C-PACE for Local Government

The MD-PACE program has been designed to ease the burden of C-PACE administration for counties that want offer C-PACE financing to their property owners. Maryland passed policy enabling C-PACE financing in the state in 2014. Because C-PACE is a property tax assessment and therefore part of the tax code, the law requires that local ordinances also be passed before counties can take advantage of C-PACE financing. For counties to opt in to MD-PACE, their legislative body must pass an ordinance establishing a C-PACE program and empowering the county to enter into an agreement with the Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC) to administer the program. This ordinance has been drafted and will be provided by MCEC. Once complete, MCEC will administer the MD-PACE program within the county at no cost to the county government. This includes the intake, review, and approval C-PACE projects; training local contractors and registering private capital providers with the program; providing annual program reports to the county; establishing procedures to place C-PACE surcharges and facilitate collections; and overseeing the remittance of C-PACE surcharge payments to capital providers.