Committee reviews fiscal note for H.41; deadlines extended, Clean Water Board directed to prioritize municipal stormwater funding

The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on April 18 reviewed the Joint Fiscal Office fiscal note for H.41 (as passed by the House), focusing on four categories of fiscal impact: municipal impact fee authority, maintenance of the clean water surcharge, new grant priorities for municipal stormwater implementation, and a small study commission to examine regional stormwater utility districts.

The Joint Fiscal Office summary, read by Ted Barnett of the Joint Fiscal Office, said: "As passed by the house, there are essentially kind of 4 buckets of fiscal impact to the state that this bill promotes," adding that the bill would authorize municipal impact fee assessments, preserve the current clean water surcharge rate and its 2039 sunset removal, direct the Clean Water Board to recommend $5,000,000 in fiscal 2027 and at least $1,000,000 annually thereafter for municipal stormwater implementation, and authorize the municipal stormwater implementation program to make grants to municipalities for compliance with the 3-acre rule.

Why it matters: the changes affect who pays for stormwater management and when projects must be completed. The committee heard that extending compliance deadlines shifts the timing of revenue and construction needs, that municipalities assuming legal responsibility for stormwater systems could reduce annual operating fee revenue currently received by the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), and that funding priorities will shape which projects can proceed to construction.

Major points of the fiscal note and bill language