;

7. an analysis of factors affecting changes in quality of life outcomes over time;

8. its administrative and other overhead costs;

9. where applicable, the amount of funds or benefits that actually reach the program's intended recipients; and

10. any recommendations to improve program performance.

The act creates a 14-member subcommittee on performance-informed budgeting. Under the act, the chairpersons of the Finance and Appropriations committees must each appoint to the subcommittee six members from their respective committees, at least two of whom are members of the minority party. The ranking member of each committee must appoint one member each to the subcommittee.

The Finance and Appropriations chairpersons must each choose one member they appoint to serve as one of the two subcommittee chairpersons.

The initial members of the subcommittee must be appointed by February 1, 2018; their terms end on December 31, 2018. Members appointed on or after January 1, 2019 serve two-year terms, beginning on the date of appointment.

Members continue to serve until a successor is appointed, except that a member's term expires when he or she no longer serves in the legislature. A vacancy is filled by the appointing authority.

By law, a budgeted agency means:

1. every department, board, council, commission, institution, or other agency of the executive branch, provided each such entity included by law within any given department is deemed a division of that department;

2. every court, council, division, and other agency of the Judicial Branch financed in whole or in part by the state, including those agencies, officers, employees, and services for which, or for the payment of whose salaries, appropriations are spent on the direction, taxation, or approval of any state court or judge, and all such courts, councils, divisions, agencies, officers, employees, and services are one or more budgeted agency or agencies as the OPM secretary may prescribe;

3. every full-time permanent department or agency of the legislative branch; and

4. every public and private institution, organization, association, or other agency receiving financial aid from the state (CGS § 4-69).

The act allows the DSS commissioner, with legislative approval, to offset federal funding reductions for providers or recipients of family planning services otherwise covered by Medicaid. To do so, the legislature must vote to approve such use of funds within 90 days after the commissioner notifies it of a decrease in federal funding for the services. Under the act, eligible services are those otherwise covered by the state's medical assistance program and the providers must otherwise meet DSS participation and enrollment requirements to receive state funding.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act prohibits the State Bond Commission, when allocating bond proceeds from January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2020 for constructing, reconstructing, or remodeling of any state building, from allocating any such proceeds for works of art.

The law usually requires the State Bond Commission to allocate, for artwork, at least 1% of the bond proceeds in state building projects (CGS § 4b-53).

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, but applies to projects commenced on or after January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2020.

The act requires the comptroller, for each fiscal year from 2018 through 2027, to determine the amount of labor-management savings realized by the state under the following:

1. the 2017 SEBAC Agreement, including all of its attachments and appended agreements and any agreement reached through negotiations between the state and SEBAC over wages, hours, and other conditions of employment and

2. any other agreements between the state and the individual state employee collective bargaining units to achieve labor-management savings specified in (a) the state budget act for FYs 18 and 19; (b) adjustments or revisions made to the budget act for FY 19; and (c) each successive state budget act thereafter and any even-numbered year adjustments or revisions made to them, through FYs 26 and 27.

Starting by December 1, 2018, and by each December 1 after that through 2027, the comptroller must report to the governor and the legislature the amount of labor-management savings realized for the previous fiscal year under the above agreements.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act increases, from 5% to 6%, the amount deducted and withheld from salaries of judges, family support magistrates who elect to be covered by the judicial retirement system, and compensation commissioners. The increase applies only to those individuals appointed on or after January 1, 2018.

As under existing law, the deducted funds must be deposited in the Judge's Retirement Fund.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act eliminates a requirement for the Firefighters' Cancer Relief Program to be funded with a portion of the fees used to support the enhanced 9-1-1 (E 9-1-1) program. By law, the E 9-1-1 program is funded through a monthly phone service subscriber fee imposed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). PA 16-10 established the cancer relief program to provide wage replacement benefits to certain firefighters diagnosed with cancer.

More specifically, the act eliminates requirements for (1) PURA to include the cancer relief program when it annually determines the amount of the E 9-1-1 fee and (2) one cent per access line to be diverted from the E 9-1-1 fee to the cancer relief program each month.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act specifies that the state may modify its contracts through legislation if the impairment to the contract is not substantial or if the impairment is substantial, the legislation serves a legitimate public purpose, such as remedying a general social or economic problem, and the means to accomplish the purpose are reasonable and necessary. The act further specifies that the impairment may be considered reasonable and necessary if the state did not (1) consider the impairment on par with other policy alternatives, (2) impose a drastic impairment when an evident and more moderate course of action would serve its purpose equally well, and (3) act unreasonably in light of the surrounding circumstances.

Section 22 of PA 17-4, JSS specifies that these provisions do not apply to (1) investments by, or administered by, the state treasurer, or any related contracts, or (2) bonds, notes, evidences of indebtedness, or other direct or contingent state obligations for borrowed money, or any related contracts.

(It appears that the above provisions have no legal effect. Although they broadly codify federal court decisions regarding when a state may enact laws impairing its contracts, these decisions are based on the federal courts' interpretations of the U.S. Constitution's Contracts Clause and state statute cannot dictate how courts must interpret the U.S. Constitution.)

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

PA 17-61 allows the DDS commissioner, in collaboration with the OPM secretary and social services commissioner, to organize and participate in an Intellectual Disability Partnership. The act specifies that the commissioners and secretary may designate others to do so in their place.

The act also requires the partnership to form an advisory committee. It makes corresponding changes by requiring (1) the advisory committee, rather than the partnership, to include broad and diverse representation from families, providers, and advocates and (2) DDS to post online the meetings, agendas, and minutes of the advisory committee rather than the partnership.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the School Building Projects Advisory Council to conduct a study on developing and implementing blueprints for prototype school designs for new construction projects and submit it, by January 1, 2019, to the Education and Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees.

The study must analyze:

1. the costs for creating blueprints for elementary, middle, and high schools;

2. the feasibility of boards of education using the blueprints as part of the school building project grant program; and

3. any cost savings from using them.

It must also include recommendations on implementing the blueprints and address whether using them should be related to reimbursement percentages for school building projects.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act reauthorizes the alliance district program by requiring the education commissioner to designate 33 school districts as alliance districts for a period of five years starting with FY 18. Under prior law, the designation expired on June 30, 2017.

Under the act, the new designation applies to the 30 districts with the lowest accountability index scores and any district previously designated as an alliance district when the program began in FY 13 (of which there are three). The accountability index ranks school districts by combining various measures of student performance, primarily standardized assessment scores, into a single score.

As under the program's prior authorization, the act requires the education commissioner to withhold any Education Cost Sharing (ECS) aid increase over an alliance district's FY 12 base amount until she approves the district's plan to improve academic performance. According to the State Department of Education, the alliance districts serve more than 200,000 students in 410 schools.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act revises the state education equalization formula, commonly referred to as the ECS formula. (The state has not used the formula since FY 14; instead it has set a specific aid amount in statute for each town.) The act makes changes to key factors in the formula and establishes a method to determine each town's aid amount for FY 18 and the following years. For FY 18, alliance district towns receive the same ECS grant they received in FY 17; non-alliance district towns receive 5% less than they received in FY 17.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The ECS formula has the following three key factors:

1. the foundation dollar amount ($11,525);

2. the student count with weightings for high need students, referred to as total need students; and

3. the base aid ratio, which is a measure of town wealth.

Under the formula, the foundation is multiplied by the number of need students, and the result is multiplied by the base aid ratio, to produce the grant amount. A small bonus is added for regional schools (if applicable), and this results in a town's fully-funded grant. For example, under prior law, a school district with no regional bonus and 1,000 need students that has a base aid ratio of .50 would receive a grant of $5.76 million (1,000 x $11,525 x .50).

The act modifies the student count and the base aid ratio but leaves the foundation dollar amount unchanged.

Beginning with the 2017-18 school year, the act modifies two aspects of student need weightings. Specifically, it:

1. changes the student poverty weighting from 30% of students eligible for free or reduced priced meals or free milk (FRPM) to 30% of FRPM-eligible students plus an additional 5% of any FRPM-eligible students above 75% of the total number of resident students and

2. adds a new 15% weighting for the number of students who are English language learners, as identified by the school district.

The base aid ratio (also known as the aid percentage) is a measure of a town's property and income wealth in relation to a median town wealth level set in the formula. Poorer towns have higher ratios than wealthier towns. The higher a town's ratio, the closer the town comes to receiving the maximum aid.

Wealth Adjustment Factor. By law, in calculating a town's base aid ratio, town wealth is compared to the wealth adjustment factor (WAF) (formerly called the guaranteed wealth level). The WAF is determined by a three-step process: (1) determining the property and income wealth measures with each expressed in a ratio, (2) applying weights to each, and (3) adding the ratios together.

The act alters the way the WAF is determined by lowering the multiplier from 1.5 to 1.35. By lowering the multiplier, this part of the formula decreases the state's share of total education funding.

The property wealth measure is the ratio of (1) a town's equalized net grand list (ENGL) per capita to (2) the ENGL per capita of the town with the state's median ENGL multiplied by 1.35. The income wealth measure is the ratio of (1) a town's median household income to (2) the state's median town household income multiplied by 1.35.

Balance of Property Wealth and Income Wealth. The act also modifies the proportion of property to income wealth in the WAF. Under prior law, WAF was calculated using 90% property wealth and 10% income wealth. Under the act, it is calculated using 70% property and 30% income, thus increasing the weight for income wealth in the aid ratio part of the formula.

Minimum Aid Ratios. The act maintains the minimum aid ratio for alliance districts at 10% and reduces the minimum aid ratio for all other districts from 2% to 1%. The minimum aid ratio guarantees that wealthier towns receive at least a minimum amount of ECS aid.

The act creates the base aid ratio adjustment factor, which is a bonus added to a town's base aid ratio if the town is ranked in the top 19 Connecticut towns based on points awarded through the eligibility index for public investment communities (PIC) (i.e., towns with the lowest relative wealth).

The PIC eligibility index measures towns' relative wealth and need by ranking them in descending order by their cumulative point allocations for five categories: (1) per capita income, (2) adjusted equalized net grand list per capita, (3) equalized mill rate, (4) per capita temporary family assistance, and (5) unemployment rate (CGS § 7-545).

Under the act, the adjustment factor gives towns anywhere from three to six percentage points bonus in their base aid ratio if they rank in the top 19 of all towns in total eligibility index points (see Table 9).

The act establishes a new “base grant amount” for each town from which future aid is based. The base grant amount is the ECS grant amount a town was entitled to for FY 17 under the 2016 budget act (PA 16-2, May Special Session), minus authorized cuts implemented during FY 17.

For FY 18, the act entitles a town to receive an ECS grant in an amount determined by its alliance district status:

1. an alliance district town receives the same ECS grant amount it received in FY 17 (i.e., the “base grant amount”), and

2. a non-alliance district town receives the ECS amount it received in FY 17, reduced by 5%.

For FY 19, the act compares a town's new base grant amount to its fully funded grant. For some towns the fully funded grant is an amount greater than the aid they had received in the past. For other towns, especially those with declining student enrollments, the fully funded grant may be less than the town is receiving. (This is primarily due to the past practice of keeping ECS aid at least level for all towns, even if student enrollment dropped.)

The act entitles a town to receive, for FY 19, an ECS grant as follows:

1. If a town's fully funded ECS grant is greater than the amount received in FY 17, then the town is entitled to its base grant amount, plus 4.1% of the difference.

2. If a town's fully funded ECS grant is less than the amount received in FY 17, then the town is entitled to its base grant amount, minus 25% of the difference; however, if this town is an alliance district, it is entitled to the amount received in FY 17 with no reduction.

The act entitles a town to receive, for FYs 20 through 27, an ECS grant in an amount determined by comparing its base grant amount to its fully funded grant, with an exception for alliance districts:

1. If a town's fully funded ECS grant is greater than the base grant amount, then the town is entitled to the prior year's amount, plus 10.66% of the difference.

2. If a town's fully funded ECS grant is less than the base grant amount, then the town is entitled to the prior year's amount, minus 8.33% of the difference; however, if the town is an alliance district, it is entitled to the base grant amount with no reduction.

For FY 28 and all years following, towns will receive their fully funded amount, except alliance districts continue to receive their base grant amount if that is higher than the fully funded grant.

Under prior law, if the licensee contested the violation, the DPH commissioner had to hold an informal conference with the licensee within five business days. The act specifies that the commissioner may designate someone to appear in his place at the conference and eliminates the deadline for holding the conference.

The act also requires the commissioner, within five business days after the informal conference concludes, to notify the licensee of his determination, which may include (1) vacating the citation or (2) sustaining the final determination for the citation with or without modification.

Under prior law, if the parties failed to reach an agreement at the conference, the commissioner had to set the matter for a hearing as a contested case under the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act (UAPA). Under the act, this applies only if the licensee requests the hearing within five business days after the commissioner's decision. The act eliminates certain deadlines for such cases in prior law and instead specifies that the commissioner must issue a final order after the hearing in accordance with the UAPA.

Finally, the act allows, rather than requires, the commissioner to file the final order and citation in the Hartford judicial district of the Superior Court.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act increases the maximum civil penalties for nursing home facilities that violate statutory or regulatory requirements from $5,000 to $20,000 for a Class A violation and from $3,000 to $10,000 for a Class B violation.

The act also changes the definition of Class B violations for nursing homes and residential care homes to actions that present a potential, instead of a probability, for death or serious harm to a patient in the reasonably foreseeable future. By law, unchanged by the act, Class A violations are actions that present an immediate danger of death or serious harm to a patient.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act authorizes the DAS commissioner to enter into grant commitments totaling $517.9 million on behalf of the state for 50 new school construction projects.

It also:

1. reauthorizes and changes grant commitments, due to cost or scope changes, for three previously authorized local projects with a total increased grant commitment of $1.1 million and

2. exempts nine school construction projects from various statutory and regulatory requirements (referred to as “notwithstanding” provisions).

Table 10 shows the new school construction projects the act authorizes. The projects have an aggregate cost of $846.3 million, a percentage of which is reimbursed by the state school construction grant program with less wealthy towns receiving a higher reimbursement percentage.

Table 11 lists changes to previously authorized school projects. In the case of Hartford's West Middle School, the new authorization is sought because of a change in the project scope, but does not result in a higher cost.

The act exempts nine school construction projects from various statutory and regulatory requirements to allow them to, among other things, qualify for state reimbursement grants or for a higher level of reimbursement grant, as provided in Table 12 below.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

PA 15-1, December Special Session (§ 20) required the Department of Correction (DOC) commissioner and the OPM secretary to issue a request for information (RFI) on inmate medical services options available to the state and the associated costs of such services. The act requires DOC and the secretary, by February 1, 2018, to submit a progress report to the legislature on the RFI.

Currently, UConn's Correctional Managed Health Care division provides such services to inmates under a memorandum of agreement with DOC.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires the DPH commissioner to reduce, on a pro rata basis, payments to municipal and district health departments by a total of $504,218 for FY 19.

To receive state funding, existing law requires that, among other things, (1) municipalities have a full-time health department and a population of at least 50,000 and (2) health districts have a total population of at least 50,000 or serve three or more municipalities, regardless of their combined total population.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act establishes a 14-member Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth.

The commission must (1) develop and recommend policies to achieve state government fiscal stability and promote economic growth and competitiveness within the state and (2) study and make recommendations regarding state revenues, tax structures, spending, debt, administrative and organizational actions, and related activities. Under the act, related activities include relevant municipal activities to (1) achieve consistently balanced and timely budgets that are supportive of the interests of families and businesses and the revitalization of the state's major cities and (2) materially improve the state's attractiveness for existing and future businesses and residents.

The commission must consist of the following 14 appointed members:

1. one appointed by the House speaker,

2. one appointed by the Senate president pro tempore,

3. one appointed by the House majority leader,

4. one appointed by the Senate majority leader,

5. one appointed by the House minority leader,

6. one appointed by the Senate Republican president pro tempore, and

7. eight appointed by the governor.

All appointments must be made within 30 days after the act passes, and any vacancy must be filled by the appointing authority. The act requires the appointing authorities to try to coordinate their appointments to achieve policy balance and diversity, including by appointing members who are representative of the state population's diversity in gender, age, ethnicity, race, and geography.

The governor must select the commission's chairpersons from among its members. The chairpersons must schedule the commission's first meeting, which must be held within 40 days after the act passes.

The commission members must (1) have expertise in public finance, economic growth and development, job creation, or public administration and (2) not receive compensation for their services.

Current public officials must not serve as members of the commission. Under the act, "public official" means a statewide or municipal elected officer, General Assembly member or member-elect, executive or judicial branch employee or official, or legislative branch employee. The act does not consider an advisory board member to be a public official.

Under the act, it is not a conflict of interest for a trustee, director, partner, or officer of any person, firm, or corporation, or any individual having a financial interest in a person, firm, or corporation, to serve as a member of the commission, provided such trustee, director, partner, officer, or individual complies with all applicable provisions of the code of ethics for public officials. The act deems all commission members to be public officials for purposes of the code of ethics and requires that they adhere to the provisions of the code of ethics for public officials.

The OPM secretary and the Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner must provide staff support for the commission and must each designate at least one staff member to attend the commission's meetings.

Each of the four caucuses of the legislative branch, the treasurer, the comptroller, and the attorney general must each appoint a staff member to (1) attend the commission meetings upon the commission's request and (2) communicate with the member's agency about the commission's activities.

The commission may request any office, department, board, commission, or other state agency to supply information and assistance necessary or appropriate to carry out its duties and requirements.

The act requires the commission to solicit public comment by holding one or more public hearings on its proposals. By March 1, 2018, the commission must report its findings and recommendations to the governor, the General Assembly, and the Appropriations; Commerce; Finance, Revenue and Bonding; and Planning and Development committees.

The commission terminates on the date that it submits its report or March 1, 2018, whichever is later.

The act requires the Appropriations; Commerce; Finance, Revenue and Bonding; and Planning and Development committees, by March 30, 2018, to hold either one joint public hearing or individual public hearings on the commission's report. It also requires one or more of the committees mentioned above, during the 2018 regular session, to originate and, following an additional public hearing, report at least one bill with the commission's recommendations relevant to the committee's cognizance. The act also requires the General Assembly to vote on any such bill.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FY 18, the act allocates funds from the Youth Employment Program administered by the Connecticut Department of Labor as follows:

1. $150,000 to the City of Hartford Department of Families, Children, Youth, and Recreation;

2. $350,000 to the Capital Region Workforce Investment Board; and

3. $500,000 to the Wilson-Gray YMCA.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act extends, through FY 19, the prohibition in existing law against a town budgeting less for education than it did in the previous FY unless it can demonstrate specific achievements or changes within its school district. This prohibition is commonly referred to as the minimum budget requirement (MBR).

The act allows a town to reduce its MBR in FYs 18 and 19 if it experiences an ECS decrease during those years. The MBR reduction must be equal to the education cost sharing (ECS) grant decrease as calculated under the act and described below (see § 253 below).

Also, the act extends other MBR reduction allowances in existing law, which are based upon the following factors, through FY 19:

1. experiencing declining enrollment as evidenced by the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced price lunch;

2. paying tuition for students to attend high school out of town due to lack of a local public high school;

3. demonstrating savings through increased efficiencies or regional collaboration; or

4. ceasing school district operations permanently or closing one or more schools through FY 18 due to declining enrollment.

Through FY 19, the act extends the prohibition on an alliance district reducing its MBR.

The act continues exemptions from the MBR through FY 19 for the following entities: (1) any district among the top 10% of districts in the State Department of Education's accountability index and (2) member towns of a newly formed regional school district during the first full FY following its establishment.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act calculates towns' ECS grant increases and decreases for FY 18 as follows:

1. an increase is the difference between the (a) ECS grant amount to which the town is entitled by law in FY 18 and (b) town's lower “base grant amount” (i.e., the amount to which the town was entitled by law in FY 17 under the 2016 budget act, minus authorized cuts implemented later that year; see § 229 above) and

2. a decrease is the difference between the (a) ECS grant amount to which the town is entitled by law in FY 18 and (b) town's higher base grant amount.

The act calculates towns' ECS grant increases and decreases for FY 19 as follows:

1. an increase is the difference between the (a) ECS grant amount to which the town is entitled by law in FY 19 and (b) lower ECS grant amount to which the town was entitled by law in FY 18 and

2. a decrease is the difference between the (a) ECS grant amount to which the town is entitled by law in FY 19 and (b) higher ECS grant amount to which the town was entitled by law in FY 18.

The act removes calculations for FY 17 ECS grant increases and decreases from prior law that were described as follows:

1. an increase is the difference between the (a) ECS grant amount received in FY 17 and (b) lesser ECS grant amount received in FY 16 and

2. a decrease is the difference between the (a) ECS grant amount received in FY 16 and (b) lesser ECS grant amount received in FY 17.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Under prior law, there was a 3% increase on July 1, 2017 in (1) salaries for judges and family support magistrates and (2) per diem rates for family support referees and judge trial referees. Under the act, this increase is rolled back upon the act's passage and reinstituted effective July 1, 2019.

The act similarly rolls back and later reinstitutes increases in the additional compensation that certain judges receive for performing administrative duties. The act's changes also affect the salary or per diem rate of certain officials whose compensation, by law, is determined in relation to a Superior Court judge's salary or state referee's per diem rate.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Table 13 shows salaries and per diem rates affected by the act.

Table 13: Judicial Salaries and Rates under the Act

Position	Salary from July 1, 2017 until October 30, 2017; starts again effective July 1, 2019	Salary from October 31, 2017 until June 30, 2019
Supreme Court chief justice	$206,617	$200,599
Chief court administrator (if a judge)	198,545	192,763
Supreme Court associate justice	191,178	185,610
Appellate Court chief judge	189,063	183,556
Appellate Court judge	179,552	174,323
Deputy chief court administrator (if a Superior Court judge)	176,277	171,143
Superior Court judge	172,663	167,634
Chief family support magistrate	150,314	145,936
Family support magistrate	143,060	138,893
Judge trial referee	259/ day*	251/ day*
Family support referee	223/ day*	217/ day*

*Plus expenses, mileage, and retirement pay

The law provides judges extra compensation in addition to their annual salaries for taking on certain administrative duties. Under prior law, these amounts increased from $1,142 to $1,177 starting July 1, 2017. The act rolls back this increase on October 31, 2017 and reinstitutes it effective July 1, 2019.

The judges who receive this additional amount are (1) the appellate system's administrative judge; (2) each judicial district's administrative judge; and (3) each chief administrative judge for (a) facilities, administrative appeals, the judicial marshal service, or judge trial referees and (b) the Superior Court's family, juvenile, criminal, or civil divisions.

The act's provisions similarly affect the salary or per diem rates for other officials or judges whose compensation is tied to those of Superior Court judges or judge trial referees. Specifically:

1. the salaries of workers' compensation commissioners vary depending on experience and are tied to those of Superior Court judges (CGS § 31-277);

2. the salaries of probate court judges vary depending on probate district classification and range from 45% to 75% of a Superior Court judge's salary (CGS § 45a-95a);

3. senior judges receive the same per diem rates as judge trial referees (CGS §§ 51-47b & 52-434b); and

4. the probate court administrator's salary is the same as that of a Superior Court judge (CGS § 45a-75).

The act requires the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA), by December 1, 2017, to make a $1 million payment in lieu of taxes to Hartford.

By law, MIRA is a quasi-public agency that plans, designs, builds, and operates solid waste disposal, volume reduction, recycling, intermediate processing, and resource recovery facilities. It operates the Connecticut Solid Waste System, which includes a recycling facility and a resource recovery facility in Hartford.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Beginning in FY 18 and annually thereafter, the act makes COGs eligible for a “regional services grant.” The grant must be:

1. used to achieve efficiencies in delivering municipal services without diminishing the quality of such services,

2. made within available appropriations, and

3. based on a formula the OPM secretary determines.

In order to receive a grant, COGs must annually submit a grant spending plan by July 1 for the OPM secretary to approve. But for FY 18 grants, this plan must be submitted by November 1, 2017.

Under the act, COGs that receive one of the new regional services grants must annually submit a report by October 1 to the OPM secretary and Planning and Development and Finance, Revenue and Bonding committees describing:

1. grant fund expenditures;

2. regional programs, projects, and initiatives provided or planned by such COG;

3. the performance of existing programs, projects, and initiatives relative to their initial goals and objectives;

4. existing services provided by a member municipality or the state that, in the COG's opinion, could be more effectively or efficiently provided on a regional basis; and

5. recommendations for legislative action related to potential impediments to the regionalization of services.

The act also eliminates prior law's requirement that all COGs annually submit by January 1 a report to the OPM secretary and the Planning and Development Committee describing:

1. regional programs, projects, and initiatives provided or planned by such COG;

2. expenditures for programs, projects, and initiatives, including funding source and a cost-benefit analysis for each expenditure;

3. specific annual goals and objectives and quantifiable outcome measures for each program, project, and initiative that the COG administers or provides;

4. the performance of each program, project, and initiative, including any recommendations for legislative action; and

5. existing services provided by a municipality or state that, in the COG's opinion, could be transferred to such COG and any efficiency associated with such transfer.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows the Department of Social Services (DSS) commissioner, in partnership with Torrington's community action agency, to establish a 12-month pilot project to provide streamlined social services to assist individuals who qualify for assistance from DSS or a community action agency (i.e., “eligible, low-income individuals”) with achieving economic independence. Under the act and existing law, a “community action agency” (CAA) is one that has been designated and authorized to accept funding from the state under the Community Services Block Grant.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Under the act, the pilot project must assist eligible, low-income persons with achieving economic independence. The project must also include the transfer of certain DSS staff from the department's Torrington office to the Torrington CAA in order to provide on-site eligibility determinations for DSS-administered assistance programs. In achieving the required transfer, the act prohibits the DSS commissioner from reducing department staff.

The act appropriates $100,000 to DSS for FY 18 for rental and overhead expenses associated with relocating DSS staff and for additional costs related to the pilot project. It prohibits the governor from reducing any FY 18 allotment for DSS that results in the early termination of the pilot project.

The act requires the Torrington CAA to coordinate community-wide case conference meetings of service providers to address systemic barriers to economic independence faced by eligible low-income individuals. In coordinating these meetings, the CAA must consult with service providers that may include the:

1. departments of Children and Families, Correction, Education, Housing, Labor, Mental Health and Addiction Services, Rehabilitation, and Social Services;

2. Torrington Housing Authority;

3. Northwestern Connecticut Transit District;

4. Northwestern Connecticut Community College;

5. Torrington Superior Court;

6. Office of Adult Probation serving Torrington; and

7. regional education service center serving western Connecticut.

The act requires the DSS commissioner, in consultation with the Torrington CAA, to report to the Human Services Committee by January 1, 2019 on the (1) number of people the pilot project served; (2) services provided; and (3) documented outcomes in jobs, housing, and education obtained.

The act generally codifies an existing regulation that prohibits wholesaler and manufacturer permittees from selling or delivering alcoholic liquor unless they first receive, inventory, and unload the product into their warehouse facility before shipping to a retailer (Conn. Agencies Regs., § 30-6-B9). Under the act, the DCP commissioner or her authorized agent may inspect such wholesaler's or manufacturer's permit premises, books, and records to ensure compliance. Violators are deemed to have committed a CUTPA violation.

The act's unloading and inspection requirements do not apply to the sale, delivery, or shipment of wine delivered by an out-of-state (1) shipper's permittee for alcoholic liquors that operates a farm winery or (2) small winery shipper's permittee for wine. By law, such out-of-state permittees must not produce more than 100,000 gallons of wine annually.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act requires an electric distribution company (EDC, e.g., United Illuminating) to conduct a procurement by January 1, 2018, for electricity and renewable energy credits from a combined heat and power (CHP) system located in a distressed municipality with a population over 127,000. The act requires the CHP system to:

1. have a nameplate capacity of no more than 10 megawatts,

2. be compatible for use with a district heating system,

3. be procured and owned by a thermal energy transportation company through a competitive bidding process, and

4. be installed at a location that will maximize the efficient use of thermal energy from the CHP system by a thermal energy transportation company.

The act allows the CHP system to include fuel cells.

Under the act, the procurement is in furtherance of the state's Comprehensive Energy Strategy as it relates to the evaluation of district heating and thermal loops in high-density areas. By law, district heating systems and thermal loops are generally operated by thermal energy transportation companies (CGS § 16-1(a)(44)). CHP systems produce electric power and thermal energy from a single source. Thus, under the act, the EDC procures electric power from a CHP connected to a district heating system that can be fueled by the CHP's heat.

The act allows the EDC to enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) after reviewing any proposals submitted in response to the procurement. Under the act, the PPA is with the thermal energy distribution company (presumably, a thermal energy transportation company) for the purchase of electricity and renewable energy credits and is for a term of up to 20 years.

The act requires the CHP's thermal energy to be subject to firm customer commitments to subscribe to thermal energy services from the thermal energy transportation company for the PPA's term.

Under the act, the EDC must submit the PPA to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) no later than 15 days after entering into it. The act requires PURA to evaluate the PPA and allows PURA to approve the PPA if it finds that the agreement complies with the act's requirements and serves the long-term interests of ratepayers. The act prohibits PURA from approving a PPA supported in any form of cross subsidization by entities affiliated with the EDC.

The act requires the EDC to recover the net costs of any approved PPA (including the EDC's costs under the PPA and its reasonable costs incurred in connection with it) on a timely basis through a reconciling component of electric rates as determined by PURA that cannot be bypassed when switching electric suppliers. The act prohibits the EDC from recovering from ratepayers more than the PPA's full cost as approved by PURA.

Under the act, the EDC must credit to customers any net revenues from the sales of products purchased in accordance with the PPA through the same rate component used for cost recovery. The EDC must decide whether to sell or retain Class I and Class III renewable energy certificates by determining which option is in the ratepayers' best interest and consistent with the procurement plan for standard service.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

For FYs 18 and 19, the act allows municipalities that adopt, adjust, or modify a budget; make budget-related transfers; or levy taxes before the state adopts its FY 18 or FY 19 budget; to amend their budgets and levies if the state's budget provides less in state aid than projected in the municipality's budget.

The act allows municipalities to amend their:

1. education budgets in the same manner the budget was originally adopted, adjusted, or modified as long as the amendment does not exceed the educational cost sharing (ECS) grant decrease and

2. noneducation budgets in the same manner the noneducation budget was originally adopted, adjusted, or modified as long as amendment does not exceed the state aid decrease (excluding ECS grant decreases).

The act also authorizes municipalities to make transfers between accounts without following their normal budget processes as long as the transfers are approved by a majority of the legislative body.

The act specifies that budget amendments or account transfers, except those made by an alliance district, will not impact future ECS grant or minimum budget requirement calculations.

Under the act, by February 1, 2018 for FY 18 and January 1, 2019 for FY 19, municipalities may adjust tax levies and any remaining tax installments or issue supplemental bills.

The act's authorization applies regardless of conflicting (1) statutes affecting municipalities, property tax levy and collection, and the minimum budget requirement; (2) special acts; or (3) municipal charters or home rule ordinances.

“Municipalities” covered by the authorization are any towns, cities, boroughs, consolidated towns and cities, and consolidated towns and boroughs. Under the act, “legislative body” means town or city council or board of selectmen, aldermen, directors, representatives, or the warden and burgesses.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act allows municipalities and regional boards of education that adopted a budget or levied taxes for FY 18 before the state adopted its FY 18 budget to change their budgets and levies if the state's budget provides over $100,000 more in state aid than the board or municipality projected.

PA 17-4, JSS (§§ 20 & 28) repeals this provision and replaces it with a similar authorization. Please see the Public Act summary for PA 17-4 for a summary of these changes.

Under the act, municipalities and boards may (1) amend their budget in the same manner that it was originally adopted, in an amount not exceeding the increase in state aid to the board or municipality, and (2) by January 1, 2018, adjust tax levies and any remaining tax installments.

Under the act, municipalities that collect taxes in a single installment may issue supplemental bills reflecting the repeal of the motor vehicle mill rate cap (the act does not repeal the cap).

The act's provisions apply regardless of conflicting (1) statutes affecting education and boards of education, municipalities, and property tax levy and collection (including the provisions concerning installments); (2) special acts; or (3) municipal charters or home rule ordinances. “Municipalities” covered by the act's authorization are any towns, cities, boroughs, consolidated towns and cities, and consolidated towns and boroughs.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

Notwithstanding any state or local law, the act allows boards of education that jointly employ the same superintendent to hold regular joint meetings, at least once every two months, in order to reduce expenses and align their provision of education.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage

The act makes changes affecting QCs and grants under the CEP, the state's voluntary public campaign financing system available to legislative and statewide office candidates.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage