Last week’s $1.7 trillion omnibus spending plan approved by Congress includes $225,000 for Mercer County Better Together’s Business Retention and Expansion Program. That information from Western Illinois Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. She says the funding will build and sustain local economic resilience by establishing and stabilizing Mercer County’s first intensive business retention and expansion program. Another $750,000 will also go to Monmouth College for rural education initiatives. The funding will help strengthen and expand its Rural Education Initiatives program, which works to strengthen the rural education system and combat teacher shortages, increase representation of teachers of color and foster student-community engagement.
Both efforts fall under Community Project Funding requests.
