A last-minute addition to the state budget will send $1.25 million to 13 towns for “downtown revitalization” – even though some of them never asked for money and their legislators say they don’t know how the towns were selected. Each of the 13 towns will receive about $100,000.
A separate Senate allocation, added by Republican Sen. Trudy Wade of Guilford County, will direct $1 million to High Point to turn a library parking lot into a downtown “central gathering space.”
Meanwhile, the Main Street Solutions Fund will get $900,000 for its grant program. Those grants, ranging from $25,000 to $200,000, help renovate downtown properties in poorer communities.
The House’s top budget writer, Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Republican from Cary, said Moore pushed for the $1.25 million in downtown funding.
“In the budget process, very late, the speaker found that we had a little bit of money left,” Dollar said. “I think the speaker thought that it would be best used to assist some of these rural downtowns that these communities had.”