Waukesha County Looks at Creating Small Business Loan Program

A program that would create the ability for small businesses to obtain loans to expand their operations within is going before the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 27, according to a news release from Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas.

The program would allow businesses to borrow up to $50,000 interest free for three to five years to fill capital requirements to secure larger funding through banks and other financial sources, the news release states.

The businesses will either pay back the loan in full or convert to an interest-bearing short-term loan, according to the release. Acceptable uses of funds will include working capital for a specific project, inventory, equipment and facility build-out. The first phase of the program will be capped at $300,000.

 “This program will provide an outstanding opportunity for businesses located in Waukesha County to ‘leverage’ their capital to secure full funding to expand their business,” Vrakas said in the release. “My hope is that this program will fill a recognized need to ultimately increase job creation and employment as well as retain businesses in Waukesha County.”

  Funding for the program will come from funds returned to the county that were no longer required by Tax Incremental Districts (TID), the release states.  Over the past several years, the County has received money from TIDs that have closed out earlier than projected.

The program’s targets and structure was developed through a committee that included: Bart Adams from Kolb & Co., Greg Bauer from Marshall & Ilsley Bank, Wendy Baumann and

Barbara Eckblad from Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation, Waukesha County Director of Administration Norm Cummings, Don Hill from Heartland Information Research, Inc., Dave Kircher and Tom Wolfe of Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corporation, Bill Mitchell of the Waukesha County Economic Development Corporation, Russ Roberts of the Waukesha County Technical College Small Business Center and Mary Trimmier of the Small Business Association.

• For more information about this loan program, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered a news conference where the funding was announced Wednesday morning.