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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 652
January Session, 2021
AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TAX CREDIT FOR DONATIONS TO THE
ROBERTA B. WILLIS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage and applicable to income and 1
taxable years commencing on or after January 1, 2021) (a) For income and 2
taxable years commencing on or after January 1, 2021, any taxpayer that 3
donates to the Office of Higher Education for the Roberta B. Willis 4
Scholarship program shall be allowed, pursuant to the provisions of 5
subsection (d) of this section, to claim a credit against the tax imposed 6
under chapter 208 or 229 of the general statutes, other than the liability 7
imposed by section 12-707 of the general statutes. Such credit shall be 8
equal to forty per cent of the total cash amount donated to such 9
scholarship program during the income or taxable year, provided (1) the 10
amount of credit allowed any taxpayer under the provisions of this 11
section for any income or taxable year may not exceed sixty thousand 12
dollars, and (2) no tax credit shall be granted to any taxpayer for a 13
donation of less than five hundred dollars. 14
(b) If the taxpayer is an S corporation or an entity treated as a 15
partnership for federal income tax purposes, the shareholders or 16
partners of such taxpayer may be allowed to claim the credit. If the 17
taxpayer is a single member limited liability company that is 18 Substitute Bill No. 652
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disregarded as an entity separate from its owner, the limited liability 19
company's owner may be allowed to claim the credit, provided such 20
owner is subject to the tax imposed under chapter 229 of the general 21
statutes. 22
(c) The total amount of credits allowed under this section shall not 23
exceed sixteen million dollars in the first income and taxable year and 24
thirty-two million dollars in the second income and taxable year and 25
each income and taxable year thereafter. 26
(d) (1) To be eligible to claim the credit pursuant to subsection (a) of 27
this section for an income or taxable year, a taxpayer shall apply to the 28
Office of Higher Education in a form and manner prescribed by the 29
executive director of said office. Such application shall contain sufficient 30
information as required by the office, including, but not limited to, 31
notice of the amount of the intended donation to the Roberta B. Willis 32
Scholarship program. 33
(2) Upon receipt of an application, the executive director shall render 34
a decision, in writing, on each completed application not later than 35
thirty days after the date of its receipt by the office. The executive 36
director shall issue a certification letter to the taxpayer indicating that 37
the credit will be available to be claimed by the taxpayer if the executive 38
director finds that (A) the donation meets the requirements of this 39
section, and (B) the total amount of credits claimed in any year have not 40
exceeded the limit set forth in subsection (c) of this section. 41
Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) There is established an 42
account to be known as the "Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program 43
donation account" which shall be a separate, nonlapsing account within 44
the General Fund. The Office of Higher Education shall deposit into the 45
account any donations received pursuant to section 1 of this act. Moneys 46
in the account shall be expended by said office for the purposes of the 47
Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program in accordance with section 10a-48
173 of the general statutes, as amended by this act. 49 Substitute Bill No. 652
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(b) Not later than January 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the Office 50
of Higher Education shall report, in accordance with the provisions of 51
section 11-4a of the general statutes, to the joint standing committees of 52
the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to 53
appropriations and the budgets of state agencies and higher education 54
the amount of donations received in the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship 55
program donation account during the preceding calendar year. 56
(c) For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, and for each fiscal year 57
thereafter, the Office of Higher Education shall lapse, in accordance with 58
subsection (f) of section 4-89 of the general statutes, from the 59
appropriations for the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship program an amount 60
equal the amount of donations received in the Roberta B. Willis 61
Scholarship program donation account during the preceding calendar 62
year. 63
Sec. 3. Subsection (c) of section 10a-173 of the general statutes is 64
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from 65
passage): 66
(c) [Within available appropriations, the] The Roberta B. Willis 67
Scholarship program shall include a need and merit-based grant, a 68
need-based grant and a Charter Oak grant. The need and merit-based 69
grant shall be funded at not less than twenty per cent but not more than 70
thirty per cent of [available appropriations] the total amount of available 71
appropriations and any amount deposited into the Roberta B. Willis 72
Scholarship program donation account, established pursuant to section 73
2 of this act. The need-based grant shall be funded at up to eighty per 74
cent of [available appropriations] such total amount. The Charter Oak 75
grant shall be not less than one hundred thousand dollars of [available 76
appropriations] such total amount. There shall be an administrative 77
allowance based on one-quarter of one per cent of the available 78
appropriations, but not less than one hundred thousand dollars. In 79
addition to the amount of the annual appropriation allocated to the 80
regional community-technical colleges under subsection (e) of this 81
section, and to regional community-technical college students under 82 Substitute Bill No. 652
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subsection (d) of this section, not less than two and one-half per cent of 83
the annual appropriation shall be allocated to the regional community-84
technical colleges to be used for financial aid purposes. 85
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage and
applicable to income and
taxable years commencing
on or after January 1, 2021
New section
Sec. 2 from passage New section
Sec. 3 from passage 10a-173(c)
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In Section 1(a), "established pursuant to Section 10a-173 of the general
statutes, as amended by this act," was inserted; in Section (1)(d)(1), "said
office" was changed to "the Office of Higher Education" for clarity; and
in Section 1(d)(2), Subpara. (A) was removed and the remaining
Subparas. were redesignated for accuracy.
HED Joint Favorable Subst.