HB 227 Summary

• Adds "resilience improvement" projects to Alaska's municipal energy assessment programs, expanding eligible projects to include seismic improvements, stormwater management, flood mitigation, fire hardening, erosion management, microgrids, water efficiency, electric vehicle charging stations, and building retrofits.

• Increases maximum assessment period from 20 to 30 years and increases financing cap from 20 to 25 percent of property market value for energy and resilience improvements.

• Permits assessments for energy and resilience improvement projects completed within the past two years, in addition to proposed projects.

• Modifies planning commission membership requirements for first and second class boroughs with populations less than 20,000 or more than 75,000 by removing the mandatory apportionment requirement for smaller and mid-sized boroughs.

• Adds "improvement of building resilience" as an essential public purpose for municipalities to issue bonds or notes for energy and resilience projects.

• Takes effect immediately upon enactment.