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An Act To Amend the Social Work Education Loan Repayment Program
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 10 MRSA §1038, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 2009, c. 427, §1, is amended to read:
 
5. Administration.   The program and the fund are administered by the authority. The authority shall repay the loans, either through loan repayments to the lender or debt relief directly to the applicant, of up to 340 applicants each year who meet the criteria in subsection 3 in the amount of up to $5,000$1,000 for each applicant. The authority may adopt rules to carry out the purposes of this subchapter. Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 2. Appropriations and allocations. The following appropriations and allocations are made.
 
FINANCE AUTHORITY OF MAINE
 
Initiative: Appropriates ongoing funds for the Social Work Education Loan Repayment Program.

GENERAL FUND	2013-14	2014-15	
All Other	$20,000	$20,000	
			
GENERAL FUND TOTAL	$20,000	$20,000	

SUMMARY
This bill amends the Social Work Education Loan Repayment Program to allow the Finance Authority of Maine to provide debt relief directly to the applicant or to make loan repayments to the lender. This bill also increases the number of applicants who may be eligible for loan relief from 3 applicants to 40 applicants per year, decreases the maximum amount of debt relief to $1,000 and provides an ongoing appropriation of $20,000 per year.