Monday, July 16, 2007
Contact: Jessica Robinson, 573-751-0290
Blunt Announces $250,000 for DREAM City Hannibal
Community Organizations Receive $500,000 since DREAM Designation
HANNIBAL–Gov. Matt Blunt today announced that the Mark Twain Home Foundation has been approved for $250,000 in Neighborhood Assistance tax credits to restore and rehabilitate the Becky Thatcher House.
"I am pleased to see Hannibal actively taking advantage of the services and programs available to them as one of Missouri's first DREAM communities to help give new life to their community," Blunt said. "The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum is a wonderful historic tourist attraction and these improvements will help preserve a national treasure."
Hannibal is one of the 10 communities chosen for Blunt's Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri (DREAM) Initiative. The initiative is designed to help small and mid-sized Missouri communities navigate through various state assistance programs to help with job creation and community betterment projects.
The Neighborhood Assistance Tax Credit Program, administered by the Missouri Department of Economic Development, provides assistance to community-based organizations that enable them to implement community or neighborhood projects in the areas of community service, education, crime prevention, job training, and physical revitalization.
Since being selected as a DREAM community, Hannibal not-for-profit organizations have received $500,000 in state assistance through programs administered by the Missouri Department of Economic Development.