The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 29: Public Property and Supplies

Chapter 061: Municipal Equipment and Vehicle Loan Fund

• § 1601. Municipal Equipment and Vehicle Loan Fund

  (a) There is hereby created the Municipal Equipment and Vehicle Loan Fund for the purpose of providing loans on favorable terms to municipalities for the purchase of motorized highway building and maintenance equipment, heavy equipment, and authorized emergency vehicles as set forth in 23 V.S.A. § 4.

  (b) The Municipal Equipment and Vehicle Loan Fund shall be administered by a committee composed of the State Treasurer and the State Traffic Committee established by 19 V.S.A. § 1(24), pursuant to policies and procedures approved by this Committee with administrative support from the Office of the State Treasurer. The Committee shall establish criteria for distribution of available loan funds among municipalities considering at least financial need, equitable geographic distribution, and ability to repay. The Fund shall be a revolving fund and all principal and interest earned on loans and the fund balance remaining in the Fund at the end of any fiscal year shall be available for use in the succeeding fiscal year. The Committee shall meet upon request of the State Treasurer to consider applications. (Added 1985, No. 187 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; amended 1987, No. 89, § 314c; 2019, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 289; 2025, No. 27, § E.131.1, eff. July 1, 2025.)

• § 1602. Application; loans; conditions

  (a) Application forms shall be furnished by the Committee on request. Upon Committee approval of an application of a municipality or two or more municipalities applying jointly for purchases as set forth in subsection 1601(a) of this title, the State Treasurer may loan money from the Fund to the applicants. Loans from the Fund shall be used on equipment and vehicles with a useful life of at least five years and a purchase price of at least $20,000.00.

  (b) The State Treasurer is authorized to establish terms and conditions, including repayment schedules of up to five years for loans from the Fund to ensure repayment of loans to the Fund. The amount of any loan shall be not more than 75 percent of the purchase price or $150,000.00, whichever is lower. Before a municipality may receive a loan from the Fund, it shall give to the State Treasurer security for the repayment of the funds. The security shall be in such form and amount as the State Treasurer may determine and may include a lien on the equipment or emergency vehicle financed by the loan.

  (c) The rates of interest shall be as established by this section to assist municipalities in purchasing equipment upon terms more favorable than in the commercial market. Such rates shall be not more than two percent per annum for a loan to a single municipality, and loans shall bear no interest charge if made to two or more municipalities purchasing equipment jointly.

  (d) In any fiscal year, new loans from the Fund shall not exceed an aggregate of $1,500,000.00.

  (e) When a municipality suffers the destruction of more than one piece of equipment or a vehicle at or near the same time or suffers some unanticipated hardship relating to the equipment or vehicle and the Committee finds that replacement would place an undue financial hardship on the municipality, the Committee may waive one or both of the following loan limiting factors in subsection (b) of this section:

  (1) the $150,000.00 annual limitation on each municipality; or

  (2) the 75 percent of the purchase price limitation.

  (f) The State Treasurer shall put forth recommendations to the General Assembly on the maximum individual loan amount from the Fund every five years, commencing on January 15, 2028, based on requests received and loans granted pursuant to this chapter in the five preceding years. (Added 1985, No. 187 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; amended 1987, No. 89, § 314c; 1991, No. 172 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 1, 2; 1999, No. 156 (Adj. Sess.), § 46, eff. May 29, 2000; 2005, No. 175 (Adj. Sess.), § 24; 2023, No. 87 (Adj. Sess.), § 77, eff. March 13, 2024; 2025, No. 27, § E.131.1, eff. July 1, 2025.)

• § 1603. Joint purchasing

  The Secretary of Transportation and the Commissioner of Buildings and General Services, or their designees, shall develop and promote a program of joint purchasing with the municipalities by which purchases of equipment by the State are combined, where possible, with purchases of equipment by any municipality electing to participate in order to obtain volume purchasing discounts and other purchasing benefits. (Added 1985, No. 187 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; amended 1987, No. 89, § 314c; 1995, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 4(a), eff. May 6, 1996.)