Application Procedures
Prospective applicants are required to submit a pre-application package to the Coal Board Administrative Staff 30 days before any of the four quarterly Coal Board meetings held throughout the year. (The pre-application form is available on this website.) The pre-application must include a complete description of the proposed project, a preliminary engineering report with estimated project costs, the estimated project completion date, documentation of the need for the project relative to coal development or decline, and documentation of the applicant's legal and financial ability to undertake and manage the proposed service or facility. Applicants should be able to show how their request reasonably fits into an overall plan for the orderly management of the existing or contemplated growth or decline problems. (90-6-207, MCA)
Department of Commerce staff and other appropriate agencies and consultants review the pre-application. At the next Board meeting, the applicant makes a formal presentation to the board. After a review of all pre-application information, the Board takes official action on each proposal, either approving, denying, or tabling it. If the pre-application is approved, the applicant is typically instructed to submit a full application for the next board meeting. The Board may require additional information to be submitted with the full application, including local government budgets, documentation of local efforts to resolve coal development impacts, documentation of local planning efforts and citizen participation, and firm bids or estimates of project costs. Applicants are then required to present the final proposal to the Coal Board. Technical and procedural assistance regarding application requirements is available from Coal Board administrative staff and Department of Commerce personnel.
Ranking and Approval Process
Although the Coal board has no formal ranking system, it does base its awards on the following four statutory criteria (90-6-206, MCA):
Need - Would the proposed project enable the applicant “to adequately provide governmental services and facilities that are needed as a direct consequence of an increase or decrease in coal development or in the consumption of coal by a coal-using energy complex”?
Degree of Severity of Impact - What demographic and economic changes have directly resulted from coal development or decline? To what extent have community residents been directly affected by the coal development or decline? Is the assistance necessary to eliminate or reduce the severity of a problem affecting the public’s health, safety, or welfare?
Availability of Funds - Are there sufficient Coal Board funds available to grant the total amount requested, in light of the other total requests submitted?
Degree of Local Effort in Meeting These Needs – Is the applicant making a reasonable effort to meet the identified needs with local resources, based on its financial capacity? Given the limited amount of Coal Board funds, has the applicant made reasonable efforts to secure funding from other appropriate sources to assist in funding the proposed project?
Section 90-6-206, MCA provides:
(2) In determining the degree of local effort, the board shall review the millage rates levied for the present fiscal year in relation to the average millage rates levied during the 3 years immediately preceding the year of application for assistance.
(3) Millage rates for the present fiscal year that are lower than the average millage rate levied during the 3 years immediately preceding the year of application for assistance must be considered by the board to indicate the lack of local effort. The application under these circumstances may be rejected.
(4) Further, in determining the degree of local effort, the board shall consider the possibility of requiring that local governmental unit to increase its bonded indebtedness to provide all or part of the governmental service or facility that is needed as a direct consequence of an increase or decrease in coal development or in the consumption of coal by a coal-using energy complex.
(5) To the extent that funds are needed to evaluate and plan for the impact needs caused by the increase or decrease in coal development or in the consumption of coal by a coal-using energy complex, consideration of bond issues and millage levies may be waived.
After the Coal Board has evaluated the final application proposal and its relationship to the four award guidelines, the Board takes action on the final application by designating the amount of assistance and any contract stipulations. Procedures regarding the Montana Coal Board Grant Program are summarized in Figure 1.
