The funding supporting a bill to provide grants for local economic development in rural areas statewide will depend on the results of the Missouri Legislature's fall veto session in Jefferson City.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed and approved House Bill 1506 on July 7, but vetoed its $200,000 appropriation in June when he froze or vetoed more than $1.1 billion in budget spending.
The bill, sponsored by State Rep. Diane Franklin, R-Camdenton, who represents Camden and Laclede counties, would have the Missouri Department of Economic Development develop and award grants of up to $150,000 to qualifying regional development groups in rural areas, including the lake area, for purposes such as collecting relevant data that could be supplied to businesses interested in the area.
With a $5 million annual cap, the $200,000 originally allotted for the program's first year is a "pilot amount" to help measure interest, Franklin said.
"The next step is, can we get the funding put back in during veto session?" Franklin told the Lake of the Ozarks Regional Economic Development Council (LOREDC), whose members supported the bill during its passage, at the group's Aug. 21 meeting.
That step is a potential legislative veto override in the fall veto session beginning Sept. 10.
"My understanding is, when we meet in September, that we're going to take up the appropriation bills, the vetoes that he (Nixon) made to those bills, and we are going to pass those and put the money back in," Franklin explained. "We still have hope for this funding and this bill."
Should the funding be available, organizations that receive grants must submit a report demonstrating they have met the following requirements: monitoring job creation and investment in the region using quantitative measures, establishing a process for enrolling commercial and industrial development sites in the region in the state-certified sites program, measuring the skills of the region's workforce, providing an organizational chart demonstrating that private businesses and local governmental and educational officials are involved in the group, and providing documentation of the group's financial activities for the year.
"This is a great idea, and I think that we all recognize that it is," Franklin said, noting the general agreement of the Missouri Legislature on the bill's terms.
Prior to Nixon's appropriations veto, HB 1506's efforts would have gone into effect Aug. 28.