Legislative History for Connecticut Act PA 16-93 SB333 Senate 934-951 18 Gov. Admin. & 1364, 1370-1378 10 Elections Higher 737-789, 800-850 104 Education & Employment House Transcripts have not been received. They are available 132 on CGA website, but are not the Official copy. Contact House Clerk for assistance (860) 240-0400 Transcripts from the Joint Standing Committee Public Hearing(s) and/or Senate and House of Representatives Proceedings Connecticut State Library Compiled 2017 S - 693 CONNECTICUT GENERAL ASSEMBLY SENATE PROCEEDINGS 2016 VOL. 59 PART 3 679 – 1032 000934 cf 256 SENATE April 20, 2016 0 On Page 8, Calendar 265, Senate Bill Number 333, AN ACT CONCERNING THE FOUNDATION OF CONSTITUENT UNITS AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION. There are amendments. THE CHAIR: Senator Bartolomeo. SENATOR BARTOLOMEO (13TH) : Yes, hi Madam President. I move acceptance of the Joint Committee's joint favorable report and I urge passage of this bill, please. THE CHAIR: Motions on acceptance and passage. Will you remark? 0 SENATOR BARTOLOMEO (13TH) : Yes. Thank you, Madam President. This bill is is relevant to the UConn foundation and it does a variety of things, but first I would like to, if I might, have the clerk please call LCO Number 4488, which is an Amendment and that I be given leave to summarize, please. THE CHAIR: Mr. Clerk. THE CLERK: LCO Number 4488, Senate "A" offered by Senators ~rtolo~eo, Witkqs, and Looney. 0 000935 cf 257 SENATE April 20, 2016 c THE CHAIR: Senator Bartolomeo. SENATOR BARTOLOMEO (13TH) : Madam President, I move adoption of this amendment please. THE CHAIR: Motions on adoption. Will you remark, Ma'am? Yes, thank you. The Amendment clarifies that the bill is no longer relevant to any of the Board of Regent constituent units of higher education but it is relevant to UConn -- only the UConn foundation only, as well as it adds a provision that all of the stipulations are prospective and that any donors who have previously donated would not be affected by this legislation. So, with that, I do ask for 0 approval of this amendment please. THE CHAIR: Will you remark on the Amendment? Will you remark on the Amendment? Senator McLachlan. SENATOR MCLACHLAN (24TH) : Thank you, Madam Chairman. I stand for purpose of questions to the proponent of the Amendment. THE CHAIR: Please proceed, sir. SENATOR MCLACHLAN (24TH) : 0 000936 cf 258 SENATE April 20, 2016 0 Thank you, Madam President. Senator Bartolomeo, can you share with us the reason for eliminating so many parts of higher education in Connecticut? THE CHAIR: Senator Bartolomeo. SENATOR BARTOLOMEO (13TH) : Yes sir, thank you. Through you, Madam President. The reason is that uconn's foundation endowment stands out well above and beyond those of any of the other Connec,ticut State Universities or Community Colleges and the thought was that the provisions in this bill are most relevant to that university due to the size of their endowment. Through you, Madam President. 0 THE CHAIR: Senator McLachlan. SENATOR MCLACHLAN (24TH) : Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Senator Bartolomeo. THE CHAIR: Thank you. Will you remark further? Will you remark further? If not, I'll try your minds. All those in favor of Senate "A", please say aye. SENATORS: Aye. 000937 cf 259 SENATE April 20, 2016 0 THE CHAIR: Opposed? Senate "A" passes. Senator Bartolomeo. SENATOR MCLACHLAN (24TH) : Yes, thank you, Madam President. So the -- the underlying bill as now amended does a variety of things. It creates a step down in the state funding with the goal of the foundation ultimately becoming self-sufficient in its funding. Currently, the state funds $8 Million a year into this foundation, which is then leveraged to draw additional donations. The decrease in state funding would be by $1 Million when the endowment is between $500 Million and $700 Million. I should state that it is currently at $360 Million. The decrease is then by an additional $1.5 Million when the endowment is between $700 and 0 $900 Million and the -- it decreases further, $3 Million when the endowment is between $900 and $1.25 Billion and then, no state funding at all was -­ will be contributed to the foundation when they're endowment is at least equal to or greater than $1.25 Billion. It also establishes a goal that each year, the Foundation would use at least 15 percent of their total gifts and funds raised in order to go towards student financial aid. It increases transparency and accountability for the foundation by establishing guidelines that -- for reporting. It asks that there be submitted two annual reports rather than just one and it also says that the the report will constitute a public record and will be disclosed in accordance with FOI-Act. 0 000938 cf 260 SENATE April 20, 2016 c It asks also to be reported any faculty staff or members of UConn whose salary in any portion, all the way up through their entire salary is contributed to, by the foundation. But it also includes an opt-out provision so that if a donor feels very strongly that they would not want their information to be made public about their donations that they do have the ability to do that. So, with that, Madam President, I would like to just say thank you to the ranking member, Senator Witkos, on the Higher Education Committee. He worked very, very hard on this, with us, and I would urge adoption and passage, please. THE CHAIR: Will you remark further on the bill? Senator Witkos. 0 SENATOR WITKOS (8TH) : Thank you, Madam President. I also rise and want to thank a few people that participated in the product that we have before us today and I -- it starts off with Senator Bartolomeo, Senator Looney, Senator Cassano, Senator McLachlan, all the folks at the UConn Foundation and the University of Connecticut, Joanne and Gail who give countless hours and have answered every call that I've had regarding requests, and I think this is a product that we can all be proud of. Senator Flexer was participated as was Representative Haddad, who represent the University of Connecticut. And I think we're finally at a good place with the University and the foundation that we can finally put this issue to bed about questions on how the 0 000939 cf 261 SENATE April 20, 2016 0 University raises its money, how it spends its money, what is disclosable to the public. And I will share with you, Madam President, was back on October 2nd, 1964, when five private citizens decided to form a foundation to raise money for the University of Connecticut back when it was an agricultural school. It was not state government that did that. They did that on their own. Private citizens. And the foundation solely exists to promote and support the University through its raising of private funds. These funds are used to provide scholarships, fellowships, and other forms of financial assistance to the students. They also provide for support for endowed chairs, professionals, professorships, to teach, to conduct research, professional development, throughout all of uconn's schools and colleges. Imagine in 1995, 0 the endowment at that level at the University of Connecticut was $49.4 Million, and just 11 years later, we're at $369.4 Million. Kudos to the folks that have worked so aggressively to raise the endowment level so all the students and professors and faculty that attend the university benefit from that. You know, we -- there's been many conversations about the University of Connecticut and whether it should be considered as a -- as a public agency and not as far as the FOI laws are concerned, and I will share with you that the current laws state that a foundation is a tax exempt organization that supports a state agency -- and there's rules or regulations governing it and they actually explicitly have five of them. One is, it must have a governing board and all of uconn's members on the 0 000940 cf 262 SENATE April 20, 2016 board are volunteers. Must have a written agreement finalizing the relationship or formalizing the relationship. There's payment of compensation requires executive authority. There is an audit in which receipts or interest earns -- interest earnings exceed $100,000 and there's written policies regarding the allegations of corruption and -- and whistleblowing. Connecticut and Massachusetts are the only New England states that has a statutory requirement for university-related foundations to make issues public. Massachusetts only requires that their annual audit be made public. We do that already at the University of Connecticut. Connecticut under the current language that's in our statutes, we exceed that already. In fact, the Office of Legislative Research issued a report, Madam President, and they compared the University of 0 Connecticut to four universities outside the New England area. They looked at Florida State, Ohio State, Georgia, and Iowa State. And they looked at a couple different things to determine whether or not the University of Connecticut Foundation was exempt from the FOI laws versus the other communities, and under the University Employees that vote, they all allow their employees to vote. At the University of Connecticut, they cannot vote. They are Ex Officio members of the Foundation. In facilities, some of these schools have their foundations located within the school buildings, some of them share the leases on a 50/50 split, and some of them, their foundation pays 100 percent of the costs of -- the University pays 100 percent of the cost of the lease.