Florida Senate - 2023                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for SB 1482
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì172070tÎ172070                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  04/26/2023           .                                
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       The Committee on Fiscal Policy (Simon) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete lines 58 - 159
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 2. Paragraphs (b), (c), and (e) of subsection (2)
    6  and subsection (3) of section 288.0655, Florida Statutes, are
    7  amended to read:
    8         288.0655 Rural Infrastructure Fund.—
    9         (2)
   10         (b) To facilitate access of rural communities and rural
   11  areas of opportunity as defined by the Rural Economic
   12  Development Initiative to infrastructure funding programs of the
   13  Federal Government, such as those offered by the United States
   14  Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of
   15  Commerce, and state programs, including those offered by Rural
   16  Economic Development Initiative agencies, and to facilitate
   17  local government or private infrastructure funding efforts, the
   18  department may award grants for up to 75 50 percent of the total
   19  infrastructure project cost, or up to 100 percent of the total
   20  infrastructure project cost for a project located in a rural
   21  community as defined in s. 288.0656(2) which is also located in
   22  a fiscally constrained county as defined in s. 218.67(1) or a
   23  rural area of opportunity as defined in s. 288.0656(2). Eligible
   24  projects must be related to specific job-creation or job
   25  retention opportunities. Eligible uses of funds projects may
   26  also include improving any inadequate infrastructure that has
   27  resulted in regulatory action that prohibits economic or
   28  community growth, reducing the costs to community users of
   29  proposed infrastructure improvements that exceed such costs in
   30  comparable communities, and improving access to and the
   31  availability of broadband Internet service. Eligible uses of
   32  funds shall include improvements to public infrastructure for
   33  industrial or commercial sites and, upgrades to or development
   34  of public tourism infrastructure, and improvements to broadband
   35  Internet service and access in unserved or underserved rural
   36  communities. Improvements to broadband Internet service and
   37  access must be conducted through a partnership or partnerships
   38  with one or more dealers, as defined in s. 202.11(2), and the
   39  partnership or partnerships must be established through a
   40  competitive selection process that is publicly noticed.
   41  Authorized infrastructure may include the following public or
   42  public-private partnership facilities: storm water systems;
   43  telecommunications facilities; broadband facilities; roads or
   44  other remedies to transportation impediments; nature-based
   45  tourism facilities; or other physical requirements necessary to
   46  facilitate tourism, trade, and economic development activities
   47  in the community. Authorized infrastructure may also include
   48  publicly or privately owned self-powered nature-based tourism
   49  facilities, publicly owned telecommunications facilities, and
   50  broadband facilities, and additions to the distribution
   51  
   52  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   53  And the title is amended as follows:
   54         Delete lines 8 - 20
   55  and insert:
   56         construction; amending s. 288.0655, F.S.; revising the
   57         percentages of total infrastructure project cost that
   58         the Department of Economic Opportunity may award
   59         through the fund; providing authorized uses of
   60         eligible funds; deleting a provision requiring that
   61         eligible projects be related to specified
   62         opportunities; deleting provisions that allowed
   63         eligible funds be used for broadband Internet service
   64         and access; authorizing the department