OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-1226
AN ACT CONCERNING STATE VOTING RIGHTS IN
RECOGNITION OF JOHN R. LEWIS.
As Amended by Senate "A" (LCO 8791)
House Calendar No.: 613
Senate Calendar No.: 364
Primary Analyst: MT 5/26/23
Contributing Analyst(s):
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
State Comptroller - Fringe
Benefits
1
GF - Cost 263,822 263,822
Secretary of the State GF - Cost 1,916,625 1,115,306
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Various Municipalities STATE
MANDATE
2
- Potential
Cost
Significant Significant
Explanation
The bill would result in an estimated total cost to the state of
$2,180,447 in FY 24 and $1,379,128 in FY 25. The bill would also result in
significant cost to various municipalities, some costs for UConn voter
1
The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts
administered by the Comptroller. The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost
associated with most personnel changes is 42.82% of payroll in FY 24.
2
State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a way
as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues. 2023SB-01226-R01-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 3
center and the Office of the Secretary of the State. The bill generally
codifies into state law several aspects of the federal Voting Rights Act of
1965 which bans discrimination in voting and elections and establishes
a mechanism for certain jurisdictions with a history of discrimination
against racial and language minorities to seek preapproval before
changing their election laws.
The bill requires the Secretary of the State (SOTS) to establish and
maintain a database containing a range of elections and demographic
data, which will be done through the UConn voter center. The UConn
voter center receives the entirety of its funding from the Office of the
Secretary of State. The bill empowers the Secretary of State to partner
with the University of Connecticut or the University of Connecticut
system to fulfill the obligations of section 3. To facilitate this the
University of Connecticut would require additional full-time positions
and graduate positions to do so. This would result in total costs in FY 24
of $775,506 in FY 24 and $474,187 in FY 25.
There is also a cost for two additional staff for the Secretary of State's
office: 1) one Manager of the statewide database, as required in the bill,
with an annual salary of $110,000 and associated fringe of $47,102, and
2) one IT Analyst with an annual salary of $92,372 and associated fringe
of $39,554.
The bill also requires SOTS to make determinations of certain
municipal plans intended to protect specified classes of electors. This
determination process may include various municipalities
simultaneously in the years following a redistricting or court litigation.
This is estimated to result in an annualized cost to SOTS of $413,747 for
four additional staff and associated fringe to the Office of the State
Comptroller of $177,166. The staff are anticipated to be one Deputy
Elections Director, two Staff Attorneys, and one Elections Officer.
Additionally, the bill requires a municipality to provide language-
related assistance in voting and elections if SOTS determines, based on
the American Community Survey results or data of similar quality, that
the municipality meets certain criteria. Additional costs to the SOTS will 2023SB-01226-R01-FN.DOCX Page 3 of 3
be dependent on the number of municipalities that meet these criteria
and may be up to $25,000 annually. Under Federal law, ten
municipalities currently meet these criteria as of the most recent census
3
.
The bill adjusts this to include community commonality criterion that
may narrow the cost from the original bill. Municipalities are also
required to hold public hearings to address potential violations that may
induce additional costs for municipalities.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission, The Attorney General
and certain parties are allowed under this bill to bring an action in the
Superior Court in the district of an alleged violation. This is not
anticipated to result in a fiscal impact to the state or municipalities.
Senate "A" eliminates the original bill and its associated fiscal impact,
and results in the impact described above.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.
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
consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any
specific department.
3
Federal Register, 2021 Report