S 5230: 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.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5230 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 19, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. COMRIE, JACKSON, SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Veter- ans, Homeland Security 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 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD06087-01-5 
 S. 5230 2 1 maintenance of flood and/or back-up private sewer lines in multiple 2 dwellings and single-family homes where the sewer capacity for such 3 private sewers has been exceeded. 4 (b) Grants provided under this section shall finance, at a minimum, 5 eighty percent of the cost of hazard mitigation and resilience projects 6 described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision. 7 5. (a) The division shall establish application procedures and eligi- 8 bility criteria for loans and grants from the resilient retrofits loan 9 and grant fund established pursuant to section ninety-nine-ss of the 10 state finance law. Such eligibility criteria shall require that individ- 11 ual property owner applicants demonstrate: 12 (i) A need for a loan or grant to address hazard mitigation; and 13 (ii) The ability to repay the loan, if required, at a later date. 14 (b) Loans provided pursuant to this section shall be for a fixed peri- 15 od. 16 (c) The resilient retrofits loan and grant program shall also provide 17 graduated forgivability available to eligible individual property owner 18 recipients that shall, at a minimum, provide fifty percent loan forgive- 19 ness for eligible households with annual income equal to or less than 20 two hundred fifty thousand dollars per year. 21 6. Such program shall be in addition to any funds provided by the 22 federal government and expended or provided through the division for 23 disaster recovery and relief. 24 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-ss to 25 read as follows: 26 § 99-ss. Resilient retrofits loan and grant fund. 1. There is hereby 27 established in the joint custody of the state comptroller and the 28 commissioner of the division of housing and community renewal a special 29 fund to be known as the "resilient retrofit loan and grant fund" to be 30 administered in accordance with this section and section twenty-nine-k 31 of the executive law. 32 2. The fund shall consist of all moneys appropriated for its purpose, 33 all moneys transferred to such fund pursuant to law, any repayments of 34 principal and interest from the resilient retrofit loan and grant 35 program administered pursuant to section twenty-nine-k of the executive 36 law, and all other moneys required by this section or any other law to 37 be paid into or credited to this fund. 38 3. Moneys in such fund shall be kept separate from and shall not be 39 commingled with any other moneys in the custody of the comptroller or 40 the commissioner of taxation and finance. Any moneys of the fund not 41 required for immediate use may, at the discretion of the comptroller, in 42 consultation with the director of the budget, be invested by the comp- 43 troller in obligations of the United States or the state, or in obli- 44 gations the principal and interest on which are guaranteed by the United 45 States or by the state. Any income earned by the investment of such 46 moneys shall be added to and become a part of and shall be used for the 47 purposes of such fund. 48 4. Moneys expended from such fund shall be used to supplement and not 49 supplant or replace any other available recovery or relief funds, 50 including federal or state funding, which would otherwise have been 51 expended for reimbursement or appropriated to local governments for 52 natural hazard mitigation or resilience projects. 53 5. The moneys of the fund shall be paid out, without appropriation, on 54 the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified or 55 approved by the commissioner of the division of housing and community 56 renewal as provided in section twenty-nine-k of the executive law. The 
 S. 5230 3 1 comptroller shall, in consultation with the commissioner of the division 2 of housing and community renewal, prescribe by regulation the manner in 3 which moneys of the fund shall be distributed to eligible applicants. 4 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 5 have become a law. Effective immediately, the amendment, addition and/or 6 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of 7 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed 8 on or before such effective date.