OLR Bill Analysis

sHB 6388

AN ACT PROVIDING MANDATE RELIEF TO MUNICIPALITIES.

SUMMARY:

This bill requires, starting January 1, 2010, a two-thirds vote by the House and the Senate for the General Assembly to enact any “costly state mandates. ” Under the bill, these are any constitutional, statutory or executive actions, other than orders issued by a state court or legislation needed to comply with a federal mandate, that require a municipality to establish, expand, or modify its activities to reasonably necessitate additional expenditures from local revenue equal to the lesser of $ 100,000 or 0. 5% of the total amount of a municipality's general operating budget for the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year in which the additional expenditures are required. It appears that the bill contemplates a municipality-by-municipality analysis of a proposed mandate's cost. For this provision, a municipality is a town, consolidated town and city, or consolidated town and borough.

The bill delays, from July 1, 2009 to July 1, 2012, a requirement that school suspensions be served in school unless the school administration determines that the pupil poses such a danger to persons or property or such a disruption of the educational process that he or she must be excluded from school during the suspension.

The bill makes two or more municipal employers, e. g. , towns, that are planning to undertake the joint performance of a municipal function a single municipal employer for collective bargaining law. (By law, municipalities can jointly perform any function that they can perform individually. ) The bill explicitly allows two or more school districts to jointly perform any function that an individual district can perform and specifies how this affects collective bargaining.

The bill delays, starting January 1, 2010, when the minutes of municipal meetings must be available on the website from seven to 30 days after the meeting covered by the minutes. It requires that the minutes be available on the website for at least one year from the meeting date. It also requires that political subdivisions make and retain a record of their meeting proceedings and record the proceedings in minutes.

The bill allows a state agency to post any notice or information on its website, in lieu of publication in a newspaper, so long as all other legal requirements with respect to the notice or information are met. It requires state agencies, to the extent practicable and within available appropriations, to provide for the acceptance of electronic records from municipalities.

The bill allows municipalities to post various notices on the web as an alternative to publishing them. It does so notwithstanding provisions in their charters or home rule ordinances. The bill does not affect other procedural requirements regarding these documents.

By law, when an evicted person does not immediately remove his possessions, the municipality's chief executive officer must remove and store them. The bill explicitly allows one municipality to contract with one or more other municipalities to operate a facility to store these items.

The bill changes how certain construction vehicles are subject to the property tax. Under current law, if a construction vehicle is not located in any one municipality for three or more of the months preceding the assessment day, it is subject to tax in the municipality where it is located on assessment day. The bill instead requires that such vehicles be taxed in the municipality where the vehicle most frequently leaves from and returns to, or remains, during the course of the assessment year.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2009 for the provision regarding the possessions of evicted people. Upon passage for the remaining provisions, with (1) the state mandate provision applicable to fiscal years starting on and after January 1, 2010 and (2) the provision about posting municipal meeting minutes on the web retroactive to meetings that occurred on or after October 1, 2008.

WEBSITES AND ELECTRONIC RECORDS

State Agencies

The bill allows a state agency to post any notice or information on its website, in lieu of publication in a newspaper, so long as all other requirements For this purpose, “state agencies” means any executive, administrative or legislative state office and any state agency, department, institution, bureau, board, commission, authority or official of the state, including any committee of, or committee created by these entities or officials. The provision applies notwithstanding provisions of the statutes, regulations, or public or special act.

The bill requires, state agencies, to the extent practicable and within available appropriations, to provide for the acceptance of electronic records from municipalities and other political subdivisions of the state. The bill applies to (1) records from any town, city, borough, municipal corporation, school district, regional district, or other district or other political subdivision of the state, and (2) records bearing the electronic signature of officials of these political subdivisions and their departments, institutions, bureaus, boards, commissions, or authorities. These provisions apply with respect to any statement, list, report or any other information required by any section of the statutes or any regulations, and specifically apply to a number of elections, motor vehicle, and public health statutes, among others.

Municipalities

Table 1 describes the circumstances under which the bill permits a municipality to post notices as electronic records in lieu of publishing them, most often in local newspapers. In addition, the bill eliminates a requirement that boards of finance and similar authorities publish an annual town report. It allows the report to be an electronic record, e. g. , an e-mail, and specifies this record is available for distribution if posted on the town's website.

Table 1: Website as an Alternative to Publication

JOINT PERFORMANCE BY SCHOOL DISTRICTS

The bill permits two or more local or regional school districts to jointly perform any function that each district may perform separately under any provisions of the statutes or any special act, charter, or home rule ordinance. The terms of each agreement must establish a process for withdrawal from the agreement and must require that the agreement be reviewed at least once every five years by the body that approved it to assess its effectiveness in enhancing the performance of the function that is the subject of the agreement.

Under the bill, if two or more districts jointly undertake any function that teachers or administrators in each district perform, the districts become a single employer for purposes of collective bargaining law with respect to the joint function. Each union must maintain its representation rights for collective bargaining. If two or more unions have representation rights, they must act in coalition for all collective bargaining purposes.

The collective bargaining agreement of each union must remain in effect. A decision by a district to undertake the joint performance of a function is not a subject of collective bargaining.

COMMITTEE ACTION

Planning and Development Committee

Joint Favorable Substitute