CT Town Clerks- Updated

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Good news everyone! The municipal conveyance tax provision has been extended for another two years through June 30, 2010. Below is a copy of the complete bill. Joyce P. Mascena (Glastonbury), Chair, Legislative Committee & Patricia Strauss (Westport), Vice-Chair, Legislative Committee

General Assembly, Bill No. 1001, June 11 Special Session, 2008, LCO No. 6747, *06747__________*
Referred to Committee on No Committee, Introduced by: SEN. WILLIAMS, 29th Dist., REP. AMANN, 118th Dist.

AN ACT CONCERNING THE MUNICIPAL SHARE OF THE REAL ESTATE CONVEYANCE TAX.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Subsection (a) of section 12-494 of the 2008 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):

(a) There is imposed a tax on each deed, instrument or writing, whereby any lands, tenements or other realty is granted, assigned, transferred or otherwise conveyed to, or vested in, the purchaser, or any other person by his direction, when the consideration for the interest or property conveyed equals or exceeds two thousand dollars, (1) subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, at the rate of five-tenths of one per cent of the consideration for the interest in real property conveyed by such deed, instrument or writing, the revenue from which shall be remitted by the town clerk of the municipality in which such tax is paid, not later than ten days following receipt thereof, to the Commissioner of Revenue Services for deposit to the credit of the state General Fund, and (2) at the rate of one-fourth of one per cent of the consideration for the interest in real property conveyed by such deed, instrument or writing, and on and after July 1, [2008] 2010, at the rate of eleven one-hundredths of one per cent of the consideration for the interest in real property conveyed by such deed, instrument or writing, provided the amount imposed under this subdivision shall become part of the general revenue of the municipality in accordance with section 12-499.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections: Section 1, from passage 12-494(a)

FINANCE COMMITTEE VOTES TO MAINTAIN CONVEYANCE TAX INCREASE ANOTHER 2 YEARS; MORE LEGISLATIVE ACTION AHEAD.

The Legislature’s Finance Committee voted 29-to-21 last Wednesday to maintain the increased municipal conveyance tax for two years, expiring June 30, 2010. Current law will expire the increase on June 30, 2008.

This substitute bill will now go before the full House and Senate. This is a change from the original bill, which made the extra conveyance tax permanent. Instead, the Committee-approved bill extends the higher rates to June 30, 2010.

PLEASE…BE SURE TO RECOGNIZE THOSE LEGISLATORS WHO VOTED “YAY.” EXPRESS STRONG DISAPPOINTMENT TO LEGISLATORS WHO VOTED “NEA” (see Vote Tally Sheet below.)

Submitted by: Joyce Mascena, Chair and Patty Strauss, Vice-Chair, CTCA Legislative Committee

TOTALS	Voting		Yea		Nay		Abstain		Absent and Not Voting		Voice Vote
TOTALS	50		29		21		0		5

Sen. Daily, E. S33	X			Rep. Pawelkiewicz, W. 049	X
Rep. Staples, C. 096	X			Rep. Perone, C. 137			X
Sen. Nickerson, W. S36		X		Rep. Reinoso, F. 130			X
Rep. Miner, C. 066		X		Rep. Roldan, K. 004	X
Rep. Aldarondo, D. 075			X	Rep. Shapiro, J. 144		X
Rep. Altobello, E. 082		X		Rep. Sharkey, B. 088	X
Rep. Aresimowicz, J. 030	X			Sen. Stillman, A. S20	X
Rep. Barry, R. 012	X			Rep. Tallarita, K. 058	X
Rep. Bartlett, J. 002		X		Rep. Villano, P. 091	X
Rep. Berger, J. 073		X		Rep. Widlitz, P. 098	X
Rep. Butler, L. 072		X		Rep. Wright, E. 041	X
Rep. Christ, M. 011	X			Rep. Zalaski, B. 081	X
Sen. DeFronzo, D. S06	X			Rep. Alberts, M. 050	X
Rep. Dyson, W. 094			X	Rep. Caron, M. 044		X
Sen. Fonfara, J. S01	X			Rep. Carson, M. 108		X
Sen. Gaffey, T. S13	X			Rep. Floren, L. 149		X
Rep. Giannaros, D. 021		X		Rep. Frey, J. 111		X
Rep. Green, K. 001	X			Rep. Gibbons, L. 150		X
Rep. Hennessy, J. 127	X			Sen. Guglielmo, A. S35		X
Rep. Keeley, R. 129	X			Rep. Harkins, J. 120		X
Rep. Kehoe, T. 031	X			Sen. Herlihy, T. S08		X
Sen. LeBeau, G. S03	X			Rep. Hetherington, J. 125		X
Rep. Leone, C. 148	X			Rep. Klarides, T. 114		X
Rep. McCluskey, D. 020	X			Rep. Piscopo, J. 076		X
Sen. McDonald, A. S27	X			Sen. Roraback, A. S30		X
Rep. Moukawsher, E. 040	X			Rep. Ruwet, A. 065			X
Rep. Mushinsky, M. 085	X			Rep. Scribner, D. 107		X
Rep. O'Brien, T. 024	X

Hi all. The legislative sessions seems to be in full tilt already. We have been meeting with the committees that have or will raising our bills, namely Judiciary for our land record proposals & Finance for our vitals/sporting proposals, and any other related committees such as GAE, etc. We have also met with the House Speaker & Majority Leader as well as CATIC, CT Bar Association, Title Insurance Association, CT Bankers Association, CT Mortgage Bankers, CCM, the Public Records Administrator, Rep. Fontana and several independent title searchers.

We testified last Friday, 2/23, in front of the Judiciary Committee in regard to our land record proposals and submitted testimony Wednesday, 2/28, on ROVAC’s legislation, (in particular HB #1312, 7259, 7257 and 7261), SJ 5, an amendment to the State Constitution to remove restrictions on the categories of citizens who may vote by absentee, HB #5989, an act concerning the process for issuance of absentee ballots and HB #6251, an act authorizing election day registration.

We have posted an update of all of our proposed legislation language and the testimony that we have submitted thus far. Please take a moment to look all of it over and make yourself familiar with it. We have asked to amend our land record bill #7152 regarding the ¾” margin after negotiations with the CT Mortgage Bankers. The effective date has been pushed out to 10/1/2008 instead of 7/1/2008 to allow more time for their banks to bring their forms in compliance. The $10 per instrument non-confirming fee will remain the same. We also ask that you contact your State Senators and Representatives to voice your support for our land record bill #7152 and ask for their support when the bill comes up for a vote. Please also do the same for our vitals and certain other certifying fees and sporting license initiatives once they are raised, which we hope will be shortly. We will keep you posted. Your contact with the legislators for support is so important to our efforts.

The public hearing on our vitals, certain other certifying fees and sporting license legislation has yet to be scheduled, but we will keep you updated and we will be posting more as we get deeper in the session and as always if you have any questions or comments, please contact or Patty Strauss, Westport, or Joyce Mascena, Glastonbury, Legislative Co-Chairs.

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Posted 3/2/2007

Clarification of the Hartford Courant article on EDR 3/2/2007

To all Town Clerks:

In this morning’s Hartford Courant, an article discussing EDR (Election Day Registration) has misrepresented town clerks as opposing this concept. (Remember that same day registration will all but eliminate the need for Presidential Ballots.) Last Friday, February 23rd, our association submitted written testimony at the public hearing on this bill, HB 6251, which supports EDR. Should any clerk be asked about our view, we ask you to correct and confirm our support for Election Day Registration. Any feedback that you may receive from this article is appreciated.

Thank you.

Patty Strauss and Joyce Mascena

Legislative Committee Co‑chairs

Plans are all set for our legislative reception. We are hopeful that the Legislature will be in session on that date so we should have a great turnout. Please make every effort to be there representing your town and the association. Your attendance is very important to our efforts for two reasons. One, the legislators get to meet and talk with us directly establishing a personal connection so it gives their vote more meaning when the time comes and two, to keep vendor participation and sponsorship up. The vendors are there to talk with clerks more than they are legislators. Without clerks there, our vendor participation will decrease along with the sponsorship funds we count on to host the event. So again, please mark your calendars and make every effort to attend. Thanks for your anticipated support.

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One last item is the technology survey. If you have not returned your technology survey to Therese Pac in Bristol, please do so ASAP. It is posted on the CTCA website if you need a copy. We have been asked by the Judiciary Committee to submit the results to them as soon as possible. We however need 2 additional pieces of information for the survey. One is, “Do you provide at least one public search computer for the attorneys and title searchers to use?” and two, “How many public search computers do you provide?” If you have already submitted your survey, please get these 2 additional pieces of information to Therese via email. Thanks for your help with this.

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Good news! At the eleventh hour, one of our legislative proposals passed. Public Act 6-137 has been prepared and is waiting the governors signature. Governor Rell has until June 9th to sign the bill into law. We’ll keep you posted!

Public Act 6-137 is the campaign finance bill that passed at one minute before midnight on May 3rd. We are very pleased to find that our initiative to remove town clerks from the responsibility of instructing election officials prior to each election was included as one of the many ‘extentions’ to the bill (CGS Sec9-249a).

We will notify you again only if the Governor does not sign this bill into law. Otherwise, we may eliminate this duty from our list of elections responsibilities.

Patty Strauss, Town Clerk of Westport and Joyce Mascena, Town Clerk of Glastonbury, Legislative Committee Co-Chairs