1. (a) The department is authorized to (1) promote and assist the formation of municipal or regional economic development commissions under sections 7-136 and 7-137, or any other provision of the general statutes or any special act; and (2) make available technical and financial assistance to any municipal or regional economic development commission, regional economic development corporation or a regional council of governments organized under sections 4-124i to 4-124p, inclusive. Such financial assistance may be provided to expand or establish the capacity for planning and implementation of regional economic development, including, but not limited to, business retention and recruitment, infrastructure enhancement, labor force development and financial credit availability. Financial assistance may be used for strategic economic development plans, establishment of regional economic databases, regional marketing for business retention and recruitment, coordination of economic development efforts with regional, local, state and federal agencies, surveys, land use studies, site development plans and for any other functions of economic development commissions as set forth in said sections 7-136 and 7-137 or any other provision of the general statutes or any special act.
2. (b) Such financial assistance, if any, shall be rendered upon such contractual arrangements as may be agreed upon by the department and the eligible applicant in accordance with their respective needs.

3. (c) Applications for financial assistance shall be submitted to the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development at such times and on such forms as the commissioner may prescribe. Each such application shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

   1. (1) Documentation that the applicant has staff with expertise in regional economic development to prepare an effective plan to market its services through such entities as chambers of commerce, industry trade associations, banks, local development corporations, community-based organizations and industrial development agencies; (2) a description of the applicant including its organization, membership, staff and sources of other funds, if any; (3) identification of the geographic region to be served; and (4) a description of the means for coordinating financial assistance available under this section with financial assistance available from other public and private funding sources within the region.

4. (d) The commissioner shall approve financial assistance on the basis of:

   1. (1) The ability of the applicant to administer the financial assistance authorized under this section; (2) the extent of coordination with other publicly and privately supported financial assistance programs available within the region represented by the applicant; and (3) the degree of public and private support within the region for the applicant.

See Sec. 8-154a et seq. re contracts for state financial assistance.

See Sec. 8-161 re assistance toward preparation of capital improvements program.

(November, 1955, S. N178; 1959, P.A. 448; 1961, P.A. 27; February, 1965, P.A. 492, S. 3; 1967, P.A. 522, S. 33; 1969, P.A. 628, S. 17; 1971, P.A. 67, S. 1; P.A. 73-599, S. 22; 73-616, S. 32; P.A. 92-150; P.A. 95-250, S. 1; P.A. 96-211, S. 1, 5, 6; P.A. 13-247, S. 305.)

History: 1959 act added “or redefine” to Subdiv. (a) and changed planning “authorities” to planning “agencies” in Subdiv. (b); 1961 act added capital improvement programming, renewal and development to purposes, changed “local” to “municipal” and added development and industrial or redevelopment agencies to Subdivs. (b) and (c); 1965 act specified commission's power to receive and accept funds from any source; 1967 act deleted authority to insure proper utilization of zoning police powers and renewal of substandard, obsolescent or blighted areas, to promote and assist formation of municipal planning, zoning or redevelopment agencies or commissions and other duties and powers re such agencies, substituting for these general reference to “sound state or interregional” planning, deleted references to chapters 124, 126 and 130 and deleted commission's power to adopt regulations re qualifications of community planners; 1969 act deleted commission's duty “to insure the economic and orderly development of the state” through specified means, deleted authority to define or redefine “logical economic and planning regions of the state”, to provide assistance to regional agencies for regional plans of development and to prepare and recommend state-wide or interregional plans, deleted reference to chapter 127 and replaced references to regional planning or economic development agencies with references to municipal or regional economic development commissions; 1971 act included assistance to regional councils of elected officials in Subsec. (1)(b); P.A. 73-599 replaced Connecticut development commission with department of commerce, here referred to as “the department” (P.A. 77-614 replaced commerce department with department of economic development); P.A. 73-616 added reference to regional councils of elected officials in Subsec. (2) for consistency with change enacted in P.A. 73-599; P.A. 92-150 made technical changes replacing numeric Subsec. designations with alphabetical designations and amended Subsec. (a) by expanding agencies eligible for assistance, amended Subsec. (b) to make the commissioner solely responsible for determining contractual arrangements, and added Subsecs. (c) re applications and (d) establishing criteria for approval of financial assistance; P.A. 95-250 and P.A. 96-211 replaced Commissioner and Department of Economic Development with Commissioner and Department of Economic and Community Development; P.A. 13-247 amended Subsec. (a) by deleting references to regional planning agency and regional council of elected officials and making a conforming change, effective January 1, 2015.