Funds are for low interest loans to government entities in areas of the State impacted by natural resource development. The money comes from federal mineral lease bonus payments. Money must be loaned with interest due and not given as a grant.
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $4,975,200 from all sources for Permanent Community Impact Bonus Fund. This is an 8.9 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources.
In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:
FY 2014 ended with $15,887,700 million in uncommitted funds.
UCA 59-21-1(2) directs 70% of federal mineral lease bonus payments to this fund and says that funds must be loaned with interest due on the loan. United States Code Title 30, Chapter 3A, Subchapter 1, Section 191 directs the money be used for public facilities and services by political subdivisions. The federal law directs the Legislature to give priority to subdivisions that are socially or economically impacted by mineral development. UCA 35A-8-307(7) requires an annual report for who received loans and what types of loans they were. UCA 35A-8-305 directs the funding decisions to be made by the Permanent Community Impact Fund Board.
The funds go out as loans, which do not show up in the expenditure detail below. These loans show up as receivables on other financial statements. The ending balance has both committed and uncommitted funds. Committed funds can take years to pay out as disbursements go out as approved expenditures are submitted for each project.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.