81-12,127 Grant process. - Nebraska Statutes

81-12,127. Grant process.(1) The Department of Economic Development, with assistance provided by the Rural Development Commission, shall establish and administer a grant process to provide grants to local units of government or census tracts that are collaborating on a project related to the purpose of the Building Entrepreneurial Communities Act with priority given to projects that best alleviate chronic economic distress. At least one of the collaborating local units of government or census tracts shall have chronic economic distress as indicated by:(a) An unemployment rate which exceeds the statewide average unemployment rate;(b) A per capita income below the statewide average per capita income; or(c) A population loss between the two most recent federal decennial censuses.(2) Grants shall not exceed seventy-five thousand dollars per collaborative project. Grant recipients shall have two years to expend the grant funds. No local unit of government shall receive funding for more than one project. Grant recipients shall provide fifty cents of matching funds in cash for each dollar of grant funds, except that in limited resource areas the cash match requirement is twenty-five cents for each dollar of grant funds. Grants shall be awarded directly to one of the local units of government representing the collaborative project. The department shall act as the fiduciary agent for the grants.(3) Planning grants may be awarded to limited resource areas in amounts not exceeding five thousand dollars for the purpose of establishing collaborations and developing proposals for submission under this section. There is no match requirement for planning grants.(4) For purposes of this section, limited resource areas means areas that meet at least one of the following criteria:(a) A per capita income below the statewide average per capita income by at least twenty percent; or(b) A population loss in the previous twenty years of at least twenty percent. SourceLaws 2005, LB 90, § 3; Laws 2006, LB 1003, § 18; Laws 2007, LB232, § 2.Termination Date: January 1, 2015