(a) There is established a Connecticut Service Corps to be administered by the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, within available appropriations. The corps shall provide persons between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five the opportunity, throughout the year, for meaningful and necessary work in temporary service to the state, its communities and its citizens.

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(b) Subject to the provisions of section 7-396a, any state agency, municipality or legally designated nonprofit or not-for-profit organization incorporated in this state may sponsor a Service Corps project and apply to the commissioner for a grant for said project.

(c) Grants made available to Service Corps project sponsors shall be made, within available appropriations, in accordance with the following provisions:

(1) For the first grant year: One dollar may be awarded for each dollar of state agency or municipal government funds committed to and expended for a project and one dollar and fifty cents may be awarded for each dollar of private funds committed to and expended for the project. Not more than one dollar may be awarded to match the value of in-kind services committed to and expended on a project. No grant shall be awarded to match any indirect expenses that may be incurred by a project sponsor.

(2) Provided a project sponsor has fulfilled the terms and requirements of the grant agreement in the preceding year and provided the amount of funds other than grant funds committed to and expended for the project shall be not less than the funds committed in the first year of the project, a project sponsor may apply for and receive, within available appropriations, diminishing annual grants as follows: In the second year of the project, seventy-five per cent of the amount awarded for the first year; in the third year of the project, fifty per cent of the amount awarded for the first year; in the fourth year of the project, twenty-five per cent of the amount awarded in the first year. No grant shall be awarded after the fourth year of the project. Grants for the continuation of existing projects shall take precedence over awards for new projects.

(d) A Service Corps project sponsor may apply for and be awarded, within available appropriations, grants for more than one project provided the personnel, financial and performance records for each project are maintained as separate and distinct from the records of all other projects and the accounting records of the sponsor substantiate the separation. No grant or matching funds from one project may be used to match grant funds for any other project.