(a) All applications for financial aid shall be forwarded, together with an application fee prescribed by the corporation, to the chief executive officer of the corporation. Each such application shall be processed in accordance with the written procedures adopted by the corporation under subdivision (5) of subsection (d) of section 32-35. The board of directors or a duly constituted committee thereof shall approve or deny each application recommended by the chief executive officer. If the board of directors or any such committee approves an application, the board or such committee may authorize the corporation to enter into an agreement or agreements on behalf of the corporation to provide financial aid to the applicant. The applicant shall be promptly notified of such action by the corporation.

(b) In making the decision as to approval or denial of an application, the board or any committee of the board shall give priority to those applicants (1) whose businesses are defense-dependent, or are located in municipalities which the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development has declared have been severely impacted by prime defense contract cutbacks pursuant to section 32-56, and (2) whose proposed research and development activity, technology, product or invention is to be used to convert all or a portion of the applicant's business to non-defense-related industrial or commercial activity, or to create a new non-defense-related industrial or commercial business. For purposes of this section, a defense-dependent business is any business that derives over fifty per cent of its gross income, generated from operations within the state, from prime defense contracts or from subcontracts entered into in connection with prime defense contracts, a significant portion of whose facilities and equipment are designed specifically for defense production and cannot be converted to nondefense uses without substantial investment.

(c) All financial and credit information and all trade secrets contained in any application for financial aid submitted to the corporation or obtained by the corporation concerning any applicant, project, activity, technology, product or invention shall be exempt from the provisions of subsection (a) of section 1-210.

(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a) and (b) of this section, the board of directors may delegate to staff of the corporation the authority to approve any application for financial aid filed pursuant to this section for not more than one hundred fifty thousand dollars, provided (1) such application is processed in accordance with the written procedures adopted by the corporation under subdivision (5) of subsection (d) of section 32-35, and (2) the sum of the financial aid requested in such application and the total amount of financial aid awarded to the applicant by the corporation during the preceding twelve-month period does not exceed one hundred fifty thousand dollars.

(1972, P.A. 248, S. 9; P.A. 77-77; P.A. 80-267, S. 3; P.A. 89-245, S. 13; P.A. 95-250, S. 1; P.A. 96-211, S. 1, 5, 6; 96-264, S. 5, 8; June 12 Sp. Sess. P.A. 12-1, S. 173; P.A. 13-115, S. 1.)

History: P.A. 77-77 deleted provision requiring payment of commitment fee as condition of approval of application for financial aid; P.A. 80-267 included dependency upon defense contracts as factor to be considered in approval of financial aid and added provisions granting priority to defense-dependent companies as specified; P.A. 89-245 changed president to executive director, made certain technical changes, added provisions re review of application by the technical peer review committee, added provisions re approval of applications and award of financial aid by the finance committee, and added provisions re exemption of financial and credit information and trade secrets from Sec. 1-19(a); 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. 96-264 divided section into Subsecs. and amended Subsec. (a) to require each application to be processed in accordance with written procedures adopted by corporation under Sec. 32-35(d)(5), replacing prior procedures for processing applications, to require finance committee to approve or deny each application “recommended by the executive director” and to authorize the corporation, instead of the finance committee, to enter into agreement with an applicant whose application has been approved by the finance committee, effective July 1, 1996; June 12 Sp. Sess. P.A. 12-1 amended Subsec. (a) to replace “executive director” with “chief executive officer” and replace “finance committee of the corporation” with “board of directors or a duly constituted committee thereof”, and made conforming changes in Subsecs. (a) and (b), effective July 1, 2012; P.A. 13-115 added Subsec. (d) re staff approval of applications for not more than $150,000 of financial aid, effective July 1, 2013.

Cited. 167 C. 111.