Researcher: JSB Page 1 3/17/21
OLR Bill Analysis
SB 869
AN ACT CONCERNING COMMUNITY INVESTMENT BOARDS AND
NEIGHBORHOOD ASSISTANCE.
SUMMARY
This bill requires the chief executive officers (CEO) of certain large
municipalities to establish neighborhood community investment
boards to identify funding priorities for certain state grants. The CEOs
must establish a board for each neighborhood in the municipality and
appoint the board members who may include residents, business
owners, and civic leaders. Beginning in FY 25, the bill authorizes these
municipalities to spend a portion of their municipal revenue sharing
grant on priorities identified by these boards. It also extends this
authorization to payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) grants funded
through the select PILOT account, which was repealed by PA 21-3,
effective July 1, 2021 (see BACKGROUND).
By January 1, 2023, the bill requires the Office of Policy and
Management (OPM), within available appropriations, to create and
maintain a website that allows residents and organizations to submit
proposed solutions to problems specific to urban areas (§ 4). If the
OPM secretary or her designee deems a submitted proposal viable, she
must identify a municipality or neighborhood in which to implement
the proposal as a pilot program, monitor its implementation, and
assess its results. OPM must provide a financial award, within
available appropriations, to each resident or organization whose
proposal becomes the basis of a pilot program that the secretary or her
designee deems successful.
The bill also establishes a task force to study (1) programs for which
nonprofit providers use state funding and (2) state a gency
requirements applicable to nonprofit providers and compliance with
those requirements. 2021SB-00869-R000082-BA.DOCX
Researcher: JSB Page 2 3/17/21
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2021, except the community investment
board provisions are effective October 1, 2021, and the municipal
revenue sharing grant provisions are effective October 1, 2024.
§§ 1-3 — COMMUNITY INVESTMENT BOARDS
The bill’s requirement to establish community investment boards in
each neighborhood applies to any municipality with a population over
60,000 according to the 2010 Census but an area of no more than 30
square miles (i.e., Bridgeport, Bristol, Hartford, Meriden, New Britain,
New Haven, Norwalk, Waterbury, and West Hartford). The
municipality’s CEO must select the board members, who may include
residents, business owners, religious leaders, community development
corporation representatives, and community group representatives. If
a neighborhood revitalization zone (NRZ) has been established in a
neighborhood, the CEO must designate the associated NRZ committee
to serve as the neighborhood’s community investment board (see
BACKGROUND).
The bill requires the community investment boards to identify
priorities for spending municipal revenue sharing and PILOT grants
funded through the select PILOT account. (PA 21-3 repeals the select
PILOT account and the associated grants, effective July 1, 2021; thus,
this provision appears to have no legal effect.)
Beginning October 1, 2024, municipalities with community
investment boards may choose to spend these grants so that:
1. 35% is spent on priorities identified by the community
investment boards,
2. 35% is spent on priorities identified by the municipality’s
legislative body, and
3. 30% is spent on priorities jointly agreed upon by the boards and
legislative body.
§ 5 — TASK FORCE ON STATE -FUNDED NONPROFIT
PROVIDERS 2021SB-00869-R000082-BA.DOCX
Researcher: JSB Page 3 3/17/21
Under the bill, the task force consists of 12 members, two each
appointed by the six legislative leaders. Their appointments may be
legislators and must be made by July 31, 2021. The appointing
authority fills any vacancy.
The bill requires the Senate president pro tempore and House
speaker to select the task force's chairpersons from among its
members. The chairpersons must schedule and hold the first meeting
by August 30, 2021. The Planning and Development Committee's
administrative staff must serve as the task force's staff.
The task force must report its findings and recommendations to the
Planning and Development Committee by January 1, 2022. The task
force terminates when it submits its report or on that date, whichever
is later.
BACKGROUND
Related Act
PA 21-3 (§ 8), which received emergency certification on February
24, 2021, and was signed by the governor on March 4, 2021, eliminates
the select PILOT account and requirement that a portion of specified
PILOT grants be paid from the account as of July 1, 2021.
Under prior law, this account was a separate, nonlapsing General
Fund account funded by disbursements from the municipal revenue
sharing account (MRSA). Prior law required the select PILOT account
to be used to pay a specified portion of PILOT grants to municipalities
and districts according to a statutory formula.
Municipal Revenue Sharing Grants
By law, municipal revenue sharing grants are funded through
MRSA by a sales tax revenue diversion. They were last funded in FY
17 through the Municipal Revenue Sharing Fund.
The statutory formula for calculating the grant amounts is based on
each municipality's real and personal property mill rate (other than its
motor vehicle mill rate). Grant amounts are reduced for municipalities
whose spending exceeds a specified municipal spending cap. 2021SB-00869-R000082-BA.DOCX
Researcher: JSB Page 4 3/17/21
NRZs
The state's NRZ program helps neighborhood residents and
businesses develop and implement plans to revitalize economically-
and socially-distressed neighborhoods. NRZs are municipally
designated.
NRZ committees are established after a municipality adopts the
NRZ planning committee's strategic plan in order to implement it
(CGS § 7-602). NRZ committees must reflect the neighborhood’s
composition and include tenants and property owners, community
organizations, and representatives of neighborhood businesses or
businesses that own property in the neighborhood.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Planning and Development Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 24 Nay 2 (03/02/2021)