General Assembly Raised Bill No. 228
February Session, 2014 LCO No. 1318
*01318_______GAE*
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
General Assembly
Raised Bill No. 228
February Session, 2014
LCO No. 1318
*01318_______GAE*
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
AN ACT ESTABLISHING A PILOT PROGRAM FOR MUNICIPAL CAMPAIGN FINANCE FILINGS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective from passage) (a) The State Elections Enforcement Commission may establish, within available appropriations, a pilot program to provide assistance to town clerks of not more than twenty municipalities with the completion of some or all of their filing repository duties under section 9-603 of the general statutes. The commission shall provide assistance to town clerks in accordance with this section on such terms and in such manner as the commission prescribes. The commission shall establish an application procedure for the program and criteria for the selection of municipalities. A town clerk may apply, if so directed by vote of the town's legislative body, to participate in the program. Each municipality selected to participate in the program shall implement a plan designed by the commission to transfer some or all of the town clerk's filing repository duties to the commission. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b) of section 9-623 of the general statutes, the commission may waive any late filing fee described in said subsection (b) for any candidate or treasurer in a municipality that is participating in the pilot program. Said pilot program shall terminate on April 7, 2016.
(b) The State Elections Enforcement Commission shall conduct a study, within available appropriations, of the efficiency of transferring to the commission from the offices of the town clerks some or all of the filing repository duties under section 9-603 of the general statutes pursuant to the pilot program under subsection (a) of this section. The study shall include an analysis of the: (1) Cost to municipalities of maintaining the filing repository function, including, but not limited to, costs associated with personnel, equipment, software, hardware and server space; and (2) capacity of the offices of the town clerks to assist with centralized filing repository duties, including, but not limited to, the availability of personnel and equipment. Not later than February 1, 2017, the commission shall report its findings and any recommendations for legislation to make permanent the pilot program pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes, to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to elections.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1
from passage
New section
Statement of Purpose:
To establish a pilot program to allow municipalities to transfer some or all of their filing repository duties to the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]