Opportunities for Free Technical Assistance and Legal Support to Pursue Elective Pay
GFOA is collaborating with the World Resources Institute (WRI), Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG), and the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network (SSDN) to offer pro bono assistance and peer learning opportunities. These services aim to help local governments and applicable entities maximize the uptake of elective pay and incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
We are currently seeking funding to provide direct 1:1 technical assistance, pro bono legal support, and financial and budgeting consultation to a limited set of local entities that complete eligible projects in 2023 or 2024. These entities should seek to file a tax return to receive reimbursement in 2024 or 2025. Planning to pursue elective pay but not sure when? Still have questions about this process? No problem. We also plan to provide webinars with member presentations and other peer-learning opportunities to share lessons learned, demystify the application process, provide the latest updates from the IRS and Treasury, and answer your general questions.
Please note that we anticipate providing direct technical assistance and pro bono legal support services to 30-40 communities and eligible local entities in 2024. Factors considered for this assistance include whether the entity has placed an eligible clean energy project into service in 2023 or 2024, whether the entity is likely to be ready to file in 2024 or 2025, and various other factors. The goal is to help a wide variety of communities across geographies, size, politics, and project type that can serve as examples and inspiration to other peer jurisdictions. If your community is not selected for direct technical assistance and legal support services, we will still seek to provide help, addressing your specific legal elective pay questions via partner support and general legal resources provided by L4GG.
Whether you’re ready to pursue elective pay now or in the future, we’d love to learn about your needs to help us define our programming. If you’re interested in receiving support on Elective Pay and IRA tax incentives or project financing, please fill out this intake form. We ask that you provide us with a few details (if you know) about the types of projects you are considering for elective pay, when you plan to file a tax return, and the type of technical assistance you would like to receive. A lot of interest in receiving these services was expressed at the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) Annual Meeting in October. If so, please fill out the intake form to formally capture your interest and needs. We ask that you fill out the intake form by December 8, 2023.
If you have any questions about this effort, the intake form, or would like to provide supplemental information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to GFOA’s Federal Liaison Center. For more information and links to resources, see GFOA’s IRA Implementation Resource page.