15. a. In the case of a district other than an SDA district, for any project approved by the commissioner after the effective date of this act, the district may elect to receive a one-time grant for the State share of the project in accordance with the provisions of subsection b. of this section rather than annual debt service aid under section 9 of P.L.2000, c.72 (C. 18A:7G-9). The State share payable to the district shall equal the product of the project’s final eligible costs and the district aid percentage or 40%, whichever is greater.

b. The commissioner shall establish a process for the annual allocation of grant funding. Under that process, the commissioner shall annually notify districts of the date on which the commissioner shall begin to receive applications for grant funding. A district shall have 90 days from that date to submit an application to the commissioner. The commissioner shall make a decision on a district’s application within 90 days of the submission of all such applications and shall allocate the grant funding in accordance with the priority process established pursuant to paragraph (4) of subsection m. of section 5 of P.L.2000, c.72 (C. 18A:7G-5).

c. The development authority shall provide grant funding for the State’s share of the final eligible costs of a school facilities project pursuant to an agreement between the district and the development authority which shall, in addition to other terms and conditions, set forth the terms of disbursement of the State share. The funding of the State share shall not commence until the district secures financing for the local share.

L.2000, c.72, s.15; amended 2007, c.137, s.26; 2007, c.260, s.46; 2008, c.39, s.5.