A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to authorize the department of military and veterans affairs to apply for federal funds for the expansion of sandhills state veterans cemetery and western carolina state veterans cemetery and to appropriate those funds; to authorize the department of Military and veterans affairs to utilize available funds to match federal dollars for the construction of two new state veterans homes and to appropriate those funds; and to provide a grant for the veterans life center in butner.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (hereinafter "Department") is authorized to apply for federal funds for the expansion of Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery and Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery to make site improvements at the cemeteries. The Department is authorized to use the fund balance from Budget Code 23050 and any other funds available to the Department for the required ten percent (10%) match for this grant.
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from 23050 Special Revenue Account the State match funds and the federal funds described in Section 1 of this act for the purpose of the expansion of Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery and Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery to make site improvements at the cemeteries.
SECTION 3.  The General Assembly authorizes the Department to fund the construction of two new State veterans homes located in the Triangle and Triad Regions with funds available to it from the North Carolina Veterans Home Trust Fund established under G.S. 143B‑1293 in an amount not to exceed twenty‑eight million dollars ($28,000,000). The funds shall be used to provide the required State match for federal funding of the veterans home construction projects, and the matching funds and any federal dollars received for that purpose are hereby appropriated.
SECTION 4.(a)  Notwithstanding G.S. 143B‑1293(b), there is appropriated the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) from the North Carolina Veterans Home Trust Fund to the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs to be transferred to the Office of State Budget and Management to provide a grant to the Veterans Leadership Council of North Carolina‑Cares to be used for the Veterans Life Center in Butner.
SECTION 4.(b)  On or before June 1, 2019, the Veterans Leadership Council of North Carolina‑Cares shall submit a detailed report on its use of the grant funds provided in this section to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on General Government and the Fiscal Research Division.
SECTION 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2018.