Category: Library

1965 Constitutional Convention Legislative Record Index

The Connecticut Constitution 1965-2008: Legislative History of Amendments – by Hilary T. Frye, CT State Library, 2009

The Connecticut State Constitution – by Wesley W. Horton, Oxford University Press, 2015

Digest of Administrative Reports – annual compilation of reports from state agencies to the governor

Guides to media law, including freedom of information law – from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Lobbying, PACs, and Campaign Finance: 50 State Handbook – by SCG Legal, published by Thomson Reuters, 2016

McQuillin: The Law of Municipal Corporations – access through Westlaw.

Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure, 5^th ed. – by Ronald D. Rotunda, 2012-2013

CT election night reporting database – from the Secretary of the State. Covers 2016-present. Start by choosing an election in the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.

CT election results archive – from the Secretary of the State. Covers 1787-present.

CT General Assembly members – from the CT State Library. Covers House 1849-present and Senate 1776-present.

CT lobbyist lists – from the Office of State Ethics. (See also the library’s guide to looking up lobbyists.)

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas (from HeinOnline): “With more than 900 unique titles and 900,000 pages dedicated to American Indian Law, this collection includes an expansive archive of treaties, federal statutes and regulations, federal case law, tribal codes, constitutions, and jurisprudence.” Access from anywhere with a Connecticut State Library card.

NCSL Ballot Measures Database – from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tracks statewide ballot measures from 1892-present.

NCSL Campaign Finance Legislation Database – from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tracks legislation from 2015-present.

NCSL Elections Legislation Database – from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tracks legislation from 2011-present.

NCSL Ethics and Lobbying Law and Legislation Database – from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tracks legislation from 2010-present.

NCSL Statewide Tribal Legislation Database – from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tracks legislation from 2010-present.

Government Technology – e.Republic; electronic and print subscription.

Public Administration Review – American Society of Public Administration; print subscription.

State and Local Government Review – SAGE Publications; print subscription.

State Ethics Commission Advisory Opinions – Office of State Ethics; electronic and print subscription.

State agencies

Auditors of Public Accounts

Dept. of Administrative Services

Secretary of the State – elections and voting

 

State boards, commissions, and task forces

State Contracting Standards Board

State Elections Enforcement Commission

Office of State Ethics and Citizens’ Ethics Advisory Board

Freedom of Information Commission

 

Federal government

U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)

Federal Election Commission (FEC)

 

Other organizations

Connecticut Foundation for Open Government (CFOG)

Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL)

Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM)

 

Other online resources

A Look Back at 2020 in State Government – Legislative Library research guide from the 2020 OLR Issues Conference

Connecticut ordinances and charters by town – from the Judicial Branch Law Libraries

Recent Connecticut Appellate Court and Supreme Court freedom of information law opinions – from the Judicial Branch Law Libraries

Connecticut election law – research guide by the Judicial Branch Law Libraries

Connecticut law about freedom of information – research guide by the Judicial Branch Law Libraries

CGA 2021 Redistricting Project

UConn Center for Voting Technology Research

LexisNexis U.S. Voting Laws & Legislation Center

The Office of Legislative Research writes nonpartisan reports for legislators on various topics. Recent reports related to the Government Administration and Elections Committee’s subject areas include:

Gubernatorial Lines of Succession – 2025-R-0055

Amendments to the Connecticut Constitution Since the 1955 Revision – 2025-R-0037

Public & Special Acts Affecting Connecticut Native American Tribes, 1992-2024 – 2025-R-0004

Vacancies in the United States Senate – 2024-R-0160

Acts Affecting Connecticut Native American Tribes, 1992-2024 – 2024-R-0150

Ballot Question and Explanatory Text for 2024 Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Absentee Voting – 2024-R-0145

Legal State Holidays – 2024-R-0011

Absentee Voting Process and Voter Identification Requirements – 2024-R-0112

2024 Acts Affecting Town Clerks and Elections – 2024-R-0094

Minors Voting in Municipal Elections – 2024-R-0080

2024 Conveyance Legislation Reported Favorably by GAE Committee – 2024-R-0075

 

 

1. Call the library!

We can save you time by finding lobbyists’ names and contact information for you – please don’t hesitate to ask us for help. (Also, if you are looking to contact a lobbyist for factual information about a company or organization, remember that the library has access to databases with in-depth information on businesses and nonprofits, and we may be able to answer your question.)

If you want to search for lobbyist information on your own, here are the main sources and methods we use.

 

2. Office of State Ethics lobbyist lists

The Office of State Ethics registers lobbyists for each biennium (two-year period consisting of a long session and short session). Lobbyists can register at any time before they begin lobbying in a given biennium.

The Legislative Library periodically saves the most comprehensive of the OSE’s lobbyist lists for archival purposes, and about once a year we upload the latest version of this list to our intranet catalog; but because lobbyist information can change at any time, the best way to be certain you are getting current information is to visit the OSE lobbyist reports webpage each time you need to look up a lobbyist.

There are a few ways to find lobbyist information using the tools on the OSE webpage. Here are two methods.

Method #1:

• The final report on the OSE webpage’s list is Combined Lobbyist List by Registrant with Type of Lobbying and Issues. Click on the first of the two small green icons to the right of the report title. This will download a large Excel file; the download will probably take a minute or two. Once the download is complete, open the file. Use CTRL-F (or ⌘-F on a Mac) to search for the name (or part of the name) of the organization you are looking for. Keep looking through the results for your search term until you get through the whole document; there may be in-house lobbyists as well as lobbyists who represent the organization’s interests as employees of an outside firm or as individuals, and their names may be scattered throughout the document. Note that this list includes telephone numbers.
• Once you have a lobbyist’s name, you can find their email address by looking them up in a separate list. Click on Communicator Lobbyist List, the first report on the OSE webpage. Click on the first of the two small green icons to the right of the report title to download an Excel file. Lobbyists are listed alphabetically by last name in this spreadsheet.
• It is also worth looking at the Communicator Lobbyist List’s Status column, which shows whether a lobbyist’s registration has terminated or is incomplete.

Method #2:

• Click on Lobbyist Filings near the top right of the OSE reports webpage to get to an interactive query page. Select the current year in the Registration Period drop-down menu. Type the name (or part of the name) of the organization into the Client Name box. Then, click the Search button. Select a report from the list that appears and click the View Report button. This will download a PDF file that includes contact information.

 

3. When searches using a company or organization name don’t yield results

• If you can’t find lobbyists using the organization’s name, try some keywords related to the organization’s industry or policy area. The organization may be part of a larger trade group or coalition.
• Consider whether the organization might be a subsidiary of a larger entity; if so, try that parent organization’s name as a search term.
• The organization may not be represented by a lobbyist in Connecticut. Depending on your situation, it may be appropriate to look on the organization’s website for other potential contacts, such as public relations people.

 

4. Client lobbyist, communicator lobbyist, business organization, in-house communicator – what do all these terms mean?

According to the Office of State Ethics:

 A Client Lobbyist is the party paying for lobbying services on its behalf.  In other words, the client lobbyist is expending or agreeing to expend the threshold amount of $3,000 in a calendar year.

 A Communicator Lobbyist receives payment and does the actual lobbying legwork (i.e., communicating).  A Communicator Lobbyist receives or agrees to receive $3,000 for lobbying activities in a calendar year.  Communicator Lobbyists can take different forms:

1. Individual
2. Member of a Business Organization (e.g., a firm or association that employs a number of communicator lobbyists)
3. In-house Communicator (a lobbyist who is a salaried employee of a Client Lobbyist)

 Source: http://www.ct.gov/ethics/cwp/view.asp?a=3523&q=417096

1. Call the library!

We have a lot of experience finding and compiling these surveys and can save you time. Please don’t hesitate to ask us for help. If you are curious how we do it or want to explore on your own, though, what follows are a few of the many sources we use for multi-state surveys.

2. OLR Reports

The Legislative Library’s unofficial motto is “all research starts with OLR Reports,” and multi-state surveys are no exception. Reports from 1994 to the present are accessible electronically through the advanced legislative document search. In the fourth column at the bottom of that page, check “OLR Reports.” Then, in the Document Text search field, enter your search terms. You can use the drop-down menu immediately to the right of your Document Text search field to select one or more years to search. If you are doing historical research, the library has OLR Reports prior to 1994 in hard copy, indexed by subject.

3. The National Conference of State Legislatures

NCSL’s website has a multitude of pages devoted to tracking state laws in various areas. Its Legisbrief series and State Legislatures magazine often produce 50-state surveys with color-coded maps. For legislators and staff, NCSL’s subject experts can also compile new surveys upon request; the library can contact these experts for you.

4. Nyberg’s Subject Compilations of State Laws

Librarian Cheryl Nyberg of the University of Washington has been compiling this annual bibliography of 50-state surveys for decades. It is published by HeinOnline, a database accessible with a Connecticut State Library card. Subject Compilations of State Laws indexes surveys by more than 1200 subjects, and you can also search the full text of the bibliography.

5. National Survey of State Laws

This publication produces 50-state surveys on a variety of subjects. Like the Subject Compilations of State Laws, it is accessible with a Connecticut State Library card through HeinOnline.

6. The Book of the States

The Council of State Governments publishes this book electronically each year. It is particularly useful for answering questions about how state governments work – for example, questions about constitutions, legislative process, elections, and state finance.

7. Journal articles

Articles in law journals and other academic journals can include valuable information comparing state laws, or even full 50-state surveys in their tables or appendices. Nyberg’s bibliography covers many of these articles, but a search of articles through a database such as HeinOnline, Westlaw, or Academic Search Premier can turn up a new source.

8. Westlaw

Westlaw has compiled a variety of 50-state surveys of statutes and regulations. It is also possible to create a survey from scratch using Westlaw’s statute and regulation texts.

9. Final step: quality check

Look for the date the survey was compiled. If it is recent enough to be useful to you, then test the information’s quality. One way to do this is to closely examine what it says about Connecticut. Consider whether the information given matches up with what you already know about Connecticut law on the topic, and whether it includes all the relevant Connecticut statute or regulation sections.

Bond authorizations available for allocation – annual report by the Office of Fiscal Analysis

By the Numbers briefs – series on state tax revenues by the Rockefeller Institute of Government

Community benefits provided by tax-exempt hospitals in Connecticut (2019 to 2022)Community benefits provided by tax-exempt hospitals in Connecticut (2019 to 2022) – published by the CT Hospital Association, 2025

Connecticut municipal budget adoption experiences – annual report by the CT Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

Connecticut’s financial support to municipalitiesConnecticut’s financial support to municipalities – by the Office of Policy and Management, 2017

Cost and distributional analysis of CT’s film industry tax creditsCost and distributional analysis of CT’s film industry tax credits – by CT Voices for Children, 2024

Economic impact of Connecticut’s digital media and motion picture tax credit, digital animation production company tax credit and the infrastructure tax creditEconomic impact of Connecticut’s digital media and motion picture tax credit, digital animation production company tax credit and the infrastructure tax credit – published by the Office of Film, Television, and Digital Media, 2022

Facts and figures: how does your state compare? – annual report by the Tax Foundation

Governor’s Transportation Finance Panel final report, 2016: reportreport, presentationpresentation, attachmentsattachments, tablestables

Measuring municipal fiscal disparities in Connecticut: a report to the Connecticut General Assembly’s Program Review and Investigations Committee – by Bo Zhao, New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 2015: reportreport, presentationpresentation, tablestables

Projecting economic impacts of legalizing marijuana in ConnecticutProjecting economic impacts of legalizing marijuana in Connecticut – by the CT Center for Economic Analysis, 2020

State business tax climate index – annual report by the Tax Foundation

Supporting the economic well-being of Connecticut’s families and children: an overview of the CT child tax creditSupporting the economic well-being of Connecticut’s families and children: an overview of the CT child tax credit – by CT Voices for Children, 2024

The value of tax exemption and community benefits among tax-exempt hospitals in Connecticut (2021 to 2022)The value of tax exemption and community benefits among tax-exempt hospitals in Connecticut (2021 to 2022) – published by the CT Hospital Association, 2025

Please note this is not an exhaustive list. Contact the library for these and other reports.

Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Trust annual report – by the Office of the State Treasurer; pursuant to CGS 3-39k

Adjusted payments regarding Connecticut programs of tax relief for elderly homeowners and grants to elderly renters – annual report by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 12-170bb

Advance notification of municipal road work to gas, water and other utility companiesAdvance notification of municipal road work to gas, water and other utility companies – by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to PA 22-118 s.462

Ambulatory surgical centers tax (impact of the gross receipts tax on ambulatory surgical centers)Ambulatory surgical centers tax (impact of the gross receipts tax on ambulatory surgical centers) – by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to PA 16-3 (May) s.197

Angel tax credit program – annual report by CT Innovations Inc.; pursuant to CGS 12-704d(g)

Best practices for municipal retirement plansBest practices for municipal retirement plans – by the Office of the State Comptroller, Office of Policy and Management, and Office of the State Treasurer; pursuant to PA 23-182 s.6

Brainard Airport property study – published by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to CGS 32-9x (PA 22-118 s.426)

Certified aerospace manufacturing projects – triennial report by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to CGS 32-4n(g)(2)

Chief medical examiner facilities and Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health Center parking – quarterly report by the Dept. of Administrative Services; pursuant to PA 23-205 s.112

Cliff Retirements Adding Efficiency, Accountability, and Technology to Economize State Government (CREATES) report – by the Boston Consulting Group; pursuant to PA 18-81 s.57
report   accompanying materials   project summary

Code official training and education fund – annual report by the Dept. of Administrative Services; pursuant to CGS 29-251c(e)

Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth final reportCommission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth final report – pursuant to PA 17-2 (June) s.250

Compliance with the Railroad Tax Exemption Program – annual report by the Dept. of Transportation; pursuant to CGS 13b-230

Consensus revenue estimates – report three times a year by the Office of Policy and Management and Office of Fiscal Analysis; pursuant to CGS 2-36c

CT Pension Sustainability Commission final reportCT Pension Sustainability Commission final report – pursuant to PA 17-2 s.180 June

Dept. of Economic and Community Development annual report – pursuant to CGS 32-1m

Dept. of Economic and Community Development annual reports evaluation – periodic report by the Auditors of Public Accounts; pursuant to CGS 2-90c

Estimates of state formula aid to municipalities – annual report by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 4-71b

Fiscal accountability report – annual report by the Office of Fiscal Analysis; pursuant to CGS 2-36b

Fiscal accountability report – annual report by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 2-36b

Food insecurity strategic planFood insecurity strategic plan – by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to PA 23-204 s.158

Historic rehabilitation tax credit report – annual report by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to CGS 10-416c(j)

Interstate tax collection enforcementInterstate tax collection enforcement – by the Office of the Attorney General and Dept. of Revenue Services; pursuant to PA 22-117 s.34

Motor Vehicle Tax Task Force final reportMotor Vehicle Tax Task Force final report – pursuant to SA 23-24

Office of Film, Television & Digital Media annual activity report – by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to CGS 32-1p

Open space report to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and the State Bond Commission – monthly report by the Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection; pursuant to CGS 22a-6v

Options for measuring municipal fiscal capacityOptions for measuring municipal fiscal capacity – by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to PA 19-117 s.367

Pilot program to allow for assessment of commercial property based on occupant’s net profits (alternative method of assessment for commercial properties) – annual report by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 12-63i(c)

Prototype model school building program reportPrototype model school building program report – by the School Building Projects Advisory Council; pursuant to PA 17-2 s.223 June

Public works construction projects with estimated costs more than $10,000 and funding from proceeds of state general obligation bonds – annual report by the Dept. of Administrative Services; pursuant to CGS 3-21d

Recommendations for the prevention of cannabis use in youthRecommendations for the prevention of cannabis use in youth – published by the Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services; pursuant to PA 21-1 s.65 June

Regional performance incentive program (RPI) annual report – by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 4-124s(e)

Regional Services Grant annual reports – by each regional council of government; pursuant to CGS 4-66r

State laws governing the sales and use tax, personal income tax, and corporation business taxState laws governing the sales and use tax, personal income tax, and corporation business tax – by the Dept. of Revenue Services; pursuant to SA 16-14 s.1

State-wide trends related to taxable property and exemptions from property tax on the grand list – annual report by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 12-120a

Status of the procurement of body scanning machines for use in correctional facilitiesStatus of the procurement of body scanning machines for use in correctional facilities – by the Dept. of Correction; pursuant to PA 23-12 s.2

Tax expenditure report – biennial report by the Office of Fiscal Analysis; pursuant to CGS 12-7b(e)

Tax incidence study – biennial report by the Dept. of Revenue Services; pursuant to CGS 12-7c

Theatrical production tax credit – annual report by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to CGS 10-419

Unused R&D tax credit legislative recommendationsUnused R&D tax credit legislative recommendations – by the Dept. of Economic and Community Development; pursuant to SA 16-21

Youth development organization tax credit program – by the Office of Policy and Management; pursuant to CGS 12-217rr