Missouri Senate

Perfected

Applicants shall submit a grant application to the Department of Economic Development, and the Department shall act as fiscal agent for the grant program. At least 30 days prior to the first day applications may be submitted each year, the Department of Economic Development shall publish specific criteria on its website used to evaluate such applications. Within 3 days of the close of the grant application process, the Department shall publish on its website the proposed geographic areas and internet speeds for each application. A broadband internet service provider that provides service in or adjacent to a proposed project area may submit, within 45 days, a written challenge to an application as set forth in this act. The Department shall evaluate the challenge, and shall not fund the challenged project if the existing provider commits to provide such service. If the Department denies an applicant as a result of a challenge, and such broadband internet service provider does not fulfill its commitment to provide service, the Department shall not consider another challenge from the provider for the next 2 grant cycles unless the failure to fulfill the commitment was due to circumstances outside of the provider's control.

This act also sets forth an order of priority for applications. Further, no grant shall fund more than 50% of the total cost of a project and no single project shall be awarded grants in excess of $5 million.

This act requires the Department of Economic Development, by June 30 of each year, to publish on its website and provide to the General Assembly a list of all applications for the previous year, and certain information relating to such applications as set forth in this act.

This act is similar to SB 922 (2018) and HB 2741 (2016).

KAYLA HAHN