Bill Text: NY S08581 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Expands eligibility for loans and grants pursuant to the resilient retrofits loan and grant program for private sewer repairs and upgrades; establishes the resilient retrofits loan and grant fund.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-05-20 - REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE [S08581 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S08581-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8581

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 16, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Veterans, Homeland Securi-
          ty and Military Affairs

        AN ACT to amend the executive law and the state finance law, in relation
          to expanding eligibility for participation in the resilient  retrofits
          loan  and  grant  program and establishing the resilient retrofit loan
          and grant 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-k
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 29-k. Resilient retrofits loan and grant program expansion.  1.  For
     4  the  purposes  of  this  section,  "division" shall mean the division of
     5  housing and community renewal.
     6    2. The division of housing and community renewal, in conjunction  with
     7  the comptroller, Home HeadQuarters, Inc., and community development Long
     8  Island  (CDLI),  shall  establish and administer the resilient retrofits
     9  loan and grant program as provided in this section.
    10    3. (a) The resilient retrofit loan and program shall  provide  low  or
    11  no-interest loans to individual property owners to provide financing for
    12  hazard  mitigation and resilience projects, including but not limited to
    13  repairs, cleanups, and upgrades of private sewers in multiple  dwellings
    14  and single-family homes where the sewer capacity for such private sewers
    15  has  been exceeded. Such loans may be attached to property taxes, allow-
    16  ing for the property to be sold so long  as  the  new  owner  agrees  to
    17  assume the debt obligation.
    18    (b)  Loans provided under this section may be used to satisfy the non-
    19  federal match for federal mitigation grants.
    20    4. (a) resilient New York revolving loan program shall provide  grants
    21  to individual property owners to provide financing for hazard mitigation
    22  and  resilience  projects, including but not limited to construction and
    23  maintenance of flood and/or back-up  private  sewer  lines  in  multiple
    24  dwellings  and  single-family  homes  where  the sewer capacity for such
    25  private sewers has been exceeded.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14500-01-4
        S. 8581                             2

     1    (b) Grants provided under this section shall finance,  at  a  minimum,
     2  eighty  percent of the cost of hazard mitigation and resilience projects
     3  described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision.
     4    5.  (a) The division shall establish application procedures and eligi-
     5  bility criteria for loans and grants from the resilient  retrofits  loan
     6  and  grant  fund  established  pursuant to section ninety-nine-rr of the
     7  state finance law. Such eligibility criteria shall require that individ-
     8  ual property owner applicants demonstrate:
     9    (i) A need for a loan or grant to address hazard mitigation; and
    10    (ii) The ability to repay the loan, if required, at a later date.
    11    (b) Loans provided pursuant to this section shall be for a fixed peri-
    12  od.
    13    (c) The resilient retrofits loan and grant program shall also  provide
    14  graduated  forgivability available to eligible individual property owner
    15  recipients that shall, at a minimum, provide fifty percent loan forgive-
    16  ness for eligible households with annual income equal to  or  less  than
    17  two hundred fifty thousand dollars per year.
    18    6.  Such  program  shall  be  in addition to any funds provided by the
    19  federal government and expended or provided  through  the  division  for
    20  disaster recovery and relief.
    21    § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-rr to
    22  read as follows:
    23    §  99-rr.  Resilient retrofits loan and grant fund. 1. There is hereby
    24  established in the joint  custody  of  the  state  comptroller  and  the
    25  commissioner  of the division of housing and community renewal a special
    26  fund to be known as the "resilient retrofit loan and grant fund"  to  be
    27  administered  in  accordance with this section and section twenty-nine-k
    28  of the executive law.
    29    2. The fund shall consist of all moneys appropriated for its  purpose,
    30  all  moneys  transferred to such fund pursuant to law, any repayments of
    31  principal and interest  from  the  resilient  retrofit  loan  and  grant
    32  program  administered pursuant to section twenty-nine-k of the executive
    33  law, and all other moneys required by this section or any other  law  to
    34  be paid into or credited to this fund.
    35    3.  Moneys  in  such fund shall be kept separate from and shall not be
    36  commingled with any other moneys in the custody of  the  comptroller  or
    37  the  commissioner  of  taxation  and finance. Any moneys of the fund not
    38  required for immediate use may, at the discretion of the comptroller, in
    39  consultation with the director of the budget, be invested by  the  comp-
    40  troller  in  obligations  of the United States or the state, or in obli-
    41  gations the principal and interest on which are guaranteed by the United
    42  States or by the state. Any income earned  by  the  investment  of  such
    43  moneys  shall be added to and become a part of and shall be used for the
    44  purposes of such fund.
    45    4. Moneys expended from such fund shall be used to supplement and  not
    46  supplant  or  replace  any  other  available  recovery  or relief funds,
    47  including federal or state funding,  which  would  otherwise  have  been
    48  expended  for  reimbursement  or  appropriated  to local governments for
    49  natural hazard mitigation or resilience projects.
    50    5. The moneys of the fund shall be paid out, without appropriation, on
    51  the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified  or
    52  approved  by  the  commissioner of the division of housing and community
    53  renewal as provided in section twenty-nine-k of the executive  law.  The
    54  comptroller shall, in consultation with the commissioner of the division
    55  of  housing and community renewal, prescribe by regulation the manner in
    56  which moneys of the fund shall be distributed to eligible applicants.
        S. 8581                             3

     1    § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
     2  have become a law. Effective immediately, the amendment, addition and/or
     3  repeal  of  any  rule  or regulation necessary for the implementation of
     4  this act on its effective date are authorized to be made  and  completed
     5  on or before such effective date.