Supervisor Bill Reilich is pleased to announce that the Lake Ontario – St. Lawrence Seaway Flood Relief and Recovery Grant Program Homeowner Recovery Fund Application is now available. At 3:30pm this afternoon, Governor Cuomo came to town and signed the legislation that will help provide financial reimbursement to residents and businesses along the water front who have incurred damages due to the high water levels. Please see a description of the bill below.
Description:
- This bill would establish the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence Seaway Flood Relief and Recovery Grant Program, for small business, farms, owners of multiple dwellings, owners of residences, neighborhood associations, not-for-profit corporations and municipalities, to receive grants for damage as a result of flooding.
- Covers Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Seneca Lake, the Seneca Rivers, the Oswego River, the Oneida River, Oneida Lake and Cross Lake.
- Small businesses, farms, owners of multiple dwellings, HOAs and not-for-profit organizations ($15M total) (Administered by the NYS Urban Development Corporation).
- Up to $20k per multiple dwelling grant.
- Up to $50k per grant for small biz, farms, HOAs and not-for-profits.
- Owners of residences ($15M total) (Administered by the Affordable Housing Corporation).
- Owners of non-primary residences shall only be eligible with respect to the nonprimary residence if the owner has a qualified gross inform of no greater than $275,000 for the 2016 taxable year.
- Up to 50k per grant.
- Counties, cities, towns, villages and special districts ($15M total) (Administered by the Housing Trust Fund Corporation).
- Up to 1M per grant for flood-related repairs and restoration.
- Up to 500k per grant for flood mitigation.
- The bill would establish a grant program for municipalities and special districts in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties from direct physical flood related damages as a result of a severe storm and flooding that occurred on July 14-15, 2015.
- Not less than $6.8M
- This bill would establish a grant program for municipalities and special districts in Monroe County from direct physical storm related damages as a result of a severe storm that occurred on March 8-9, 2017.
- Not more than 2M
- This bill would establish a program authorizing a taxpayer who has incurred severe damage to his/her primary residence to subtract from his/her Federal AGI, distributions from an eligible retirement plan.
Justification:
This past spring has seen numerous incidents of serious flooding in upstate New York along Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Seneca Lake, the Seneca River, the Oswego River, the Oneida River, Oneida Lake and Cross Lake.
This bill would establish a grant program to promote recovery from such natural disaster, by allowing much needed financial resources to flow to small businesses, farms, owners of multiple dwellings, owners of residences, not-for-profit corporations and municipalities from the empire state development corporation.
Modeled after a highly successful program implemented after the state-wide flooding in the wake of the Irene and Lee Storms of 2011, this program is hoped to equally provide the important relief to these devastated New Yorkers, who have seen serious flooding damage over the last few months.
Supervisor Reilich wrote letters to the Governor on behalf of all waterfront residents supporting him to sign this legislation, and would like to thank all Greece residents who reached out to the Governor’s office urging him to sign the legislation. The Lake Ontario – St. Lawrence Seaway Flood Relief and Recovery Grant Program Homeowner Recovery Fund Application is available on the Town of Greece Website under the “News” section. Supervisor Reilich would like to encourage all Greece residents who have been affected by the flooding to submit their paperwork as soon as possible.
Application: Application