Senate passes Rural Catalyst Grant program with reduced funding and expanded rural eligibility

The North Dakota Senate on April 28 passed legislation to create a Rural Catalyst Grant Program intended to help smaller communities access development grants and other supports.

Senator Dwyer, the conference committee chair, told the chamber the program will form a Rural Catalyst Committee with one member from each of the eight regional planning councils to develop guidelines for Department of Commerce grant awards. "One member from each of the 8 regional councils would be on this catalyst committee," Dwyer said on the floor.

The bill establishes a 1:1 local match and raises the population limit for communities eligible for the smaller‑community share from the House’s 3,000/1,500 split to a single higher limit of 4,500 for the half allocation, a change adopted by the conference committee to include three additional communities. The bill’s funding was reduced repeatedly in conference: it started at $30 million in earlier drafts, was cut to $5 million in the House and the conference committee settled on $2.5 million.

The nut graf: The law creates committee and fund structures to assist rural communities with economic development, prioritizes smaller places through population limits and requires a 1:1 local match; however, the appropriation was sharply reduced from earlier versions.

On final passage the tally was 42 yea, 5 nay, 0 absent.

Conference committee sponsors said the reduction to $2.5 million balanced program value with fiscal constraints. The conference committee also directed that half of the program dollars be targeted to communities at or below the revised size threshold and allowed in‑kind contributions to satisfy the local match.

The Senate adopted the conference committee report and passed the bill; sponsors asked for a green vote and the measure cleared the chamber.