Florida Senate - 2018                                    SB 1496
       
       
        
       By Senator Gainer
       
       
       
       
       
       2-01342-18                                            20181496__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to rural economic development;
    3         amending s. 288.018, F.S.; increasing the maximum
    4         grant amount under the Regional Rural Development
    5         Grants Program for organizations in rural areas of
    6         opportunity; revising the amount of a grant which
    7         organizations in rural areas of opportunity are
    8         required to match; providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 288.018, Florida
   13  Statutes, is amended to read:
   14         288.018 Regional Rural Development Grants Program.—
   15         (1) The department shall establish a matching grant program
   16  to provide funding to regionally based economic development
   17  organizations representing rural counties and communities for
   18  the purpose of building the professional capacity of their
   19  organizations. Such matching grants may also be used by an
   20  economic development organization to provide technical
   21  assistance to businesses within the rural counties and
   22  communities that it serves. The department is authorized to
   23  approve, on an annual basis, grants to such regionally based
   24  economic development organizations. The maximum amount an
   25  organization may receive in any year will be $50,000, or
   26  $250,000 to an organization $150,000 in a rural area of
   27  opportunity recommended by the Rural Economic Development
   28  Initiative and designated by the Governor. The grant, and must
   29  be matched each year by the organization in an equivalent amount
   30  of nonstate resources, except that a grant to an organization in
   31  a rural area of opportunity must be matched each year with
   32  nonstate resources equivalent to half of the grant amount.
   33         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.