OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-904
AN ACT CONCERNING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
OFFICE OF THE STATE TRAFFIC ADMINISTRATION AND THE
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, THE DISSOLUTION OF
THE NORWALK TRANSIT DISTRICT AND ROUTE SHIELD
PAVEMENT MARKINGS.
Primary Analyst: PM 4/4/23
Contributing Analyst(s): DD, LG, EMG
Reviewer: MM
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Department of Transportation TF - Cost 1.55 million 3 million
Treasurer, Debt Serv. GF&TF - Savings Potential Potential
Note: GF&TF=General Fund & Transportation Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Norwalk; Westport; Wilton Savings 620,000 1.28 million
Various Municipalities Revenue
Loss/ Gain
Potential Potential
Various Municipalities Cost Potential Potential
Explanation
Section 1 could result in a decreased or slower use of previously-
authorized bond funds for various bond-funded competitive grants
programs administered by DOT or OPM. Future debt service costs may
be incurred later or to a lesser extent under the section to the degree that
it causes authorized bond funds to not be expended or to be expended
more slowly than they otherwise would have been.
To the extent municipalities are ineligible for transportation-related
competitive grants because of the provisions of the bill, the ineligible
municipalities would potentially receive less revenue from the state 2023SB-00904-R000437-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 3
than they otherwise would. If competitive awards are shifted from
ineligible municipalities to eligible municipalities, the eligible
municipalities would potentially receive more revenue from the state
than they otherwise would.
There may also be a potential cost to municipalities to remedy a
violation of the Office of the State Traffic Administration orders or
regulations.
Section 6 requires the University of Connecticut's Connecticut
Training and Technical Assistance Center to conduct mandatory
training for traffic authorities. The center currently provides such
training to municipalities at a cost of $100 per participant and this
section results in a cost for traffic authorities to the extent that they are
not currently participating in this program.
Sections 8 and 9 add requirements for DOT regarding the
Connecticut Public Transportation Council (currently the Connecticut
Commuter Rail Council). Specifically, these sections require DOT to
maintain records of requests received by the council, provide monthly
on-time performance and ridership reports, and make quarterly
presentations at council meetings. This is not expected to result in
additional costs to DOT because the department already tracks the
relevant data and regularly attends and presents at current Connecticut
Commuter Rail Council meetings.
Section 14 dissolves the Norwalk Transit District (NTD) on January
1, 2024, and transfers all NTD funds, property, debt, and obligations to
DOT, and requires DOT to continue to provide comparable transit
services. Under current agreements, NTD is more than 90% subsidized
by DOT, with the remaining subsidy primarily coming from local
contributions. In FY 22, these contributions totaled $945,493 and
included $629,414 from Norwalk, $308,952 from Westport, and $7,127
from Wilton. This section is expected to result in a savings to those
municipalities and a cost to DOT of a greater amount.
Under current projections, the municipal contributions to NTD are 2023SB-00904-R000437-FN.DOCX Page 3 of 3
anticipated to be $1.24 million in FY 24 and $1.28 million in FY 25,
resulting in municipal savings under the bill of $620,000 in FY 24 (half-
year savings) and $1.28 million in FY 25. The cost to DOT is anticipated
to be $1.35 million in FY 24 (half-year costs) and $2.8 million in FY 25.
These amounts assume DOT provides the former local contributions
and incurs additional costs associated with managing the services.
These additional costs reflect conforming the services provided by NTD
to DOT's existing state-owned services (i.e., CTtransit) which include,
for example, higher driver wages and contractual management services
over operations, as DOT does not have existing expertise in this area.
Funding for capital projects is not expected to change as NTD's capital
program is currently funded with a mix of federal and state dollars.
Section 15 requires DOT to paint and maintain "route shield
pavement markers" at the intersections of I-91/I-95 in New Haven and
I-91/I-84 in Hartford. The cost for installing a single route shield is
estimated at $10,000, inclusive of the materials, equipment, and labor
associated with installation and related lane closures. These markings
are expected to need replacement every two years. While the full cost of
this section is unknown pending a determination by DOT on the
number of locations (lanes) where route shields would be required, it is
expected to be less than $200,000 annually. This assumes that DOT
phases installation of route shield markings over a two-year period and
these markings are replaced on a two-year cycle.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation, the number of route shield
markings installed and replaced, and the terms of any bonds issued.