611.11—Local financial commitment criteria.
In order to approve a grant or loan under 49 U.S.C. 5309, FTA must find that the proposed project is supported by an acceptable degree of local financial commitment, as required by section 5309(e)(1)(C). The local financial commitment to a proposed project will be evaluated according to the following measures:
(a)
The proposed share of project capital costs to be met using funds from sources other than the section 5309 new starts program, including both the non-Federal match required by Federal law and any additional capital funding (“overmatch”), and the degree to which planning and preliminary engineering activities have been carried out without funding from the section 5309 new starts program;
(b)
The stability and reliability of the proposed capital financing plan for the new starts project; and
(c)
The stability and reliability of the proposed operating financing plan to fund operation of the entire transit system as planned over a 20-year planning horizon.
(d)
For each proposed project, ratings for paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section will be reported in terms of descriptive indicators, as follows: “high,” “medium-high,” “medium,” “low-medium,” or “low.” For paragraph (a) of this section, the percentage of Federal funding sought from 49 U.S.C. § 5309 will be reported.
(e)
The summary ratings for each measure described in this section will be combined into a summary rating of “high,” “medium-high,” “medium,” “low-medium,” or “low” for local financial commitment.