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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 351
February Session, 2024
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repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2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
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 Substitute Bill No. 351
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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 Section 4-66aa of the general statutes is repealed and the 25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
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 Substitute Bill No. 351
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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
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 Substitute Bill No. 351
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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
Sec. 4. Section 22-38a of the general statutes is repealed and the 103
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2024): 104
The Commissioner of Agriculture shall establish and administer a 105
program to promote the marketing of farm products grown and 106
produced in Connecticut for the purpose of encouraging the 107
development of agriculture in the state. The commissioner may, within 108
available appropriations, provide a grant-in-aid to any person, firm, 109
partnership or corporation engaged in the promotion and marketing of 110
such farm products, provided the words "CONNECTICUT-GROWN" 111
or "CT-Grown" are clearly incorporated in such promotional and 112
marketing activities. The commissioner shall (1) provide for the design, 113
plan and implementation of a multiyear, state-wide marketing and 114
advertising campaign, including, but not limited to, television and radio 115
advertisements, promoting the availability of, and advantages of 116
purchasing, Connecticut-grown farm products, (2) establish and 117
continuously update a web site connected with such advertising 118 Substitute Bill No. 351
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campaign that includes, but is not limited to, a comprehensive listing of 119
Connecticut farmers' markets, pick-your-own farms, roadside and on-120
farm markets, farm wineries, garden centers and nurseries selling 121
predominantly Connecticut-grown horticultural products and agri-122
tourism events and attractions, and (3) conduct efforts to promote 123
interaction and business relationships between farmers and restaurants, 124
grocery stores, institutional cafeterias and other potential institutional 125
purchasers of Connecticut-grown farm products, including, but not 126
limited to, (A) linking farmers and potential purchasers through a 127
separate feature of the web site established pursuant to this section, and 128
(B) organizing state-wide or regional events promoting Connecticut-129
grown farm products, where farmers and potential institutional 130
customers are invited to participate. The commissioner shall use his best 131
efforts to solicit cooperation and participation from the farm, corporate, 132
retail, wholesale and grocery communities in such advertising, Internet-133
related and event planning efforts, including, but not limited to, 134
soliciting private sector matching funds. The commissioner shall use all 135
of the funds provided to the Department of Agriculture pursuant to 136
subparagraph (C) of subdivision (5) of [subsection (a) of] section 4-66aa, 137
as amended by this act, for the purposes of this section. The 138
commissioner shall report annually to the joint standing committee of 139
the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to the 140
environment on issues with respect to efforts undertaken pursuant to 141
the requirements of this section, including, but not limited to, the 142
amount of private matching funds received and expended by the 143
department. The commissioner may adopt, in accordance with chapter 144
54, such regulations as he deems necessary to carry out the purposes of 145
this section. 146
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)
Sec. 4 July 1, 2024 22-38a Substitute Bill No. 351
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Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
Section 4 was added to conform with the changes made in Section 2.
GAE Joint Favorable Subst. -LCO