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S02837 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          2837
 
                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                    IN SENATE
 
                                    January 25, 2023
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by Sens. BRESLIN, HELMING -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on  Veterans,  Home-
          land Security and Military Affairs
 
        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.
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04446-01-3

        S. 2837                             2
 
     1    3. (a) The division shall, taking into consideration requirements from
     2  the STORM Act, establish application procedures and eligibility criteria
     3  for  loans  from  the resilient New York revolving loan fund established
     4  pursuant to section ninety-nine-qq of the state finance law. The  eligi-
     5  bility criteria shall require that municipalities, not-for-profit organ-
     6  izations, and individual property owner applicants demonstrate:
     7    (1) A need for a loan to address hazard mitigation; and
     8    (2) The ability to repay the loan, if required, at a later date.
     9    (b) Loans provided pursuant to this section shall be for a fixed peri-
    10  od.
    11    (c) The loan program shall also provide graduated forgivability avail-
    12  able  to  eligible individual property owner recipients that shall, at a
    13  minimum:
    14    (1) Provide full loan forgiveness for eligible households with  income
    15  between  eighty  percent and fifty percent of the area median income for
    16  the area in which the property to which the loan applies, is located.
    17    (2) Provide fifty percent loan  forgiveness  for  eligible  households
    18  with  income  equal to eighty percent to one hundred percent of the area
    19  median income for the area in which  the  property  to  which  the  loan
    20  applies, is located.
    21    (3)  Provide  additional forgivability percentages for households with
    22  incomes not within those addressed in this paragraph may be  applied  by
    23  the division based on:
    24    i.  the  number of eligible individual recipients participating in the
    25  program authorized under this section;
    26    ii. the availability of funding; and
    27    iii. any other factor that the division finds  reasonable  and  neces-
    28  sary.
    29    4.  Such  program  shall  be  in addition to any funds provided by the
    30  federal government and expended or provided  through  the  division  for
    31  disaster recovery and relief.
    32    5.  (a)  The  commissioner  shall  submit  to  FEMA an application for
    33  capitalization grant funding, together with all required  proposals  and
    34  information required pursuant to the STORM Act or regulations promulgat-
    35  ed thereto.
    36    (b)  Upon  approval of such application, the division shall enter into
    37  an agreement with FEMA to deposit the capitalization grant funding  into
    38  the resilient New York revolving loan fund.
    39    6.  For  the  purposes of this section, the following terms shall have
    40  the following meanings:
    41    (a) "Capitalization grant" means funds provided by FEMA to the depart-
    42  ment for the establishment of the resilient New York revolving loan fund
    43  in accordance with the provisions of section 5135(f) of the STORM Act.
    44    (b) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the division of  homeland
    45  security and emergency services.
    46    (c)  "Division"  means the division of homeland security and emergency
    47  services.
    48    (d) "FEMA" means the federal emergency management administration.
    49    (e) "STORM Act" means the federal "Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongo-
    50  ing Risk Management Act", 42 U.S.C. section 5135  et  seq.,  enacted  by
    51  public  law 116-284, and approved on January first, two thousand twenty-
    52  one.
    53    § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-qq to
    54  read as follows:
    55    § 99-qq. Resilient New York revolving loan fund.  1. There  is  hereby
    56  established  in  the  joint  custody  of  the  state comptroller and the

        S. 2837                             3
 
     1  commissioner of the division of homeland security and emergency services
     2  a special fund to be known as the "resilient  New  York  revolving  loan
     3  fund"  to  be  administered  in accordance with this section and section
     4  twenty-nine-l of the executive law.
     5    2.  The fund shall consist of all moneys appropriated for its purpose,
     6  all moneys transferred to such fund pursuant to law, all money  received
     7  from  FEMA under the STORM Act, any repayments of principal and interest
     8  from the resilient New York revolving loan program administered pursuant
     9  to section twenty-nine-l of the executive  law,  and  all  other  moneys
    10  required by this section or any other law to be paid into or credited to
    11  this fund.
    12    3.  Moneys  in  such fund shall be kept separate from and shall not be
    13  commingled with any other moneys in the custody of  the  comptroller  or
    14  the  commissioner  of  taxation and finance.  Any moneys of the fund not
    15  required for immediate use may, at the discretion of the comptroller, in
    16  consultation with the director of the budget, be invested by  the  comp-
    17  troller  in  obligations  of the United States or the state, or in obli-
    18  gations the principal and interest on which are guaranteed by the United
    19  States or by the state. Any income earned  by  the  investment  of  such
    20  moneys  shall be added to and become a part of and shall be used for the
    21  purposes of such fund.
    22    4. Money expended from such fund shall be used to supplement  and  not
    23  supplant  or  replace  any  other  available  recovery  or relief funds,
    24  including federal or state funding,  which  would  otherwise  have  been
    25  expended  for  reimbursement  or  appropriated  to local governments for
    26  natural hazard mitigation or resilience projects.
    27    5. The monies of the fund shall be paid out, without appropriation, on
    28  the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified  or
    29  approved  by  the  commissioner of the division of homeland security and
    30  emergency services as provided in section twenty-nine-l of the executive
    31  law. The comptroller shall, in consultation with the commissioner of the
    32  division of homeland security and emergency services, prescribe by regu-
    33  lation the manner in which moneys of the fund shall  be  distributed  to
    34  eligible applicants.
    35    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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