Bill Text: NY A10325 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Establishes the resilient New York revolving loan program and the resilient New York revolving loan fund to provide low or no-interest loans to municipalities, not-for-profit organizations, and individual property owners for hazard mitigation and resilience projects; provides funding from federal STORM Act.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-05-13 - referred to governmental operations [A10325 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-A10325-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10325

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      May 13, 2022
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  COMMITTEE  ON  RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Fahy) --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations

        AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to the resilient New York
          revolving loan program;  and  to  amend  the  state  finance  law,  in
          relation to establishing the resilient New York revolving loan fund

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new  section  29-l
     2  to read as follows:
     3    §  29-l.  Resilient New York revolving loan program.  1. The division,
     4  in conjunction with the comptroller, shall establish and administer  the
     5  resilient New York revolving loan program as provided in this section.
     6    2. (a) The resilient New York revolving loan program shall provide low
     7  or  no-interest loans to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations
     8  for hazard mitigation and resilience projects, including but not limited
     9  to, building resilient infrastructures and communities, flood mitigation
    10  assistance, flood risk reduction projects such as levees, closures, pump
    11  stations and non-structural projects like elevation  and  wet/dry  flood
    12  proofing  or  any  adaption  or mitigation projects included pursuant to
    13  section 54-1523 of the environmental conservation law.
    14    (b) Loans may also be granted to individual property owners to provide
    15  the financing for natural hazard mitigation projects such as wind retro-
    16  fits, flood mitigation elevation and wet or dry flood-proofing projects,
    17  fire mitigation retrofit projects, and  earthquake  retrofit  mitigation
    18  projects.  These  loans  may be attached to property taxes, allowing for
    19  the property to be sold so long as the new owner agrees  to  assume  the
    20  debt obligation.
    21    (c)  Loans provided under this section may be used to satisfy the non-
    22  federal match for federal mitigation grants.
    23    3. (a) The division shall, taking into consideration requirements from
    24  the STORM Act, establish application procedures and eligibility criteria
    25  for loans from the resilient New York revolving  loan  fund  established
    26  pursuant  to section ninety-nine-oo of the state finance law. The eligi-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14931-01-2

        A. 10325                            2

     1  bility criteria shall require that municipalities, not-for-profit organ-
     2  izations, and individual property owner applicants demonstrate:
     3    (1) A need for a loan to address hazard mitigation; and
     4    (2) The ability to repay the loan, if required, at a later date.
     5    (b) Loans provided pursuant to this section shall be for a fixed peri-
     6  od.
     7    (c) The loan program shall also provide graduated forgivability avail-
     8  able  to  eligible individual property owner recipients that shall, at a
     9  minimum:
    10    (1) Provide full loan forgiveness for eligible households with  income
    11  between  eighty  percent and fifty percent of the area median income for
    12  the area in which the property to which the loan applies, is located.
    13    (2) Provide fifty percent loan  forgiveness  for  eligible  households
    14  with  income  equal to eighty percent to one hundred percent of the area
    15  median income for the area in which  the  property  to  which  the  loan
    16  applies, is located.
    17    (3)  Provide  additional forgivability percentages for households with
    18  incomes not within those addressed in this paragraph may be  applied  by
    19  the division based on:
    20    i.  the  number of eligible individual recipients participating in the
    21  program authorized under this section;
    22    ii. the availability of funding; and
    23    iii. any other factor that the division finds  reasonable  and  neces-
    24  sary.
    25    4.  Such  program  shall  be  in addition to any funds provided by the
    26  federal government and expended or provided  through  the  division  for
    27  disaster recovery and relief.
    28    5.  (a)  The  commissioner  shall  submit  to  FEMA an application for
    29  capitalization grant funding, together with all required  proposals  and
    30  information required pursuant to the STORM Act or regulations promulgat-
    31  ed thereto.
    32    (b)  Upon  approval of such application, the division shall enter into
    33  an agreement with FEMA to deposit the capitalization grant funding  into
    34  the resilient New York revolving loan fund.
    35    6.  For  the  purposes of this section, the following terms shall have
    36  the following meanings:
    37    (a) "Capitalization grant" means funds provided by FEMA to the depart-
    38  ment for the establishment of the resilient New York revolving loan fund
    39  in accordance with the provisions of section 5135(f) of the STORM Act.
    40    (b) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the division of  homeland
    41  security and emergency services.
    42    (c)  "Division"  means the division of homeland security and emergency
    43  services.
    44    (d) "FEMA" means the federal emergency management administration.
    45    (e) "STORM Act" means the federal "Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongo-
    46  ing Risk Management Act", 42 U.S.C. section 5135  et  seq.,  enacted  by
    47  public  law 116-284, and approved on January first, two thousand twenty-
    48  one.
    49    § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-pp to
    50  read as follows:
    51    § 99-pp. Resilient New York revolving loan fund.  1. There  is  hereby
    52  established  in  the  joint  custody  of  the  state comptroller and the
    53  commissioner of the division of homeland security and emergency services
    54  a special fund to be known as the "resilient  New  York  revolving  loan
    55  fund"  to  be  administered  in accordance with this section and section
    56  twenty-nine-l of the executive law.

        A. 10325                            3

     1    2. The fund shall consist of all moneys appropriated for its  purpose,
     2  all  moneys transferred to such fund pursuant to law, all money received
     3  from FEMA under the STORM Act, any repayments of principal and  interest
     4  from the resilient New York revolving loan program administered pursuant
     5  to  section  twenty-nine-l  of  the  executive law, and all other moneys
     6  required by this section or any other law to be paid into or credited to
     7  this fund.
     8    3. Moneys in such fund shall be kept separate from and  shall  not  be
     9  commingled  with  any  other moneys in the custody of the comptroller or
    10  the commissioner of taxation and finance.  Any moneys of  the  fund  not
    11  required for immediate use may, at the discretion of the comptroller, in
    12  consultation  with  the director of the budget, be invested by the comp-
    13  troller in obligations of the United States or the state,  or  in  obli-
    14  gations the principal and interest on which are guaranteed by the United
    15  States  or  by  the  state.  Any income earned by the investment of such
    16  moneys shall be added to and become a part of and shall be used for  the
    17  purposes of such fund.
    18    4.  Money  expended from such fund shall be used to supplement and not
    19  supplant or replace  any  other  available  recovery  or  relief  funds,
    20  including  federal  or  state  funding,  which would otherwise have been
    21  expended for reimbursement or  appropriated  to  local  governments  for
    22  natural hazard mitigation or resilience projects.
    23    5. The monies of the fund shall be paid out, without appropriation, on
    24  the  audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified or
    25  approved by the commissioner of the division of  homeland  security  and
    26  emergency services as provided in section twenty-nine-l of the executive
    27  law. The comptroller shall, in consultation with the commissioner of the
    28  division of homeland security and emergency services, prescribe by regu-
    29  lation  the  manner  in which moneys of the fund shall be distributed to
    30  eligible applicants.
    31    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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