You asked for summary on proposals heard by the legislature in recent years to restrict municipal mandates, including any that would bar new unfunded mandates costing more than a certain proportion of a municipality’s budget.

Bills to reduce mandates or their impact on municipalities were introduced almost every year during the past ten years. Most of the bills sought to (1) bar future unfunded mandates; (2) eliminate specific existing mandates; (3) provide additional funding for existing mandates, included state-mandated tax exemptions; or (4) establish conditions when a mandate would not apply to a particular municipality or a municipality could seek a waiver from a mandate. We found no bills that would have barred a mandate that cost more than a specified proportion of a municipality’s budget, although the statement of purpose for bills that did not get a hearing often provides little detail.

Most bills addressing municipal mandates were referred to the Planning and Development or Appropriations committees, which generally did not hear them. Table 1 describes bills dealing with municipal mandates that did receive a hearing.

Table 1: Legislation Addressing Municipal Mandates

The Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations has compiled a compendium on municipal mandates as of 2002, and a 2003 legislative update. The documents are available at http: //www. opm. state. ct. us/publicat. htm.

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