O F F I C E O F L E G I S L A T I V E R E S E A R C H
P U B L I C A C T S U M M A R Y
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PA 23-179—SB 1213 (VETOED)
Appropriations Committee
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E MASHANTUCKET PEQUO T AND
MOHEGAN FUND
SUMMARY: Beginning in FY 26, this act would have required that $139.38
million annually be transferred from the General Fund to the Mashantucket Pequot
and Mohegan Fund. Currently, the amount of the transfer is set by the budget act.
Under the act, this annual deposit would have consisted of funds received by
the state from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of
Connecticut pursuant to memoranda of understanding entered into between the
state and each tribe in 1993 and 1994, respectively, thus conforming to current
practice. (Current law references funds received from the Mashantucket Pequot
Tribe only.)
Like current law, the act generally would have required the Office of Policy and
Management secretary to distribute funds in accordance with statutory
requirements, and money in the fund would have been paid to municipalities as
specified in the statutes and legislatively enacted biennial budget. (For FYs 24 and
25, the budget and implementer act sets a town-by-town distribution schedule (PA
23-204, § 38).)
The act also would have prohibited reducing these transfers unless the governor
certified an emergency and the legislature approved the reduction by a two-thirds
vote of the membership in each house. (It is unclear whether this prohibition would
have been enforceable based on the principle of legislative entrenchment, under
which one legislature generally cannot restrict a future legislature’s ability to enact
legislation.)
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2023