(A) Beginning in fiscal year 1999-2000 and each fiscal year after that, the General Assembly must appropriate from general tax revenues an amount it considers appropriate for credit to the trust fund. The monies must be designated for funding:

(1) public beach restoration and maintenance projects; or

(2) improvement and enhancement of public beach access.

(B) Allocations of trust fund monies for public beach restoration and maintenance or improvement and enhancement of public beach access must be matched equally by municipal and county jurisdictions which are the sites of the projects.

(1) The local cost must be financed by all municipal and county jurisdictions in which the trust fund monies are applied, in proportion to the area of beach located within the respective jurisdictions.

(2) The matching requirement of this subsection does not apply to beach renourishment projects within state parks or other state-owned beachfront property.

(C) Trust fund allocations for a public beach restoration or maintenance project or project to improve and enhance public beach access may be made only to a project approved by the office pursuant to the application, review, ranking, and approval regulations promulgated, and procedures adopted, by the office.

(D) Municipal and county jurisdictions which apply for matching funds for proposed projects must be:

(1) ranked in relation to all other qualifying local government project applications; and

(2) approved according to the minimum regulatory criteria for construction within the beach and dune critical area.

(E) An application for trust fund monies for a public beach restoration or maintenance project or project to improve and enhance public beach access may be accepted by the office only from a municipal or county government with a Local Beach Management Plan approved by the office.

(F) An application pursuant to this section for matching funds for a public beach renourishment project may be accepted and ranked by the office only if the project first has been fully permitted and approved as otherwise provided by law.

(G) Allocations of trust fund monies may be made to approved public beach restoration or maintenance projects or projects for improvement and enhancement of public beach access only through properly executed written agreements between the office and all the municipal and county project sponsors. All the trust fund monies and the nonstate matching funds required for financing the projects must be deposited in an escrow account within five business days of the execution of the agreement and receipt of the monies from the trust fund. The office must be given quarterly financial status reports of this account and annual and final audit reports throughout the project's duration and at completion.

(H) State funds appropriated and designated for funding local efforts pursuant to this section may be used only for the purposes of public beach access improvement and enhancement and public beach restoration and maintenance projects.

HISTORY: 1999 Act No. 100, Part II, Section 8.