The Financial Assistance Division of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board recently completed a banner year.
In Fiscal Year 2025 (July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025), the division approved more than $450 million in loans and grants to fund 133 projects, division chief Lori Johnson said. The low-interest loans saved communities more than $156 million in interest charges over traditional financing, she said.
In FY25 the division disbursed $682 million in loans and grants, which was $200 million more than the $473 million disbursed in FY24, Executive Director Julie Cunningham told the Water Board on July 15.
Financial Assistance also closed on $432,355,000 in bonds, the proceeds of which were used to underwrite FAP revenue bond loans, Drinking Water and Clean Water state revolving fund long-term, low-interest loans for water and wastewater improvement projects.
The state agency maintained AAA ratings from Fitch and S&P on its state revolving fund and FAP bond issues.
That superior rating “translated into the lowest possible interest rate for communities and rural districts financing any water or wastewater reclamation infrastructure project,” Cunningham said.
Since 1986 the OWRB has approved 1,243 loans, ledgers reflect – and only one of those recipients defaulted. “And they continue to pay it off, just slowly,” Johnson said.
To date her division has approved 184 ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) projects totaling $481 million. Of that amount, $176 million (36%) has been disbursed so far, she said; the balance must be disbursed by year’s-end 2026, federal regulations decree. Twenty-nine of the projects are “fully expended.”
FY25 also was a memorable year for the Financial Assistance Division’s Rural Economic Action Plan grant program.
Starting in 2016 the OWRB’s share of the Legislature’s REAP appropriation was $1.2 million, which was incorporated into the agency’s operating budget, Johnson related. But in 2024 state lawmakers allocated an additional $4 million in REAP funds to the OWRB.
The $1.2 million financed only nine projects in FY24, Johnson said. But with almost $5.3 million in REAP funds in FY25, the Financial Assistance Division was able to approve 52 water and wastewater improvement projects, she said.
The REAP grant program was created by the Legislature in 1996 to improve life in rural Oklahoma. Its purpose is to assist small communities, towns, counties, and unincorporated areas that have fewer than 7,000 residents and little or no funding capabilities.