Rural Development Grant Program Creation

The bill creates the rural development grant program to be administered by the Colorado office of economic development. The grants are to be awarded to early stage rural businesses that are primary employers in a rural area with the potential to export goods or services outside of the rural area or for the programmatic expenses of economic development organizations that help promote early stage rural businesses. Early stage rural businesses must be at the seed stage of capital financing, have raised less than $500,000 of third-party capital, and must be able to provide nonstate matching funding equal to at least 1/3 of the grant award. Grants to the early stage rural businesses may be used for developing prototypes, proof of business concepts, or proof of business models. The grants are funded from the general fund and are limited to no more than $150,000 per early stage rural business per year.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)