4. a. The authority shall establish a Garden State C-PACE program to facilitate the financing of C-PACE projects in municipalities that adopt an opt-in ordinance. The Garden State C-PACE program shall consist of the development of uniform assessment documents and program guidelines for the financing of C-PACE projects to be undertaken by property owners as local improvements and the provision by ordinance, subject to the approval of the authority, for a C-PACE assessment to be imposed on properties within the municipality, if the owner of a property requests the C-PACE assessment in order to undertake and finance a C-PACE project. C-PACE projects on an individual property subject to the same C-PACE assessment agreement collectively shall constitute a separate local improvement and shall be assessed separately to the property owner benefitted thereby.

b. The authority may contract with, and set the compensation of, one or more third-party administrators, whether private, public or quasi-public, or for-profit or not-for-profit, to assist the authority in its implementation or administration, or a combination thereof, of the Garden State C-PACE program pursuant to a competitive bidding process. The authority may delegate any duties under the program to one or more third-party administrators, provided that the authority shall not delegate its responsibility for general oversight of the Garden State C-PACE program.

c. The authority may enter into a memorandum of agreement with one or more State government agencies or instrumentalities whereby any of the powers the authority may exercise or responsibilities it must fulfill pursuant to P.L.2021, c.201 (C. 34:1B-374 et al.) may be exercised or fulfilled, as the case may be, by such agency or instrumentality, and any fund that may be used for administrative expenses by the authority may be used by such agency or instrumentality in exercising such powers or fulfilling such responsibilities.

d. The authority may establish a loss reserve, issue guarantees, or both, to mitigate the repayment risk assumed by capital providers providing direct financing, in order to improve the availability and financial terms of such financing of C-PACE projects for property owners.

L.2021, c.201, s.4.