FIRST REGULAR SESSION
95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES KOMO (Sponsor), SCHIEFFER, FALLERT AND ATKINS (Co-sponsors).
0136L.01I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 620.163, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to rural economic development.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 620.163, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 620.163, to read as follows:
620.163. 1. There is hereby established a "Rural Communities Economic Assistance Program", which shall be administered by the office of rural development. Under the auspices of the rural communities economic assistance program and, until June 30, [2000] 2015, with the recommendations of the Missouri rural economic development council, the office of rural development shall have the authority, until June 30, [2010] 2015, to make available to qualifying rural communities grants-in-aid designed to achieve the goals stated in subsection 1 of section 620.161. The grants-in-aid awarded pursuant to this authority may be funded out of the general revenue fund or from any other available source allowed by law.
2. The office of rural development shall take applications for grants-in-aid from sponsoring organizations on behalf of rural communities. The applications shall be designed by the office of rural development and shall contain information necessary to determine the potential economic benefits of grants-in-aid to be awarded, as well as other information deemed necessary for the administration of this program.
3. The grants-in-aid to be awarded under the rural communities economic development assistance program shall be distributed to not more than twenty communities chosen by the office of rural development with the recommendations of the Missouri rural economic development council so long as it exists from the applications received prior to February twenty-eighth of each year. The grants-in-aid shall be distributed on July first of each year to such communities in an amount not to exceed thirty thousand dollars per community. No community may receive grants-in-aid for more than two consecutive years. In order to qualify for a grant-in-aid from the office of rural economic development, each community must match the amount of the grant with local funds equal to one-third of the grant-in-aid.
4. The sponsoring organization of each community chosen to receive a grant-in-aid from the office of rural economic development shall provide the community with equipment, office space, telephone service, stationery, and such other office supplies and services as are necessary to accomplish the goals set forth in subsection 1 of section 620.161 and in the application submitted to the office of rural economic development. The provision of such supplies and services by the sponsoring organization may be used to meet the one-third fund match requirement set forth in subsection 3 of this section.
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