Salisbury bill to help communities apply for grants passes PA House

HARRISBURG, June 29 – State Rep. Abigail Salisbury’s bill that would aid communities lacking grant writing capacity passed the Pennsylvania House along party lines today.

The legislation (H.B. 1216) would create a Municipal Grant Assistance Program within the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Eligible municipalities would be able to access free grant writing services when seeking state funding and would receive instruction in writing future grant proposals.

“Current law only benefits those municipalities with funding in place for grant writing services,” Salisbury, D-Allegheny, said. “My bill is about equity. It's time to level the playing field so that municipalities with extreme need are not kept out of the state grant-making process due to capacity issues."

Salisbury developed the bill after receiving feedback from local elected officials in her district that they were struggling to access state funding programs.

The legislation now heads to the state Senate for consideration.