GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1995

S	1 

SENATE BILL 475

Short Title:  Rural Economic Development Funds.	(Public)

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Sponsors: Senators Martin of Pitt; Warren, Kerr, Hobbs, Hoyle, Jordan, Ballance, Plexico, Albertson, Perdue, and Speed.

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Referred to:  Appropriations

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March 23, 1995

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO THE RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CENTER, INC., FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT NEEDS IN ECONOMICALLY DEPRESSED AREAS IN THE STATE.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  (a) There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Rural Economic Development Center, Inc., the sum of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) for the 1995-96 fiscal year and the sum of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) for the 1996-97 fiscal year to be used to provide grants to depressed counties and municipalities to enable them to acquire short-term capacity for immediate needs for economic development planning and writing of grant applications.  The Center shall establish standards for determining each local government's needs and shall make grants on the basis of need.
(b)	For the purposes of this section the following definitions apply:
(1)	" Economically depressed area" means any of the following:
a. 	A county that the Secretary of Commerce has designated one of the most economically depressed counties in the State pursuant to G.S. 143B-437A.
b.	That part of a rural county whose poverty rate is at least one hundred fifty percent (150%) of the State poverty rate.  For the purpose of this subsection, the poverty rate is the percentage of the population with income below the latest annual federal poverty guidelines issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
c.	That part of a rural county whose rate of unemployment is at least double the State rate of unemployment.
d.	That part of a rural county that experiences an actual or imminent loss of jobs in a number that is equal to or exceeds five percent (5%) of the total number of jobs in that part.
(2)	" Rural county" means a county that the United States Office of Management and Budget has not designated as a metropolitan county.
(c)	The Rural Economic Development Center, Inc., shall report quarterly to the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations and the Department of Commerce on the use of the funds allocated in this section and on the outcomes achieved by the program.
Sec. 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Rural Economic Development Center, Inc., the sum of one million six hundred fifty thousand dollars ($1,650,000) for the 1995-96 fiscal year and the sum of one million six hundred fifty thousand dollars ($1,650,000) for the 1996-97 fiscal year to be used to provide supplemental funding for matching requirement for economic development in economically depressed areas.  The Center shall use the funds to make grants to local governments and nonprofit corporations to provide funds necessary to match federal grants or other grants for necessary economic development projects and activities in economically depressed areas.  The grant recipients shall be selected on the basis of need.
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1995.