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Committee moves bill to transfer Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation to Department of Agriculture
Summary
Members voted to advance HB495 to attach the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation to the Georgia Department of Agriculture; sponsors said the center’s mission, board and funding remain unchanged.
The Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee voted to do pass on HB495 (LC443049), a bill that transfers the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation from its current attachment to ABAC/University System of Georgia to the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
The sponsor said the bill makes a single organizational change — transferring the center’s administrative attachment — and does not alter the center’s board composition, mission, staffing or rules. The sponsor described the center as a small operation that leverages state funding (the sponsor said roughly $1.5 million had been budgeted previously) to support technical assistance, grant-writing and project work for small cities and rural counties.
Representative Meeks and other members spoke in support, noting the center’s results in assisting rural communities and saying the transfer would maintain the center’s operations and funding while providing a new departmental home. The committee recorded a motion and second and approved the bill by voice vote.
Next steps: the bill will move forward in the legislative process with the center’s statutes and board language unchanged except for the new departmental attachment.
