You asked if the legislature could dissolve a special district. The Office of Legislative Research cannot give legal opinions and you should not regard this memo as one.

PREFERENCE FOR STATUTORY PROCEDURE

The legislature can dissolve special districts by adopting a special act, but may resist doing so because the statutes provide a procedure by which districts can dissolve themselves. The procedure can be used by districts created by the legislature via special act and those created by residents following statutory rules (CGS § 7-329).

The statutory procedure allows district officers or the voters to trigger the dissolution process. A district clerk must call a meeting on the question whenever:

1. the district officers vote to terminate the district's corporate existence or

2. 10% of the district's voters or 20 voters, whichever is less, sign a petition requesting the meeting.

But the district must hold a referendum on the question if at least 200 district voters or 10% of all voters, whichever is less, request it at least 24 hours before the meeting.

The officers must begin to dissolve the district if two-thirds of the voters at the meeting or in the referendum approve. But they cannot complete the process until the district has paid its debts, unless the town's legislative body agrees to pay them (CGS § 7-329).

OTHER REASONS WHY THE LEGISLATURE MAY RESIST DISSOLVING DISTRICTS

The legislature adopted the statutory process to give districts broad authority to govern their affairs so that they could act independently of the legislative process. It appears that the legislature did not want to spend time on bills dealing purely with local issues. Nor did it want to keep districts from acting by requiring them to come to the legislature for special legislation each time they faced an issue not addressed in their special act charter (Independent Special Taxing Districts in Connecticut, Connecticut Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, December 1998, pp. 17-18).

The legislature might also resist dissolving a district if doing so would saddle the municipality with the district's debts. As noted above, the statutory procedure safeguards against this: districts cannot complete the dissolution process until they pay their debts or the town agrees to assume them.

The dissolution could also indirectly run afoul of the Connecticut Constitution's home rule provision if the municipality containing the district must assume its function. Article X, § 1 bans the legislature from enacting special acts regarding the powers, organization, terms of elective offices or form of government of any single town, city, or borough. Theoretically, the dissolution might compel the municipality to assume the function if it is generally considered an essential one, such as protecting against fire (as opposed to maintaining privately owned beach or lakefronts).

JR: ts