OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
HB-5523
AN ACT CONCERNING ALLOCATIONS OF FEDERAL AMERICAN
RESCUE PLAN ACT FUNDS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO
GENERAL GOVERNMENT, HUMAN SERVICES, EDUCATION AND
THE BIENNIUM ENDING JUNE 30, 2025.
AMENDMENT
LCO No.: 5877
House Calendar No.: 491
Primary Analyst: PR 5/7/24
Contributing Analyst(s): (FN)
OFA Fiscal Note
See Fiscal Note Details
The amendment makes various changes that do not result in a fiscal
impact. In addition, the amendment makes the following changes:
The amendment modifies the ARPA allocations in Section 1 of the bill
and results in a net increase of $775,000.
Section 7 corrects an incorrect date reference for determining
unspent ARPA allocations. The remaining provisions are unchanged by
the amendment.
The amendment changes the effective date of sections 23 and 24 to
upon passage and does not result in a fiscal impact.
Section 38 aligns HUSKY C income eligibility levels with the
Temporary Family Assistance payment standard, which does not alter
the fiscal impact described in the underlying fiscal note.
The amendment’s revisions to sections 40 – 43 establish maximum
funding levels of Passport to Parks account funding for the Thames
River Heritage Park, eliminate the bill’s funding for this park in FY 25,
and end funding for the park after FY 31. The prescribed funding in
Section 40 of the amendment is: (1) up to $200,000 annually in FY 26 2024HB-05523-R00LCO05877-FNA.DOCX Page 2 of 3
through FY 28; (2) $100,000 annually in FY 29 and FY 30; and (3) up to
$50,000 in FY 31. These changes lower the bill’s anticipated costs to the
Passport to Parks account
The amendment makes clarifying changes to a sales tax exemption
for the operation of the XL Center. This does not alter the fiscal impact
noted for Section 47 of the underlying bill.
Section 90 replaces the term "executive director of the Office of
Health Strategy” with the term "Commissioner of Health Strategy" and
does not result in a fiscal impact.
Section 91 replaces the term "executive director of the Office of
Higher Education” and similar with the term "Commissioner of Higher
Education" and does not result in a fiscal impact.
Section 111 clarifies the Legislative Commissioners’ Office authority
to make grammatical, punctuation, and correcting inaccurate internal
references for this act. These provisions have no fiscal impact.
Sections 129 – 132 make procedural and clarifying changes to the
bill’s public hearing requirement alterations regarding certain
permitting by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
(DEEP). The amendment does not change the fiscal impact of the
underlying sections.
The amendment strikes sections 133 - 136 and their associated fiscal
impact with allowing certain quasi-state employees to participate in the
state employee health plan.
The amendment strikes sections 138, 143, 144, and 184, which
contained changes related to the title of the executive director of the
Office of Higher Education, which has no fiscal impact to the state.
The amendment modifies sections 243 – 249, which provides
deficiency appropriations for FY 24 and result in no net change.
The amendment modifies sections 112 – 120, and 124 by: (1) allow 2024HB-05523-R00LCO05877-FNA.DOCX Page 3 of 3
operators of magnet schools and vocational agriculture programs to
charge tuition in FY 26 and annually thereafter at 58% of FY 24 levels, as
allowed in FY 25; (2) eliminate a provision in the underlying bill that
established a new bonus component for the Education Cost Sharing
grant for towns who are financially responsible for the education of
students that reside on Native American tribal lands, eliminating the
cost; and (3) make technical and clarifying changes regarding education
funding.
Section 501 carries forward $800,000 in OPM for other expenses of
which $500,000 is to implement executive branch agency process
improvements and $300,000 for pension consultant services.
Section 502 carries forward $1.5 million in OPM for other expenses
associated with the costs of legalization of cannabis. These funds will be
transferred to DSS for Community Action Agencies.
Section 503 results in a cost to the State Department of Education in
FY 25 to ensure free meals for students who qualify for reduced price
lunch. This cost is expected to be less than $1 million in FY 25. It is
anticipated that existing ARPA allocations for school meals can cover
this cost.
Section 504 eliminates a provision for municipalities to submit an
economic development master plan. This may result in a potential
savings to municipalities to the extent they were using funds to meet
this requirement.
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.