Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
A. Number
of applications - all eligible applicants may submit one application for CDBG
funding assistance in the community infrastructure, public facility capital
outlay, or Colonias categories.
B.
Planning applicants may submit at any time an additional planning application
that shall not exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).
C. Applications for the economic development
and emergency categories may be submitted at any time and shall be limited to a
maximum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00) for applications without
certified cost estimates; and a maximum of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars
($750,000.00) for applications accompanied by a certified cost estimate from an
engineer, architect, or landscape architect licensed to do business in the
State of New Mexico, which must be certified no more than 120 days prior to
application submission.
D. Counties
may submit multiple applications for planning grants on behalf of eligible
applicants.
E. Planning, economic
development, and emergency applications may be submitted even if the applicant
has not completed previously awarded CDBG projects.
F. Single purpose application -an application
must be limited to a project specific activity or set of activities that
address a particular need in a designated target area of a unit of local
government.
G. Joint applications -
Joint applications are allowed when two or more eligible applicants within
reasonable proximity of each other wish to address a common problem.
(1) Joint applications must satisfy certain
criteria found in federal rules and must receive division approval prior to
submitting an application for funding assistance.
(2) One community will be designated to serve
as the lead applicant and will be subject to administrative requirements and to
the application limit requirements.
(3) Other parties to the joint application
may submit another application.
H. The following minimum requirements apply
to all applications for CDBG funding:
(1)
Applications must involve a project that will be fully functional on a
stand-alone basis once awarded CDBG and other committed funds have been
expended.
(2) Projects shall be
completed within 24 months of an executed grant agreement signed by both
parties.
(3) Applications shall be
limited to a maximum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000.00) for
applications without cost estimates; and a maximum of seven hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($750,000.00) for applications accompanied by a certified cost
estimate from an engineer, architect, or landscape architect licensed to do
business in the State of New Mexico, which must be certified no more than 120
days prior to application submission.
(4) Application must be complete, with all
documentation provided as listed on the submission and attachment checklist
included in the application, otherwise application will be deemed ineligible
and the application will be returned to the applicant and will not be
considered for funding.
(5)
Applications must include a determination of rural or non-rural
status.
(6)Applications must
include estimates of both full and phased project costs.
I. Threshold requirements - a project must be
completed by the deadline for threshold compliance.
(1) Any open CDBG project must be completed
at the time of application (certificate of occupancy or certification of
operation must be in place).
(2)
Any previous CDBG project's monitoring findings and concerns must be
resolved.
(3) The current
applicant's fiscal operating budget must be certified by the
division.
(4) The applicant's
quarterly/monthly financial reports to the division must be current.
(5) An applicant must have submitted to the
New Mexico state auditor its most current audit(s) that were required to be
conducted and submitted for review per the New Mexico state auditor's required
report due dates for the previous fiscal year(s) and an applicant must be in
compliance with the budget certification rule, 2.2.3 NMAC.
(6) The set aside categories; planning,
economic development and emergency, are exempt from threshold requirements set
forth in Subsections I of 2.110.2.17 NMAC.
J. Matching requirements - to extend
available resources and to ensure applicants are invested in projects, the
following matches will be required.
(1) Rural
applicants must provide, at a minimum, a five percent cash match during the
project period from local, state or other public resources, excluding local
work force or local equipment.
(2)
Non-rural applicants must provide, at a minimum, a ten percent cash match
during the project period from local, state or other public resources,
excluding local work force or local equipment.
(3) An application in the economic
development category must provide at least one private dollar in match for each
dollar of CDBG funds requested.
(4)
Local funds expended by an eligible applicant for engineering, architectural
design or environmental review prior to project approval can be applied towards
the required match.
(5) Applicant
may request a waiver of the matching requirement if documentation can be
provided to demonstrate the absence of local resources to meet the required
match. Criteria used by the division to recommend council approval/disapproval
will be as follows:
(a) the required match
must exceed five percent of the applicant's general fund budget;
(b) the required match must equal or exceed
the available balance of funds in the applicant's overall budget.
K. Other funding
commitments - if other funding is necessary to make a proposed project
feasible, funding commitments must be in place and letters of commitment or
grant agreement from the funding agency must be submitted with the
application.
L. Asset management -
communities that implement an asset management program and use that approach as
the basis for their rate analysis will be credited in the application process
for their achievement. To support the long term operation, maintenance, repair
and replacement of system facilities, infrastructure, public facilities, or
other eligible activities the following will be required to be submitted at the
time of application. The model for the asset management program is the
international infrastructure asset management model. This approach includes
five core components:
(1) current state of the
assets: an asset inventory that includes at a minimum: asset name, asset
location, asset condition, useful life, and an estimate of replacement
value;
(2) level of service: a
description of type and level of service provided;
(3) criticality: an evaluation of which
assets are critical to sustaining the operation;
(4) life cycle costing: at a minimum, a
capital improvement plan that describes the replacement of assets and some
consideration of operation and maintenance of the assets;
(5) financing plan: a description of the
funding sources that will be used to pay for capital and operational
needs.
