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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 133
February Session, 2020
LCO No. 1343
Referred to Committee on COMMERCE
Introduced by:
(CE)
AN ACT CONCERNING RE GIONAL TOURISM DISTR ICTS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 10-397 of the 2020 supplement to the general 1
statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof 2
(Effective from passage): 3
(a) There are established three regional tourism districts, each of 4
which shall promote and market districts as regional leisure and 5
business traveler destinations to stimulate economic growth. The 6
districts shall be as follows: 7
(1) The eastern regional district, which shall consist of Ashford, 8
Bozrah, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Colchester, Columbia, 9
Coventry, East Lyme, Eastford, Franklin, Griswold, Groton, Hampton, 10
Killingly, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Mansfield, Montville, New 11
London, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Plainfield, Pomfret, 12
Preston, Putnam, Salem, Scotland, Sprague, Sterling, Stonington, 13
Thompson, Union, Voluntown, Waterford, Willington, Windham and 14
Woodstock; 15 Raised Bill No. 133
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(2) The central regional district, which shall consist of Andover, 16
Avon, Berlin, Bethany, Bloomfield, Bolton, Branford, Canton, Cheshire, 17
Chester, Clinton, Cromwell, Deep River, Durham, East Granby, East 18
Haddam, East Hampton, East Hartford, East Haven, East Windsor, 19
Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Farmington, Glastonbury, Granby, Guilford, 20
Haddam, Hamden, Hartford, Hebron, Killingworth, Madison, 21
Manchester, Marlborough, Meriden, Middlefield, Middletown, Milford, 22
New Britain, New Haven, Newington, North Branford, North Haven, 23
Old Saybrook, Orange, Plainville, Portland, Rocky Hill, Simsbury, 24
Somers, South Windsor, Southington, Stafford, Suffield, Tolland, 25
Vernon, Wallingford, West Hartford, West Haven, Westbrook, 26
Wethersfield, Windsor, Windsor Locks and Woodbridge; and 27
(3) The western regional district, which shall consist of Ansonia, 28
Barkhamsted, Beacon Falls, Bethel, Bethlehem, Bridgeport, Bridgewater, 29
Bristol, Brookfield, Burlington, Canaan, Colebrook, Cornwall, Danbury, 30
Darien, Derby, Easton, Fairfield, Goshen, Greenwich, Hartland, 31
Harwinton, Kent, Litchfield, Middlebury, Monroe, Morris, Naugatuck, 32
New Fairfield, New Hartford, New Milford, New Canaan, Newtown, 33
Norfolk, North Canaan, Norwalk, Oxford, Plymouth, Prospect, 34
Redding, Ridgefield, Roxbury, Salisbury, Seymour, Sharon, Shelton, 35
Sherman, Southbury, Stamford, Stratford, Thomaston, Torrington, 36
Trumbull, Warren, Washington, Waterbury, Watertown, Weston, 37
Westport, Wilton, Winchester, Wolcott and Woodbury. 38
(b) Each regional tourism district shall be overseen by a board of 39
directors consisting of one representative from each municipality within 40
the district, appointed by the legislative body of the municipality and, 41
where the legislative body is a town meeting, by the board of selectmen. 42
Any such member of a board of directors shall serve for a term of three 43
years. In addition, the board of directors may appoint up to twenty-one 44
persons representing tourism interests within the district to serve on the 45
board. No board member shall be deemed a state employee for serving 46
on said board. All appointments to the board of directors shall be 47
reported to the Commissioner of Economic and Community 48
Development. 49 Raised Bill No. 133
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(c) The provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, as defined in 50
section 1-200, shall apply to each regional tourism district. 51
(d) Each tourism district shall adopt a charter and bylaws governing 52
its operation. 53
(e) Each regional tourism district shall (1) comply with uniform 54
standards for accounting and reporting expenditures that are 55
established by the Department of Economic and Community 56
Development in accordance with section 10-392 and are based on 57
industry accounting standards developed by the International 58
Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus or other national 59
organizations related to tourism, and (2) on or before January first of 60
each year, submit to the department, the Office of Policy and 61
Management and the Office of Fiscal Analysis an independent audit in 62
accordance with the provisions of sections 4-230 to 4-236, inclusive. 63
(f) Each regional tourism district shall solicit and may accept private 64
funds for the promotion of tourism within its towns and cities and shall 65
coordinate its activities with any private nonprofit tourist association 66
within the district and within this state, that promotes tourism industry 67
businesses in this state, in order to foster cooperation in the promotion 68
of such businesses. Any funds received by a regional tourism district 69
may be deposited in the account established in section 10-395 or in an 70
account established by such tourism district to receive such funds. 71
[(g) The central regional district office shall be located within the 72
department.] 73
[(h)] (g) The commissioner shall, within available appropriations, 74
distribute tourism funding evenly among the three tourism districts. At 75
the end of each fiscal year, commencing with the fiscal year ending June 76
30, 2020, each regional tourism district shall return any unexpended 77
funds to the Department of Economic and Community Development. 78
The commissioner shall use such funds to support state-wide 79
marketing. 80 Raised Bill No. 133
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[(i)] (h) Each regional tourism district may establish and administer a 81
matching grant program for any tourism industry business, tourism 82
destination, or not-for-profit arts and culture organization that has 83
received private funds for the marketing of such business, destination, 84
organization or regional tourism district. Such grants shall be used for 85
the marketing of such business, destination, organization or regional 86
tourism district. 87
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage 10-397
Statement of Purpose:
To require each regional tourism district to return unexpended tourism
funding to the Department of Economic and Community Development
for the purpose of supporting state-wide marketing and to eliminate the
requirement that the central regional district office be located within the
department.
[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.]