SB 2480

This bill establishes within the state general fund a special account to be known as the rural revenue equity fund ( the "fund"" ). It is the general assembly's intent that the fund consists of a recurring appropriation of $210 million from the general fund. The commissioner of economic and community development (""commissioner"") must administer the fund, and moneys deposited in the fund must be used only to administer the fund and to be used by r ural counties only for c apital improvement projects, i nfrastru cture projects, l aw enforcement purposes, f irefighter and emergency medical services, or p roperty tax stabilization. This bill requires an amount from the fund to be allocated and distributed to the rural counties based on the county's total weighted score determined according to the formula described in this bill. The commissioner must prioritize awarding funds to rural counties with the highest total weighted scores. APPLICATIONS In order to receive an allocation and distribution of monies from the fund, this bill requires a rural county to submit a completed application to the commissioner together with an application fee in an amount established by the department of economic and community development (""department"") . The proceeds from the application fee must be retained by the department, deposited in the fund, and used for defraying the department's expenses in administering and implementing this bill . The application and proc edures for submitting the application must be developed by the department. This bill requires applications to be evaluated and scored on the basis of all of the following categories:  Total acres of land in the county under a greenbelt classification .  Annual agricultural sales or taxable agricultural receipts generated in the county .  Percentage of total land in the county under a greenbelt classification .  Whether the county has statutory authority to levy a development tax or impact fee .  The number and economic output of licensed livestock or dairy farms in the county .  County population .  Whether the county adopted a property tax increase during the prior five fiscal years. This bill requires higher scores to be assigned to applicants that (i) h ave greater numbers of acres of land under a greenbelt classification, (ii) h ave greater percentages of land under a greenbelt classification, (iii) h ave higher annual agricultural sales or taxable agricultural receipts, (iv) l ack statutory authority to levy development taxes or impact fees, (v) h ave smaller populations, or (vi) h ave adopted a property tax increase. This bill requires e ach category to be assigned a score ranging from zero to 100 and a weighted value. The weighted value is determined by multiplying the score by a weighting factor. The weighting factors for each category are given in the table in the bill. A county's total weighted score equals the sum of all weighted values. In addition to appropriations made to the fund, this bill authorizes the commissioner to accept other funds, public or private, by way of gift or grant to the fund. Any such gift or grant must be deposited into the fund to be expended in accordance with this bill . ANNUAL REPORT This bill provides that a ll expenditures from the fund are subject to review in the form of an annual report submitted by the commissioner to the governor; the speaker and chief clerk of the senate; the speaker and chief clerk of the house of representatives; the chair of the fin ance, ways and means committee of the senate; the chair of the committee of the house of representatives having jurisdiction over tax matters; and the directors of the office of legislative budget analysis."