RACP Grant Process at a Glance

After the Governor approves the release of funding for an RACP project, the Office of the Budget sends an award letter to serve as written notification authorizing the preparation and submission to the Office of the Budget of a formal and complete Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program application for the project. The application contains 17 tabs that must be addressed, including the match amount, plans and specifications, budget and detailed sources of funding. Typically, all grant recipients must submit their applications within six months of the date of the award letter, and RACP applicants must be able to demonstrate that at least 50 percent of the required non-state funds necessary to complete the project are secured at the time of the application.

Note: A project is eligible for RACP funding only if that project has been itemized in an act - such as a Capital Budget Project Itemization Act - passed by the General Asembly and signed into law by the Governor. 

Once the Office of the Budget receives the grant application, a preliminary review is conducted and a state-hired consultant is engaged to conduct an exhaustive review of the application. After the consultant’s assessment, a report is forwarded to the Office of the Budget. The budget office reviews the report and prepares the grant agreement, which will contain applicable special conditions.

The grant agreement will be sent to the recipient for signature. Once it is returned to the Office of the Budget, it will be forwarded to the appropriate agencies within the commonwealth administration for validation and execution. It is important to note that the Office of the Budget cannot reimburse on any RACP-compliant costs until a fully executed Grant Agreement is in place. The contract must be approved by the following signatories: (1) Office of the Budget Chief Counsel, (2) the Secretary of the Budget, (3) the Deputy General Counsel, (4) the Deputy Attorney General and (5) the Labor, Education, and Community Services Comptroller. A copy of the executed grant agreement is always forwarded to the grantee.

Once the grant agreement is fully executed for the RACP funding, the recipient will then have a maximum of six months to meet the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement and begin construction of the project.

The RACP grant is operated on a proportional reimbursement basis as construction expenses are incurred and paid. Reimbursements are accumulated over a 36-month period, unless a shorter period of reimbursement is authorized by the Secretary of the Budget.

During construction, the project is typically monitored on a monthly basis by the same consultant engaged during the application review.  The Office of the Budget is required to reimburse the RACP grant on a proportional basis, based on the corresponding expenditure of matching funds. Please note that the entire scope of the project must be in compliance with all RACP requirements – including those covering bidding, the Prevailing Wage Act and the use of domestic steel – and must satisfy all of the special conditions identified in the agreement between the Office of the Budget and the grantee before access to the RACP funding is permitted. After the project reaches 100 percent completion, a portion of the grant is retained pending the legislatively mandated closeout audit of the project. The amount retained will be released after the successful conclusion of the audit.