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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 1522
January Session, 2025
LCO No. 4172
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
AN ACT RENAMING THE COMMUNITY INVESTMENT ACCOUNT THE
DONALD E. WILLIAMS, JR. COMMUNITY INVESTMENT ACCOUNT
AND INCREASING FUNDING FOR SAID ACCOUNT.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 4-66aa of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2025): 2
[(a)] There is established, within the General Fund, a separate, 3
nonlapsing account to be known as the ["community investment 4
account"] "Donald E. Williams, Jr. community investment account". The 5
account shall contain any moneys required by law to be deposited in the 6
account. The funds in the account shall be distributed every three 7
months as follows: (1) Ten dollars of each fee credited to said account 8
shall be deposited into the agriculture sustainability account established 9
pursuant to section 4-66cc and, then, of the remaining funds, (2) twenty-10
five per cent to the Department of Economic and Community 11
Development to use as follows: (A) Three hundred eighty thousand 12
dollars, annually, to supplement the technical assistance and 13
preservation activities of the Connecticut Trust for Historic 14
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Preservation, established pursuant to special act 75-93, and (B) the 15
remainder to supplement historic preservation activities as provided in 16
sections 10-409 to 10-415, inclusive; (3) twenty-five per cent to the 17
Department of Housing to supplement new or existing affordable 18
housing programs; (4) twenty-five per cent to the Department of Energy 19
and Environmental Protection for municipal open space grants; and (5) 20
twenty-five per cent to the Department of Agriculture to use as follows: 21
(A) Five hundred thousand dollars annually for the agricultural 22
viability grant program established pursuant to section 22-26j; (B) five 23
hundred thousand dollars annually for the farm transition program 24
established pursuant to section 22-26k; (C) one hundred thousand 25
dollars annually to encourage the sale of Connecticut-grown food to 26
schools, restaurants, retailers and other institutions and businesses in 27
the state; (D) seventy-five thousand dollars annually for the Connecticut 28
farm link program established pursuant to section 22-26l; (E) forty-29
seven thousand five hundred dollars annually for the Seafood Advisory 30
Council established pursuant to section 22-455; (F) forty-seven thousand 31
five hundred dollars annually for the Connecticut Farm Wine 32
Development Council established pursuant to section 22-26c; (G) 33
twenty-five thousand dollars annually to the Connecticut Food Policy 34
Council established pursuant to section 22-456; and (H) the remainder 35
for farmland preservation programs pursuant to chapter 422. Each 36
agency receiving funds under this section may use not more than ten 37
per cent of such funds for administration of the programs for which the 38
funds were provided. 39
[(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, 40
fifty per cent of the moneys deposited in the community investment 41
account from January 1, 2016, until June 30, 2017, shall be credited every 42
three months to the resources of the General Fund, provided the funds 43
remaining in the account shall be distributed as provided in subsection 44
(a) of this section.] 45
Sec. 2. Subsection (e) of section 7-34a of the general statutes is 46
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 47
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2025): 48
(e) In addition to the fees for recording a document under subsection 49
(a) of this section, town clerks shall receive a fee of [forty] forty-six 50
dollars for each document recorded in the land records of the 51
municipality. The town clerk shall retain [one dollar] two dollars of any 52
fee paid pursuant to this subsection and three dollars of such fee shall 53
become part of the general revenue of the municipality and be used to 54
pay for local capital improvement projects, as defined in section 7-536. 55
Not later than the fifteenth day of each month, town clerks shall remit 56
[thirty-six] forty-two dollars of the fees paid pursuant to this subsection 57
during the previous calendar month to the State Treasurer. Upon 58
deposit in the General Fund, such amount shall be credited to the 59
Donald E. Williams, Jr. community investment account established 60
pursuant to section 4-66aa, as amended by this act. The provisions of 61
this subsection shall not apply to any document recorded on the land 62
records by an employee of the state or of a municipality in conjunction 63
with such employee's official duties. As used in this subsection, 64
"municipality" includes each town, consolidated town and city, city, 65
consolidated town and borough, borough, and district, as defined in 66
chapter 105 or 105a, any municipal corporation or department thereof 67
created by a special act of the General Assembly, and each municipal 68
board, commission and taxing district not previously mentioned. 69
Sec. 3. Subsection (h) of section 49-10 of the general statutes is 70
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 71
2025): 72
(h) Notwithstanding the provisions concerning remittance and 73
retention of fees set forth in section 7-34a, as amended by this act, the 74
recording fees paid in accordance with subsections (a), (d) and (e) of 75
[said] section 7-34a, as amended by this act, by a nominee of a 76
mortgagee, as defined in subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of [said] 77
section 7-34a, shall be allocated as follows: (1) For fees collected upon a 78
recording by a nominee of a mortgagee, except for the recording of (A) 79
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an assignment of mortgage in which the nominee of a mortgagee 80
appears as assignor, and (B) a release of mortgage, as described in 81
section 49-8, by a nominee of a mortgagee, the town clerk shall remit one 82
hundred ten dollars of such fees to the state, such fees shall be deposited 83
into the General Fund and, upon deposit in the General Fund, [thirty-84
six] forty-two dollars of such fees shall be credited to the Donald E. 85
Williams, Jr. community investment account established pursuant to 86
section 4-66aa, as amended by this act; the town clerk shall retain [forty-87
nine] fifty dollars of such fees, thirty-nine dollars of which shall become 88
part of the general revenue of such municipality and [ten] eleven dollars 89
of which shall be deposited into the town clerk fund; and the town clerk 90
shall retain any fees for additional pages beyond the first page in 91
accordance with the provisions of subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of 92
[said] section 7-34a; and (2) for the fee collected upon a recording of (A) 93
an assignment of mortgage in which the nominee appears as assignor, 94
or (B) a release of mortgage by a nominee of a mortgagee, the town clerk 95
shall remit one hundred twenty-seven dollars of such fee to the state, 96
such fee shall be deposited into the General Fund and, upon deposit in 97
the General Fund, [thirty-six] forty-two dollars of such fee shall be 98
credited to the Donald E. Williams, Jr. community investment account, 99
[and, until October 1, 2014, sixty dollars of such fee shall be credited to 100
the State Banking Fund for purposes of funding the foreclosure 101
mediation program established by section 49-31m;] and the town clerk 102
shall retain [thirty-two] thirty-three dollars of such fee, which shall 103
become part of the general revenue of such municipality. 104
Sec. 4. Section 22-38a of the general statutes is repealed and the 105
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2025): 106
The Commissioner of Agriculture shall establish and administer a 107
program to promote the marketing of farm products grown and 108
produced in Connecticut for the purpose of encouraging the 109
development of agriculture in the state. The commissioner may, within 110
available appropriations, provide a grant-in-aid to any person, firm, 111
partnership or corporation engaged in the promotion and marketing of 112
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such farm products, provided the words "CONNECTICUT-GROWN" 113
or "CT-Grown" are clearly incorporated in such promotional and 114
marketing activities. The commissioner shall (1) provide for the design, 115
plan and implementation of a multiyear, state-wide marketing and 116
advertising campaign, including, but not limited to, television and radio 117
advertisements, promoting the availability of, and advantages of 118
purchasing, Connecticut-grown farm products, (2) establish and 119
continuously update a web site connected with such advertising 120
campaign that includes, but is not limited to, a comprehensive listing of 121
Connecticut farmers' markets, pick-your-own farms, roadside and on-122
farm markets, farm wineries, garden centers and nurseries selling 123
predominantly Connecticut-grown horticultural products and agri-124
tourism events and attractions, and (3) conduct efforts to promote 125
interaction and business relationships between farmers and restaurants, 126
grocery stores, institutional cafeterias and other potential institutional 127
purchasers of Connecticut-grown farm products, including, but not 128
limited to, (A) linking farmers and potential purchasers through a 129
separate feature of the web site established pursuant to this section, and 130
(B) organizing state-wide or regional events promoting Connecticut-131
grown farm products, where farmers and potential institutional 132
customers are invited to participate. The commissioner shall use his best 133
efforts to solicit cooperation and participation from the farm, corporate, 134
retail, wholesale and grocery communities in such advertising, Internet-135
related and event planning efforts, including, but not limited to, 136
soliciting private sector matching funds. The commissioner shall use all 137
of the funds provided to the Department of Agriculture pursuant to 138
subparagraph (C) of subdivision (5) of [subsection (a) of] section 4-66aa, 139
as amended by this act, for the purposes of this section. The 140
commissioner shall report annually to the joint standing committee of 141
the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to the 142
environment on issues with respect to efforts undertaken pursuant to 143
the requirements of this section, including, but not limited to, the 144
amount of private matching funds received and expended by the 145
department. The commissioner may adopt, in accordance with chapter 146
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54, such regulations as he deems necessary to carry out the purposes of 147
this section. 148
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2025 4-66aa
Sec. 2 July 1, 2025 7-34a(e)
Sec. 3 July 1, 2025 49-10(h)
Sec. 4 July 1, 2025 22-38a
Statement of Purpose:
To increase the funding for the community investment account by
raising the fees charged, to rename said account the Donald E. Williams,
Jr. community investment account and to increase the fees remitted to
town clerks by one dollar.
[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.]