This week, the Anne Arundel County Council passed legislation to establish a local resilience authority.
The resilience authority will be a partnership with the City of Annapolis and will help both local governments accelerate infrastructure financing to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“I want to thank the County Council for passing legislation to create a Resilience Authority, and I want to thank our lead sponsors in the Maryland General Assembly – Senator Sarah Elfreth and Delegates Courtney Watson and Brooke Lierman – for their work in moving forward with the state authorizing legislation.
The Anne Arundel County Resilience Authority is the brainchild of the best minds in resilience financing, and experts across the country are watching us. It accompanies our resilience plan and the resilience section of Plan2040. Rather than depending completely on our taxpayers to fund our defense against the impacts of climate change, we are creating a body that will attract federal and private funds to our jurisdiction.”
Legislation passed during the 2020 General Assembly Session with MACo’s support that enables local governments to form resilience authorities to aid in the financing of resilience infrastructure projects.
As many communities across the state struggle with the impacts of sea level rise, local governments are looking for means to effectively finance necessary mitigation infrastructure to protect waterfront areas from the effects of climate change. Private capital can make all the difference in getting these types of projects off the ground, and resilience authorities allow governments to attract other investments to achieve their goals. Resilience authorities can also help local government better fund climate change mitigation efforts.
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