State and town legislatures met at Independence Park Tuesday morning to advocate for the passage of House bill H-6252, which would formally establish the Resilient Rhody Infrastructure Act. The bill would allow the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank to establish the Resilient Rhody Infrastructure Fund, which would provide financial and technical assistance to local governments for resiliency and stormwater abatement projects.

In attendance were the Infrastructure Bank’s executive director William Fazioli, RI general treasurer James Diossa, Representatives Susan Donovan and June Speakman, and bill sponsors Representative Terri Cortvriend and Senator Louis Dipalma.

Town administrator Steven Contente started the conference by discussing the boat ramp replacement project happening at the park, one of the projects that the Infrastructure Bank has helped the town with over the years, mentioning that the bank has donated over 70 million to the town since 1992.

“We’re always promoting outdoor use and exercise, so this is one more project amongst many that the Infrastructure Bank is helping us with,” Contente said.

Cortvriend spoke on the environmental damage that has come to Rhode Island recently, and how this bill is aimed at helping municipalities take on climate change.

“One of the big things that we’ve been trying to tackle on the study commission is how we are going to be able to pay for or help municipalities pay for all the resiliency projects that need to be tackled for climate change and sea level rise,” Cortvriend said.

Dipalma also said that the fund would be important in making sure that shoreline communities can handle severe storms that are going to continue in the near future.

RI Infrastructure Bank William Fazioli spoke on the importance of the bill. “What this fund will do is allow us to create a sustainable financing framework to create a renewable and sustainable financing program for these projects so we can encourage more bolder projects and work with the community going forward,” he said.

Resilient Rhody Infrastructure Fund legislation is enabling only. Seed funding for the program would come from existing Infrastructure Bank resources that would be directed to adaptation projects which yield a high return on investment. A growing body of research indicates that investing in pre-disaster mitigation projects will save communities significant dollars and safeguard fiscal health over the long term.