21-P:37-c Exceptional Disaster Relief Loans. –
I. In this section, an "exceptional disaster relief loan" means a temporary loan from the state treasury to assist communities experiencing exceptional costs due to natural disasters.
II. (a) When the President of the United States declares an area a federal disaster area, or the governor declares a state of emergency as defined in RSA 21-P:35, VIII, and a municipality has applied for federal emergency assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), the governor, with the approval of the executive council may approve a non-interest loan in the amount up to the anticipated assistance from FEMA, as agreed upon by the division of homeland security and emergency management and the municipality, from funds not otherwise appropriated.
(b) In order to be eligible for an exceptional disaster relief loan, the per incident cost of a municipality's critical disaster relief project or projects shall equal or exceed 25 percent of the amount raised by local property taxes in the municipality's current annual budget.
(c) The municipality shall not knowingly request an exceptional disaster relief loan for costs that are not eligible for reimbursement under the FEMA public assistance program.
(d) Recipients of an exceptional disaster relief loan shall be responsible to repay the entire loan amount to the state. If the amount of FEMA assistance that a municipality receives is less than the exceptional disaster relief loan, the state treasurer, with the advice and consent of the governor and council, shall negotiate repayment terms of the difference.
(e) The municipality shall consider applying for available hazard mitigation grant funding administered by the division of homeland security and emergency management that would reduce the impact of future disasters on facilities that were repaired with exceptional disaster relief loan funds. Municipalities must demonstrate progress on the implementation of their hazard mitigation plan in order to be eligible for future assistance loans under this section for disasters affecting facilities where an exceptional disaster relief loan was previously granted.
III. A municipality shall not receive more than one exceptional disaster relief loan per declared federal disaster.
IV. A municipality shall not be obligated for more than 2 exceptional disaster relief loans.
V. A municipality receiving an exceptional disaster relief loan shall remit the anticipated assistance from FEMA to the state treasurer within 15 days of receipt.
VI. If the state treasury provides advance funding to a municipality that has applied for and is waiting for FEMA disaster relief funding, the interest rate to be assessed on such advance funding shall be no greater than the prevailing rate at which the state treasury is able to invest its commingled cash.
VII. If the amount of FEMA assistance a municipality receives is less than the exceptional disaster relief loan, the state treasurer, with the advice and consent of governor and council, shall negotiate terms of repayment of the difference. If the municipality and the state treasurer are unable to reach an agreement, the department of revenue administration shall include the amount in the amount apportioned for setting property tax rates.
VIII. The director of homeland security and emergency management shall administer the exceptional disaster relief loan program.
Source. 2018, 53:1, eff. July 14, 2018. 2022, 236:1, eff. June 17, 2022.