BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — The small business administration economic injury disaster loans are now available to small businesses in Texas as of Jan. 13.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture declared an agricultural disaster that impacted 194 small nonfarm businesses in Texas counties including Brazos, Burleson, Grimes and Madison.
These loans offset economic losses due to reduced revenue caused by excessive heat occurring between May 1 and Sept. 30, 2022.
“Our job at the SBA becomes how to figure out whether or not the business suffered a short fall in revenues or given a base level of revenues their liabilities increased as a result of the excessive heat,” said Susheel Kumar, public information officer, U.S. Small Business Administration.
Potential applicants could be a business that saw a loss in profit last year during the excessive heat time frame and searched for additional methods of payment to make up for the loss in costs, such as money out of your own pocket, or using a line of credit.
“The federal government is here to step up to assist with the short fall of sales to get back to that probability so that you can stay in business,” said Kumar.
The loan can be requested at a maximum of 30 years to payout, but every applicant will not be eligible for that term.
Loans will be disbursed with a fixed interest rate of four percent.
“It met the definition of economic injury because what you were normally able to pay in the past, you weren’t able to pay this time around because of the excessive heat,” said Kumar. “Hence the need for the money from the federal government in the form of a loan, maximum term is 30 years.”
The deadline to apply for economic injury is Sept. 13, 2023.
If you need assistance applying or have questions, you can reach out to the Brazos Valley Small Business Development Center on Briarcrest Dr. in Bryan.
You can learn more details on the loan here.