No. SB 250
Filed under Taxes & Budget.
Rural Communities; Requiring the state land planning agency to give preference for technical assistance funding to local governments located in a rural area of opportunity; revising the conditions required for a county to be considered a fiscally constrained county; creating the Office of Rural Prosperity within the Department of Commerce; requiring the Office of Rural Prosperity to administer the Renaissance Grants Program to provide block grants to eligible communities; creating the Public Infrastructure Smart Technology Grant Program within the Office of Rural Prosperity; creating the Florida Arterial Road Modernization Program within the Department of Transportation, etc. APPROPRIATION: $144,813,977
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDThe bill establishes the Office of Rural Prosperity within the Department of Commerce to coordinate rural policy and administer new grant programs. It requires state agencies to prioritize rural areas for technical assistance and waive financial match requirements for distressed communities.
Rural counties that lost population over the last decade become eligible for the Renaissance Grants Program, receiving $1 million annually to design their own economic plans. The bill also raises the revenue threshold for a county to be classified as fiscally constrained from $5 million to $10 million per mill.
State and regional agencies must now mandatorily participate in the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) rather than having optional participation. The bill also requires the state to staff seven regional liaison centers with at least two full-time employees each to provide in-person support to rural local governments.
AIMandates that the state land planning agency prioritize local governments in rural areas of opportunity when selecting applications for technical assistance funding.
AIRaises the revenue threshold for a county to be considered fiscally constrained from $5 million to $10 million per mill, and removes the requirement that the county be entirely within a rural area of opportunity.
AIReplaces the previous allocation factors (relative revenue-raising capacity and local effort) with new factors based on population-to-sales-tax ratio and per capita personal income, and mandates specific rounding and decimal precision for calculations.
AICreates a new block grant program for rural counties that have lost population over the last decade, giving them $1 million annually to design their own plans for population growth and economic vitality.
AIEstablishes a new state office within the Department of Commerce to coordinate rural policy, administer grants, and provide technical assistance to rural local governments.
AIRequires the state to staff seven regional centers with at least two full-time employees each to provide in-person support to rural local governments in areas of opportunity.
AIState and regional agencies listed in the statute must now participate in REDI, rather than having optional participation.
AIAgencies must now waive or reduce financial match requirements for projects in rural communities, and in-kind matches must be allowed when a rural community is in economic distress.