The authority shall provide the maximum opportunity for the use of the authority’s financing by individuals, businesses engaged in agricultural operations, and small businesses or corporations by providing information, assistance, and coordination to facilitate financing for small projects and other financing that benefits the environment and the economy of the state, including financing for projects for the disposal of agricultural wastes, with special attention to the needs of businesses that do not meet standard commercial lending requirements but provide public benefits, such as job creation or retention and the redevelopment for economically beneficial uses of contaminated properties. The authority shall assist with the financing of the costs of, among other things, assessment of, remedial planning and reporting for, technical assistance for, and the cleanup, remediation, or development of, brownfield sites, and any other similar or related costs, by providing the loans authorized pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 44526. The authority shall provide the maximum opportunity to provide loan funding pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 44526 to assist brownfield site financing assistance programs where the sites are located in economically struggling communities suffering from a low level of income or a high level of poverty or unemployment.

(Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 160, Sec. 1. Effective August 9, 2001.)