Regulations to Follow when Bat-Proofing Your Home

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is required to update the lists of species classified as endangered, threatened, or of special concern at least every five years.  DEEP is also charged with administering regulations to monitor and control these species.  The most recent regulation, effective August 7, 2015, increased the number of bats classified as endangered, among others. 

Bats play a vital role in the functioning of our environment by controlling the insect population and pollinating plants and spreading their seeds.  In fact, many plant species rely on bats to pollinate their flowers and successfully produce fruits such as mangos, bananas, and guavas. 

One of the regulations implemented to control their preservation is a prohibition on the removal of their nests while they are roosting during the months of June and July.  Consequently, if a bat settles to roost in your attic, vent, or under roofing, do not disturb or remove it.  Bat habitats may only be altered annually after August 15.  DEEP offers suggestions for exclusion and bat proofing and they also provide a list of licensed nuisance wildlife control operators if you would rather hire a specialist.

Generally, bats do not enter the common areas of a dwelling.  If one happens to come through an open window or door, DEEP advises closing off the area and leaving the window or door open to permit their exit. DEEP offers additional information and bat proofing tips on its website.  

More Seniors Are Forming “Aging in Place” Communities

“Aging in place” initiatives help seniors to remain in their own homes as they age, allowing them to delay or avoid entering long-term care facilities. In some communities, elderly residents themselves are forming “aging in place” or “virtual retirement” communities by establishing nonprofit membership organizations that negotiate and obtain shared services and programs for their members.

Members pay an annual fee to access a range of home-based services, such as transportation, home maintenance and repair, and meals. Some services are included in the membership fee and others are provided by a network of pre-screened providers at a discounted rate.

A recent Citylab article discusses the increase in these communities, noting that they exist in over 40 states. The article highlights Beacon Hill Village in Massachusetts, which was established in 2002 and is generally considered the blueprint for establishing an aging in place community. Beacon Hill Village currently has 350 members that pay $675 per year (or $975 for a couple) to access seven staff members that help them obtain services. Residents with income below the median income can obtain discounted membership rates of $125 per individual and $175 per couple.  

According to the article, Village to Village Network, a national organization that helps create new aging in place communities, expects the number of communities to double in the next two years.

For more information on these communities, see OLR report 2008-R-0322.

OLR Launches Twitter Feed

Dear readers,

We have launched an OLR Twitter feed (@CT_OLR) to give you faster and more convenient access to our work products.  Going forward our office will tweet:

• select reports, such as getting up to speed guides and backgrounder reports
• a daily announcement of new bill analyses (once publicly available)
• information about public OLR presentations (when, where, and links to presentations)
• annual publications, such as the Public Act Summary Book, Major Public Acts Report, Acts Affecting Reports, and Major Issues Report

During session, we will tweet 1-4 times per day (mostly batched BA announcements and new reports) to help you stay on top of your most critical issues.  During the interim, we will tweet a few times a week about key OLR publications and research on a variety of topics.  By following us, you will get these tweets in your news feed.

Signing up for OLR tweets is easy.  Just click here, sign into (or create) your Twitter account, and ‘click’ follow on the OLR feed (you can also search for us, @CT_OLR, on the main Twitter page).

Forecasting Revenue in Volatile Times

In an earlier blog, we described the challenges businesses face when a new product, service, or competitor enters the market and changes the rules of the game. To help you imagine the challenge, we asked you consider the absurd scenario of athletic teams formed to compete in unknown sporting events. Well, we want to shift to a different topic and, in doing so, ask you to consider another absurd scenario. What would it be like to play basketball (or volleyball for that matter) on a floating dock? What would it be like to dribble and shoot when the floor keeps bopping up and down with the waves?

Well forecasting state revenue collections is a little like executing a jump shot on a floating dock, and a March 2015 PEW Charitable Trusts report explains why (Managing Volatile Tax Collections in State Revenue Forecasts).

For starters, the problem isn’t with the forecaster. Just as the floating dock makes it harder for the shooter to time his or her shot, volatile tax revenues make it hard for forecasters to accurately estimate annual revenue totals, making it harder for state officials to prepare realistic budgets.

The revenues are volatile because they are generated by different kinds of economic transactions, like earning a wage, buying a car, making goods, or delivering services. The revenue these taxes generate rises and falls with the frequency and value of these transactions, which are sensitive to ups and downs of the national and, in many states, global economy. 

For example, it was relatively easy to predict sales tax revenues “because purchases of such things as food and toiletries typically hold steady regardless of the economy’s performance.” But during the last recession, consumers cut spending even on these items. Even more significantly, consumers continued to spend at relatively low levels even after the recession ended. Particularly vulnerable are states that mainly tax car, boats, and other big-ticket items.

States could stabilize their revenue flows by drastically changing their tax structures, but that’s not likely to happen, according to the study, because the changes “come with trade-offs between competing tax policy priorities and significant costs.” But they could do more to manage volatile revenue.

Acts Affecting Real Estate

New laws affecting real estate enacted during the 2015 regular and special sessions are highlighted in OLR Report 2015-R-0165.  Some of the enacted laws covered in the report include policies on:

• adverse possession restrictions;
• broker license requirements;
• brownfield remediation programs;
• highway discontinuance requirements;
• lighthouse leases or allowances;
• partition of heirs' property; 
• property tax base revenue sharing; and
• property tax credits.

To read the full report on these and other 2015 real estate related policy changes, click here.

Feds Eye Overnight Package Delivery to Ease Daytime Traffic

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is looking at overnight package deliveries to help ease daytime traffic jams, the Washington Post reports.

The FHWA sees a good news/bad news situation as more and more shoppers order goods online. The good news: fewer passenger trips to the mall. The bad news: More trucks delivering the packages every day to people’s homes.

The article says switching deliveries to late night hours when there is less traffic and more parking may help ease the problem, particularly in cities with already high traffic congestion.

“The problem of daytime truck traffic is well-known to any major city…and it’s time for new solutions, Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau said in announcing a pilot program to encourage the overnight deliveries. The pilot program includes $200,000 in grants to fund pilot projects in New York City and Pensacola, Florida, and could be expanded to other cities if it succeeds there, the FHWA said.

Connecticut Communities for Older Adults

Last September, the non-partisan Connecticut Legislative Commission on Aging (CoA) delivered a webinar presentation on creating livable communities for Connecticut’s older adults, titled “Planning and Zoning in an Aging Connecticut.” It highlighted new approaches to city planning that benefit elderly constituents, including municipal elderly living initiatives, outdoor libraries, and “Complete Streets,” a method to make streets safer for pedestrians. More information on these topics and others can be found on CoA’s Livable Communities website, which offers resources and helps Connecticut citizens plan for an aging population.

During the presentation, the commission also discussed the difficulty elderly individuals and their families face in finding the “right” place to call home when more help becomes necessary for daily living. Seniors must determine the level of care and services that are right for them. Options include home health care, which provides some services right in an individual’s home, and nursing homes, which provide a much higher level of care in a community setting.

Using data from Connecticut’s eLicense website, we created a searchable map of every licensed assisted living, home health care, residential living and other facility in the state. You can search by facility type or city. Click here to use the interactive version of the map shown below!