OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS Legislative Office Building, Room 5200 Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200 http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa sSB-965 AN ACT CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY FOR A CERTAIN MUNICIPAL DISABILITY BENEFIT. Primary Analyst: AN 4/6/21 Contributing Analyst(s): DD OFA Fiscal Note State Impact: Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $ Office of the State Comptroller GF - Potential Cost See Below See Below Note: GF=General Fund Municipal Impact: Municipalities Effect FY 22 $ FY 23 $ Various Municipalities See Below See Below See Below Explanation The bill changes the payment formula for optional municipal disability payments for certain public safety employees and requires the Medical Examining Board to determine eligibility for such payments. The bill results in a potential cost to the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC). While the new population is unknown, it is anticipated that the bill will increase the caseload of the medical examining board and may result in a cost to OSC to hire additional staff or increase the number of hours paid to physicians currently on the board 1 . Currently, the medical examining board within OSC adjudicates approximately 250-300 applications for disability benefits annually. The bill requires that any individual applying for an optional 1 OSC indicates that physicians on the board are paid at a rate of $100 per hour. 2021SB-00965-R000318-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2 municipal disability payment may use the current infrastructure that employees currently use to apply for disability retirement. It is not expected that the changes to the payment formula will materially impact the amount in optional disability payments paid by municipalities to disabled employees. There is currently a process in place for such public safety employees to apply to their respective municipalities for disability payments. The Out Years The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would continue into the future subject the number of applications for municipal disability payments, and the change in disability payouts.