§ 2391 — Assistance To Governmental Entities

(a) From the date of transfer of any municipal installations to a governmental or other entity at or for the community, the Administrator is authorized, for a period of ten years, to make annual assistance payments of just and reasonable sums to the State, county, or local entity having jurisdiction to collect property taxes or to the entity receiving the installation transferred hereunder: Provided, however, That with respect to the cities of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington, the Richland School District, the Los Alamos School Board, and the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Administrator is authorized to continue to make assistance payments of just and reasonable sums after expiration of such ten-year period: Provided further, That the Administrator is also authorized to make payments of just and reasonable sums to Anderson County and Roane County, Tennessee. In determining the amount and recipient of such payments the Administrator shall consider— (1) the approximate real property taxes and assessments for local improvements which would be paid to the governmental entity upon property within the community if such property were not exempt from taxation by reason of Federal ownership; (2) the maintaining of municipal services at a level which will not impede the recruitment or retention of personnel essential to the Energy Research and Development Administration programs; (3) the fiscal problems peculiar to the governmental entity by reason of the construction at the community as a single-purpose national defense installation under emergency conditions; (4) the municipal services and other burdens imposed on the governmental or other entities at the community by the United States in its operations in the project area; and (5) the tax revenues and sources available to the governmental entity, its efforts and diligence in collection of taxes, assessment of property, and the efficiency of its operations. (b) Special interim payments may be made under the provisions of this section to any governmental entity which— (1) has a special burden due to the requirements under law imposed upon it in assisting in effectuating the purposes of this chapter for which it will not otherwise receive adequate compensation or revenues; or (2) will suffer a tax loss or lapse in place of which it will not receive any other adequate revenues until the new governmental entities contemplated by this subchapter are receiving their normal taxes and performing their normal functions. (c) (Public Law 874, Eighty-first Congress), as amended. (d) With respect to any entity not less than six months prior to the expiration of the ten-year period referred to in subsection (a) (or not less than six months prior to June 30, 1979, in the case of the cities of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington, and the Richland School District; or not less than six months prior to June 30, 1986, in the case of Anderson County and Roane County, Tennessee; or not later than June 30, 1996, in the case of the Los Alamos School Board and the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico), the Administrator shall present to the appropriate committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate recommendations as to the need for any further assistance payments to such entity. If the recommendation under the preceding sentence regarding the Los Alamos School Board or the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico, indicates a need for further assistance for the school board or the county, as the case may be, after June 30, 1997, the recommendation shall include a report and plan describing the actions required to eliminate the need for further assistance for the school board or the county, including a proposal for legislative action to carry out the plan. (e) In exercising the authority of subsection (a) the Administrator shall assure that the governmental or other entities receiving assistance hereunder utilize all reasonable, available means to achieve financial self-sufficiency to the end that assistance payments by the Administrator may be reduced or terminated at the earliest practical time.