OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-979
AN ACT CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
CONNECTICUT HOME ENERGY LABEL AND THE TREE CANOPY
OF CERTAIN MUNICIPALITIES.
Primary Analyst: MT 3/27/23
Contributing Analyst(s): LG, MP
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact: None
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Various Municipalities Revenue
Gain
None Potential
Explanation
Providing information to create the labeling program will have
no cost to PURA associated with it. The bill specifically discusses the
expansion of Tree canopy over Environmental Justice communities and
cities of over 100,000 people as a goal but does not obligate the state to
action to meet that goal.
The bill requires the Department of Housing (DOH) and DEEP to
annually publish on their agencies' websites a list of municipalities that
meet the bills criteria (and therefore where landlords must provide the
home energy label), which has no fiscal impact. The agencies can use the
Low-Income Energy Affordability Data Tool to formulate the list within
existing resources.
Section 1 results in a potential revenue gain to municipalities
beginning in FY 25 by allowing municipalities to establish, by
ordinance, a civil penalty up to $500 for the first violation and $1,000 for
subsequent violations of the "Connecticut home energy label"
requirement. The revenue gain will be dependent on the civil penalty
established by municipalities and the number of violations. 2023SB-00979-R000244-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
Section 3 makes it a state goal that environmental justice
communities and populous municipalities are covered by a tree canopy
over at least 5% of their total area. Any potential impact will be
dependent on the steps taken to implement this beginning in FY 24.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue subject to the civil penalty established by municipalities and
the number of violations.