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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 351
February Session, 2024
LCO No. 2396
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
AN ACT INCREASING FUNDING FOR THE COMMUNITY INVESTMENT
ACCOUNT.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (e) of section 7-34a of the general statutes is 1
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2
2024): 3
(e) In addition to the fees for recording a document under subsection 4
(a) of this section, town clerks shall receive a fee of [forty] forty-five 5
dollars for each document recorded in the land records of the 6
municipality. The town clerk shall retain one dollar of any fee paid 7
pursuant to this subsection and three dollars of such fee shall become 8
part of the general revenue of the municipality and be used to pay for 9
local capital improvement projects, as defined in section 7-536. Not later 10
than the fifteenth day of each month, town clerks shall remit [thirty-six] 11
forty-one dollars of the fees paid pursuant to this subsection during the 12
previous calendar month to the State Treasurer. Upon deposit in the 13
General Fund, such amount shall be credited to the community 14
investment account established pursuant to section 4-66aa, as amended 15 Raised Bill No. 351
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by this act. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to any 16
document recorded on the land records by an employee of the state or 17
of a municipality in conjunction with such employee's official duties. As 18
used in this subsection, "municipality" includes each town, consolidated 19
town and city, city, consolidated town and borough, borough, and 20
district, as defined in chapter 105 or 105a, any municipal corporation or 21
department thereof created by a special act of the General Assembly, 22
and each municipal board, commission and taxing district not 23
previously mentioned. 24
Sec. 2. Section 4-66aa of the general statutes is repealed and the 25
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2024): 26
[(a)] There is established, within the General Fund, a separate, 27
nonlapsing account to be known as the "community investment 28
account". The account shall contain any moneys required by law to be 29
deposited in the account. The funds in the account shall be distributed 30
every three months as follows: (1) Ten dollars of each fee credited to said 31
account shall be deposited into the agriculture sustainability account 32
established pursuant to section 4-66cc and, then, of the remaining funds, 33
(2) twenty-five per cent to the Department of Economic and Community 34
Development to use as follows: (A) Three hundred eighty thousand 35
dollars, annually, to supplement the technical assistance and 36
preservation activities of the Connecticut Trust for Historic 37
Preservation, established pursuant to special act 75-93, and (B) the 38
remainder to supplement historic preservation activities as provided in 39
sections 10-409 to 10-415, inclusive; (3) twenty-five per cent to the 40
Department of Housing to supplement new or existing affordable 41
housing programs; (4) twenty-five per cent to the Department of Energy 42
and Environmental Protection for municipal open space grants; and (5) 43
twenty-five per cent to the Department of Agriculture to use as follows: 44
(A) Five hundred thousand dollars annually for the agricultural 45
viability grant program established pursuant to section 22-26j; (B) five 46
hundred thousand dollars annually for the farm transition program 47
established pursuant to section 22-26k; (C) one hundred thousand 48
dollars annually to encourage the sale of Connecticut-grown food to 49 Raised Bill No. 351
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schools, restaurants, retailers and other institutions and businesses in 50
the state; (D) seventy-five thousand dollars annually for the Connecticut 51
farm link program established pursuant to section 22-26l; (E) forty-52
seven thousand five hundred dollars annually for the Seafood Advisory 53
Council established pursuant to section 22-455; (F) forty-seven thousand 54
five hundred dollars annually for the Connecticut Farm Wine 55
Development Council established pursuant to section 22-26c; (G) 56
twenty-five thousand dollars annually to the Connecticut Food Policy 57
Council established pursuant to section 22-456; and (H) the remainder 58
for farmland preservation programs pursuant to chapter 422. Each 59
agency receiving funds under this section may use not more than ten 60
per cent of such funds for administration of the programs for which the 61
funds were provided. 62
[(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, 63
fifty per cent of the moneys deposited in the community investment 64
account from January 1, 2016, until June 30, 2017, shall be credited every 65
three months to the resources of the General Fund, provided the funds 66
remaining in the account shall be distributed as provided in subsection 67
(a) of this section.] 68
Sec. 3. Subsection (h) of section 49-10 of the general statutes is 69
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 70
2024): 71
(h) Notwithstanding the provisions concerning remittance and 72
retention of fees set forth in section 7-34a, as amended by this act, the 73
recording fees paid in accordance with subsections (a), (d) and (e) of 74
[said] section 7-34a, as amended by this act, by a nominee of a 75
mortgagee, as defined in subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of [said] 76
section 7-34a, shall be allocated as follows: (1) For fees collected upon a 77
recording by a nominee of a mortgagee, except for the recording of (A) 78
an assignment of mortgage in which the nominee of a mortgagee 79
appears as assignor, and (B) a release of mortgage, as described in 80
section 49-8, by a nominee of a mortgagee, the town clerk shall remit one 81
hundred ten dollars of such fees to the state, such fees shall be deposited 82 Raised Bill No. 351
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into the General Fund and, upon deposit in the General Fund, [thirty-83
six] forty-one dollars of such fees shall be credited to the community 84
investment account established pursuant to section 4-66aa, as amended 85
by this act; the town clerk shall retain forty-nine dollars of such fees, 86
thirty-nine dollars of which shall become part of the general revenue of 87
such municipality and ten dollars of which shall be deposited into the 88
town clerk fund; and the town clerk shall retain any fees for additional 89
pages beyond the first page in accordance with the provisions of 90
subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of [said] section 7-34a; and (2) for the 91
fee collected upon a recording of (A) an assignment of mortgage in 92
which the nominee appears as assignor, or (B) a release of mortgage by 93
a nominee of a mortgagee, the town clerk shall remit one hundred 94
twenty-seven dollars of such fee to the state, such fee shall be deposited 95
into the General Fund and, upon deposit in the General Fund, [thirty-96
six] forty-one dollars of such fee shall be credited to the community 97
investment account, [and, until October 1, 2014, sixty dollars of such fee 98
shall be credited to the State Banking Fund for purposes of funding the 99
foreclosure mediation program established by section 49-31m;] and the 100
town clerk shall retain thirty-two dollars of such fee, which shall become 101
part of the general revenue of such municipality. 102
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2024 7-34a(e)
Sec. 2 July 1, 2024 4-66aa
Sec. 3 July 1, 2024 49-10(h)
Statement of Purpose:
To increase the recording fee that funds the Community Investment
Account by five dollars.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]