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Administration proposes resilience revolving fund to help towns finance culverts, seawalls and infrastructure
Summary
The Mass Ready Act would create a state‑managed resilience revolving fund to provide low‑cost loans to cities and towns for large resilience projects; committee members asked how small towns would access funds and how projects will be prioritized.
The Mass Ready Act would create a resilience revolving fund to offer low‑cost loans to municipalities for resilience projects such as culvert upgrades, seawall repairs and other flood‑mitigation work, administration witnesses told the committee.
Secretary Rebecca Tepper and Secretary Matthew Gorkowitz said the fund would be managed through the Clean Water Trust with EEA setting disbursement criteria. They described the tool as a way to extend grant dollars by enabling loans that communities repay and reuse for future projects.
"It will be a revolving fund where communities can apply for a loan for a resilience project," Secretary Tepper said. "We’re starting at a pilot stage and we expect to refine criteria to reach communities that need it most."
Committee members pressed for details about loan terms and prioritization. Representative Kate Hogan and municipal officials said small towns often lack grant‑writing staff and capital flexibility and asked how the fund would avoid favoring large cities.
"We would love to see loan rates like 2%—anything under 3% is meaningful," Beckett town administrator Catherine Wharton told the committee, describing an estimated $4.5 million culvert and road project in her small Berkshire town. "Without access to programs like this, our alternative is bank financing at roughly 5% which is unsustainable for a small town."
Administration witnesses said the Clean Water Trust would set prioritization criteria in consultation with EEA and local stakeholders, and that the bill envisions technical assistance and program design features—such as carve‑outs or set‑asides—to ensure smaller municipalities and regional entities can participate.
Local officials and municipal associations testified in favor of the fund as a needed financing tool. The Massachusetts Municipal Association and several regional planning agencies urged the committee to ensure the program includes technical assistance, regional application mechanisms and carve‑outs for small towns.
No formal program rules were filed with the bill; legislators said they expect to work with agency staff to define criteria and loan terms if the legislature authorizes the fund.
