Hill Country Chronicle

The director of the Small Business Administrations Disaster Field Operations Center said that small businesses in 20 Texas counties and along the border in New Mexico are now urged to apply for low‑interest disaster loans that are provided by federal assistance programs.

According to Tanya Garfield, the grants will be coming from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The loans are awarded in an attempt to balance economic losses that began in June.

“SBA eligibility covers both the economic impacts on businesses dependent on farmers and ranchers that have suffered agricultural production losses caused by the disaster and businesses directly impacted by the disaster,” Garfield said.

Garfield says the interest rate of these loans is as low as 3%.

“Eligibility for these loans is based on the financial impact of the disaster only and not on any actual property damage," Garfield said. "These loans have an interest rate of 3 percent for businesses and 2.75 percent for private nonprofit organizations, a maximum term of 30 years and are available to small businesses and most private nonprofits without the financial ability to offset the adverse impact without hardship.”