OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-8
AN ACT CONCERNING HIGHER EDUCATION AFFORDABILITY
AND GRADUATE RETENTION.
AMENDMENT
LCO No.: 8705
File Copy No.: 139
Senate Calendar No.: 104
Primary Analyst: SB 5/25/23
Contributing Analyst(s): ()
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Board of Regents for Higher
Education
Various - Cost 21.1 million 21.1 million
Higher Ed., Off. GF - See Below See Below See Below
Public Institutions of Higher
Education
Various -
Revenue Gain
See Below See Below
Note: Various=Various; GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact: None
Explanation
Section 1 makes changes to the debt free community college
program, resulting in additional annual costs of approximately $21.1
million. The changes to the program include: 1) increasing the minimum
grant, 2) removing the Connecticut high school graduation requirement,
3) eliminating that a student must be continuously enrolled in college in
order to qualify, and 4) removing the requirement that it is a student's
first semester in college. These changes result in additional students
being eligible for the program and increased annual costs. The table
below provides the increased costs for the expansion. If additional
General Fund funding is not provided, it is anticipated the community
colleges would cap grant expenditures at available funding based on
past practice. 2023SB-00008-R00LCO08705-FNA.DOCX Page 2 of 3
Increase Minimum Grant $4.6 million
Remove CT High School Graduation Requirement $4.0 million
Remove Continuous Enrollment $8.0 million
Remove First Time in College $4.5 million
Total $21.1 million
Section 2 makes various changes to the Roberta Willis Scholarship
program within the Office of Higher Education, including eliminating
the community colleges from the program. This could result in a
revenue loss to the community colleges beginning in FY 24 as their
students would no longer be eligible for financial aid grants under this
program and consequently may choose to enroll elsewhere or not at all.
Additionally, the amendment requires that in FY 24, any ARPA funds
designated for this program must be spent before any appropriated
dollars. Section 2 also establishes a cap of $10 million dollars or 30
percent of the annual appropriation (whichever is greater) to be
reserved for the need merit portion of the program. This could result in
a redistribution of financial aid funds among various eligible
institutions, including the Connecticut state universities and UConn.
Section 3 prevents any unused Roberta Willis Scholarship funds
from lapsing beginning in FY 24, which could result in a revenue
increase to various eligible intuitions, as unused funds will not lapse but
will be reallocated to institutions.
Section 4 makes various procedural changes regarding (1) program
approval and modifications, and (2) what is required of programs that
are exempt from such approval. These changes are not anticipated to
result in a fiscal impact.
The preceding Fiscal Impact statement is prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly, solely
for the purposes of information, summarization and explanation and does not represent the intent of the General
Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of
informational sources, including the analyst’s professional knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is 2023SB-00008-R00LCO08705-FNA.DOCX Page 3 of 3
consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any
specific department.