TITLE 42 - US CODE - SUBCHAPTER VIII - LOCAL ASSISTANCE

42 USC 2391 - Assistance to governmental entities

(a) Annual assistance payments; extensions; determination of amount and recipient
From the date of transfer of any municipal installations to a governmental or other entity at or for the community, the Administrator is authorized, for a period of ten years, to make annual assistance payments of just and reasonable sums to the State, county, or local entity having jurisdiction to collect property taxes or to the entity receiving the installation transferred hereunder: Provided, however, That with respect to the cities of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington, the Richland School District, the Los Alamos School Board, and the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Administrator is authorized to continue to make assistance payments of just and reasonable sums after expiration of such ten-year period: Provided further, That the Administrator is also authorized to make payments of just and reasonable sums to Anderson County and Roane County, Tennessee. In determining the amount and recipient of such payments the Administrator shall consider

(1) the approximate real property taxes and assessments for local improvements which would be paid to the governmental entity upon property within the community if such property were not exempt from taxation by reason of Federal ownership;

(2) the maintaining of municipal services at a level which will not impede the recruitment or retention of personnel essential to the Energy Research and Development Administration programs;

(3) the fiscal problems peculiar to the governmental entity by reason of the construction at the community as a single-purpose national defense installation under emergency conditions;

(4) the municipal services and other burdens imposed on the governmental or other entities at the community by the United States in its operations in the project area; and

(5) the tax revenues and sources available to the governmental entity, its efforts and diligence in collection of taxes, assessment of property, and the efficiency of its operations.

(b) Special interim payments
Special interim payments may be made under the provisions of this section to any governmental entity which

(1) has a special burden due to the requirements under law imposed upon it in assisting in effectuating the purposes of this chapter for which it will not otherwise receive adequate compensation or revenues; or

(2) will suffer a tax loss or lapse in place of which it will not receive any other adequate revenues until the new governmental entities contemplated by this subchapter are receiving their normal taxes and performing their normal functions.

(c) Payments for special burdens
Payments made under this section shall be payments made for special burdens imposed on the local governmental entities in accordance with the second sentence of section 2208 of this title. Payments may be made under this section notwithstanding the provisions of the Act of September 30, 1950^[1] (Public Law 874, Eighty-first Congress), as amended.

(d) Recommendation for further assistance payments
With respect to any entity not less than six months prior to the expiration of the ten-year period referred to in subsection (a) of this section (or not less than six months prior to June 30, 1979, in the case of the cities of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington, and the Richland School District; or not less than six months prior to June 30, 1986, in the case of Anderson County and Roane County, Tennessee; or not later than June 30, 1996, in the case of the Los Alamos School Board and the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico), the Administrator shall present to the appropriate committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate recommendations as to the need for any further assistance payments to such entity. If the recommendation under the preceding sentence regarding the Los Alamos School Board or the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico, indicates a need for further assistance for the school board or the county, as the case may be, after June 30, 1997, the recommendation shall include a report and plan describing the actions required to eliminate the need for further assistance for the school board or the county, including a proposal for legislative action to carry out the plan.

(e) Reduction or termination of assistance payments; determination by Administrator of financial self-sufficiency
In exercising the authority of subsection (a) of this section the Administrator shall assure that the governmental or other entities receiving assistance hereunder utilize all reasonable, available means to achieve financial self-sufficiency to the end that assistance payments by the Administrator may be reduced or terminated at the earliest practical time.

[1] See References in Text note below.

42 USC 2392 - Reduction of payments

Any payment which becomes due under section 2391 of this title prior to the transfer of all municipal installations at the community may be reduced by such amount as the Administrator determines to be equitable based on the municipal services then being performed by the Energy Research and Development Administration, and the municipal services then being performed by such governmental entity.

42 USC 2393 - Payments in anticipation of services; withholding of payments

The payments made pursuant to section 2391 of this title to transferees of municipal installations are in anticipation that the respective recipients of those payments furnish, or have furnished, for the community, the school, hospital, or other municipal services in respect of which the payments are made. Any such payment may be withheld, in whole or in part, if the Administrator finds that the recipient is not furnishing such services for any part of the area so designated.

42 USC 2394 - Contract to make payments

The Administrator is authorized, without regard to sections 1341, 1342, and 1349–1351 and subchapter II of chapter 15 of title 31, to enter into a contract with any governmental or other entity to which payments are authorized to be made pursuant to section 2391 of this title, obligating the Administrator to make to such entity the payments directed or authorized to be made by section 2391 of this title: Provided, however, That the term of such contracts, in the case of the cities of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington, and the Richland School District, shall not extend beyond June 30, 1979; and in the case of the Los Alamos School Board shall not extend beyond June 30, 1997; and in the case of the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico, shall not extend beyond June 30, 1997. The authority to enter into a contract under the preceding sentence with the Los Alamos School Board and with the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico, shall be effective with respect to a period before July 1, 1997, only to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriation Acts.