HB1018 Summary

• Appropriates $127.5 million total ($53.0 million general fund) to the North Dakota Department of Commerce for the 2015-17 biennium, including funding for salaries, operating expenses, grants, and special initiatives.

• Establishes new grant programs: base retention grants up to $500,000 per military community, child care facility grants with 1:3 matching requirement and $187,500 maximum, and entrepreneurship grants including $300,000 each to three specified nonprofit entrepreneurial centers.

• Allocates $7.5 million from the strategic investment and improvements fund for enhanced use lease grants at Grand Forks Air Force Base for private sector business development infrastructure projects.

• Transfers $1.55 million to the internship fund and requires distribution of $1 million in workforce enhancement funds and $4.5 million in research North Dakota funds to their respective accounts.

• Amends section 54-60-17 to expand the workforce development internship program to include high school students and educators, and directs legislative management to study developing a civilian ground center for processing first responder unmanned aircraft data.