Information on this page is updated regularly to keep municipal officials informed of important legislative and state activities affecting cities and towns.
ACCESS TO USEFUL HEALTH INSURANCE DATA Would allow municipal officials to receive, upon request, the aggregate number of procedures or services performed for covered employees of their particular town or city, as well to receive the number of prescriptions filled for their employees – listed by the prescription drug name. The information would be provided by “practice type and by service category” and would remain confidential to municipal officials only.
It is no secret that health insurance costs are one of the biggest cost-drivers of any municipal budget. This bill would provide local governments with invaluable information during the critical process of shopping for health insurance -- and offer useful benchmarks when negotiating policies. This information could also serve as a catalyst for vital wellness programs, as local officials would be able to pinpoint areas of concern and improvement among their employees.
EXPEDITED PERMITTING FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Amendment LCO #3516 would create a "permit ombudsman" within the Department of Economic and Community Development for the purpose of expediting review of certain permit applications for projects in an effort to reduce bureaucracy and make the process more efficient. There would be no fiscal impact to any state agency involved.
MUNICIPAL MANDATE RELIEF Would allow towns to charge fees for certain services to cover administrative costs, limit municipal responsibility concerning the possessions of evicted residential tenants to storage, change property tax laws governing telecommunication equipment, and eliminate the requirement for towns to post minutes on their websites.
This bill – a solid beginning in the fight for mandates reform –contains compromises with several major stakeholders, including landlords, tenant representatives, telecommunications companies and CCM.
This proposal reflects language worked on between CCM, public employee union advocates and legislative leaders. It would not change current law with regard to workers' compensation claims for police officers or firefighters.
Although this proposal would list some specific diseases and cancers under the workers' compensation statutes -- it would merely reaffirm current law: that if such employees contract any diseases or cancers, while in the course of employment, then such employees could be eligible for workers' compensation benefits if, and only if, the employees are able to prove there is a correlation between the injury and the job. This proposal would not create a new benefit and would not establish a presumption.
HEALTH CARE POOLING As amended by the House, would allow any group of municipalities and/or boards of education to pool for the purchase of health insurance.
Local governments need tools and options to help control the rising costs of health insurance.
MANDATED AUTISM SERVICES Among other things,would create a new unfunded mandate on local governments by requiring behavior analyses and certain services for students with autism spectrum disorder and specifies the qualifications of the individuals who would be administering the analysis and services.
MINIMUM BUDGET REQUIREMENT This bill is an attempt to address the predicament local governments are finding themselves in trying to meet the minimum budget requirements (MBR) while funding and enrollment may be changing.
While this proposal is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough to provide the relief local governments need.
The current MBR means that, no matter what efficiencies can be found in board of education budgets, they cannot be reduced. In an era when every other state and local agency are having their budgets closely examined one entity – boards of education – are beyond scrutiny and beyond savings. Connecticut is facing an enormous budget hole if FY12. Exempting any part of government from being reviewed for efficiencies is a luxury that property taxpayers cannot afford.
A compromise alternative, during these perilous economic times, would be to require that municipalities spend more on education than they receive from the State. We urge you to add such a provision.
In addition, as was already done for this year (PA 09-1, June 19 Special Session, Section 19), municipalities should again be allowed to amend approved budgets to account for federal ARRA funds being paid directly to boards of education. Otherwise some boards will receive 114% of what is allocated by the town because they must finalize their own budgets before knowing what state grant distributions will be and how much they will receive.
REGIONALIZATION OF LOCAL 911 CENTERS Among other things -- and although it was amended by the Senate -- this would still be a de facto state mandate on certain towns -- it would make, beginning in FY 2016, municipalities with 40,000 or fewer people ineligible for E 9-1-1 funding if they have not joined with two or more municipalities to form a regional public safety answering point (PSAP).
Though well-intended, SB 312 is still an unnecessarily blunt stick absent any carrot. A mandate in the future -- is still a state mandate.
LOCAL HEALTH DIRECTORS Would, among other things, require that “local directors of health hired on or after October 1, 2010 be a licensed physician and hold a graduate degree in public health from an accredited school, college, university, or institution. Those directors of health hired prior to October 1, 2010 are exempt from such requirements.”
