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The VW Settlement’s Trust Effective Date is October 2, 2017. Here’s what you need to do next.
It’s been just around the corner for a long time now. But the waiting is over. The Trust Effective Date for the Volkswagen Settlement is October 2, 2017, the date on which the court executed the Trust Agreement. That means that millions of dollars in trust funds are heading to your state — provided you meet your deadlines.
Here’s what you need to know to access your share of the settlement funds without a hitch.
What Do I Need to Do Right Now?
Your most immediate and critical priority is securing Beneficiary status. That must be done by December 1, 2017. You do this by completing a form, filing it with the Court, and providing copies to the Trustee, Wilmington Trust.
Sounds easy! But there is more to this process than meets the eye, so you won’t want to leave it to the last minute.
For example: Not only does your Governor need to select a lead agency for administering the funds, but legal counsel from your state should review the certification language before your Governor signs the form. You also need a written description of how you’ll make Trust-related records publicly available. And there’s more to consider.
We can’t overstate the importance of the December 1 deadline. If you miss it, your state won’t be a Beneficiary and its share of the funds will be distributed to other states. We’re talking millions of dollars gone if you miss the deadline.
We’ve developed a handy checklist to help you get everything submitted on time. In addition, our VW experts have put together several other free resources to help you get started. Just email us if you’d like templates of forms or if there are other ways we can help.
Whatever you do, be sure your state submits its certification for Beneficiary status by December 1, 2017.
Looking Ahead: What Comes Next?
After submitting your state’s Beneficiary certification paperwork, your next round of deadlines will be a little further out. But they require more than just filling out forms. Preparing for these milestones now will avoid headaches in the future.
Once your state is officially a Beneficiary, you’ll have to file notifications with various federal agencies. The deadline for these notifications is further down the road, but you can get a head start now by putting together a list of federal agency contacts and preparing a simple notification message.
Your state also needs to develop a Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (BMP). Your BMP outlines your high-level vision for using Trust funds and maps a course for achieving that vision. Don’t worry — your plan is non-binding, so you can still shift goals in future years to accommodate changing priorities, technological advances, and other unforeseen factors.
The deadline for submitting your BMP is tied to your requests for funds. You’ll have to file your state’s BMP 30 days before you submit your first funding request to Wilmington Trust.
If you’re planning to start funding projects soon, then you’ll want to get started on your BMP right away, if it’s not already in the works. If you don’t plan to start using Trust funds right away, then you have more time to get your BMP ready.
We have resources to help you with this next stage of the process. These include: templates to help you jump-start the federal agency notification process; a long list of goal statements, allocations, and priorities that you can use in crafting your BMPs; and a spreadsheet calculator that can help you weigh the benefits and cost-effectiveness of different mitigation options. Please contact us to learn more about these resources.
Looking Farther Ahead: What’s Just Over the Horizon?
Once your state clears the immediate and near-term deadlines, you get a bit of breathing room. After all, your state will have 10 years to spend its share of the trust funds. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore things. We all know that spending money is sometimes harder than it sounds.
A bit of long-range planning now can save a lot of headaches down the road. It is not too early to start thinking about contract terms for mitigation projects, scrappage protocols, approaches to semi-annual reporting, and fraud prevention and detection strategies.
There’s a lot to consider. Fortunately, we’ve worked on many large-scale diesel emission mitigation projects, and they’ve taught us a lot about how to do these things well. We’d be happy to share insights whenever you’re ready to start focusing on the implementation phase of the VW settlement in your state. Contact us to learn more.
And remember: your state’s certification for Beneficiary status is due by December 1, 2017.
