Effective 28 Aug 2014

620.750. Grants authorized, qualified rural regional development groups, duties — grant procedure — use of grant moneys — report — rulemaking authority. — 1. The department of economic development, subject to an appropriation not to exceed five million dollars each fiscal year, shall develop and implement rural regional development grants as provided in this section.

2. Rural regional development grants may be provided to qualified rural regional development groups. After the award of a grant, the group shall:

(1) Track and monitor job creation and investment in the region using quantitative measures that measure progress toward preestablished goals;

(2) Establish a process for enrolling commercial and industrial development sites in the region in the state-certified sites program or maintain a list of state-certified commercial and industrial development sites in the region;

(3) Measure the skills of the region's workforce;

(4) Provide an organizational chart demonstrating that private businesses and local governmental and educational officials are involved in the group; and

(5) Provide documentation of the group's financial activities for the current year.

3. A rural regional development group shall not qualify for a rural regional development grant if:

(1) The group's region includes a county or portion of another state outside the state of Missouri; or

(2) The group maintains an operating budget greater than two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

4. Applications for rural regional development grants shall only be submitted for a rural regional development group by a regional planning commission created under chapter 251 or other legally created regional planning commission. A regional planning commission may submit applications on behalf of more than one rural regional development group, except that a regional planning commission shall not submit an application on behalf of a group that the regional planning commission does not recognize as the economic development authority for the county that the authority represents.

5. The regional planning commission may charge an application fee for the grants developed under this section. The regional planning commission shall be allowed to claim reimbursement from the grant recipient for actual costs of administering the grants.

6. A single grant shall not exceed one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Each of the nineteen regions of the state represented by a regional planning commission created under chapter 251 or other legally created regional planning commission shall not receive more than two grants per region annually.

7. Grants provided under this section shall be distributed based on a rural regional development group's years in operation. The eligible amount shall be:

(1) For a group in operation two years or more on a matching basis of three dollars of state funds for every one dollar of funds provided or raised by the rural regional development group, including the value of in-kind services, supplies, or equipment;

(2) For groups in operation less than two years on a matching basis of one dollar of state funds for every one dollar of funds provided or raised by the rural regional development group, including the value of in-kind services, supplies, or equipment.

8. Uses for the grants may include, but are not limited to, the following activities:

(1) Workforce development activities, such as evaluation and education;

(2) Entrepreneurship training for pre-venture and existing businesses;

(3) Development of regional marketing techniques and activities;

(4) International trade training for new-to-export businesses in the region;

(5) In-depth market research and financial analysis for businesses in the region;

(6) Demographic and market opportunity research to assist regional planning commissions in developing their comprehensive economic development strategy.

9. The grant recipient shall annually report to the governor; the director of the department of economic development; the senate committee on commerce, consumer protection and the environment; the house committee on economic development and any successor committees thereto, the allocation of the grants and the purposes for which the funding was used.

10. The department of economic development may promulgate rules governing the award of grants under this section. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, that is created under the authority delegated in this section shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all the provisions of chapter 536 and, if applicable, section 536.028. This section and chapter 536 are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536 to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2014, shall be invalid and void.

­­--------

(L. 2014 H.B. 1506 merged with S.B. 729)