6 V.S.A. § 4643: Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund; payments

(a) The Secretary, after consultation with the Review Board, shall award payments from the Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund to persons owning farms and forestry operations that have incurred financial losses or expenses due to an eligible weather condition.

(1) Payments from the Fund shall be in an amount that reimburses a farm or forestry operation for up to 50 percent of the unreimbursed, uninsured, or otherwise uncovered losses due to eligible weather conditions, up to a maximum annual award of five percent of the undesignated and unreserved funds in the Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund at the beginning of each fiscal year, provided that the award shall not exceed $150,000.00 per qualified applicant farm or forestry operation per year.

(2) The Secretary may verify the occurrence of an eligible weather condition claimed under this section through a site visit or through use of available data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from other federal or State certified weather data sources, or from other public or private weather or satellite data or models.

(3) Losses reimbursable by a payment under this section include:

(A) wages or compensation;

(B) replacement of lost income from destroyed crops, impacted livestock, or timber;

(C) debt payments or other ongoing expenses;

(D) costs of replanting;

(E) livestock feed replacement costs;

(F) infrastructure or equipment repair and replacement;

(G) repair of farm roads, roads necessary to access farms, repair of washed out or otherwise damaged logging roads;

(H) inability to access harvested timber due to flooding or other weather conditions; and

(I) other losses as determined by the Secretary after consultation with the Review Board.

(b) The Secretary shall develop a streamlined application for awards under this section that shall include:

(1) a brief description of the damage that occurred;

(2) attestation of an eligible weather condition or event;

(3) a list of any State grants or loans received for the purposes of the farm or forestry operation business in the past five years, to include amount, source, and purposes of the funding received;

(4) an estimate of losses; and

(5) a year-end report of farm or forestry operation income and expenses.

(c) An application for an award under this section may be made at any time, and the Secretary may only close the application process upon award of all appropriated funds for the relevant fiscal year.

(d) Applications for an award under this section shall be processed in the order received for each quarter, but an application shall not be ready for evaluation until the Secretary determines that the application is administratively complete and includes all documentation required by the Secretary.

(e) All administratively complete applications shall be evaluated by the Review Board. Within 15 days following receipt of an administratively complete application, the Review Board by majority vote shall recommend to the Secretary whether to issue a payment to the applicant. The Secretary shall make a final award determination within 15 days following the date of the Review Board’s recommendation.

(f) The Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets may pay reasonable administrative expenses from the Fund for purposes of administering the requirements of this subchapter.