Nevada Appeal Capitol Bureau
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
The Legislative Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday approved $35 million over the next three years for the Small Business Credit Initiative.
The program is designed to make a combination of private and public funding available to start-ups and other small businesses to help them purchase equipment, supplies and business operating space to get their enterprises up and running.
The $35 million is the first of potentially three financial infusions from the U.S. Treasury Department. Officials told lawmakers the funding is designed to help those small businesses and start-ups get access to loans and other financial support to get them off the ground and enable them to qualify for more standard loans that can support them as they grow.
If successful, the program will be eligible for more funding up to $105 million over the nine years of the program. But officials said it could continue well beyond that period since the money can be repaid and recycled by the state and financial institutions into other projects.
Karsten Heise of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development said the program is administered through the Nevada Battle Born Growth Escalator, created in 2015. He said it will substantially broaden the scope of the program to include efforts to increase the state’s ability to support small businesses.
