Vrakas' business loan plan may get new life

Oct. 20, 2011
SHARE

By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Oct. 20, 2011 0

Waukesha - Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas' proposed small-business loan program, rejected last month by the County Board, could get a second chance next week.

Supervisor Dave Falstad, one of 13 supervisors to vote against the $300,000 tax financed program, will ask for reconsideration at the board's meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the courthouse.

Nine supervisors supported the plan in September, but County Board Chairman Jim Dwyer, who was among them, said three supervisors - Ted Rolfs, Pamela Meyer and Jean Tortomasi - were absent for the vote and two of them have indicated support for the plan. If all 25 supervisors are present Tuesday, 13 votes would be necessary for reconsideration and passage.

The Small Business Leverage Loan Program would have provided no-interest loans of up to $50,000 to highly leveraged eligible companies in existence at least a year that need temporary gap financing. Businesses targeted for the loans would be in manufacturing, technology, suppliers of local manufacturers and similar job creators.

The $300,000 comes from tax funds returned to the county by communities who close out tax incremental financing districts with surpluses. Under tax incremental financing, communities keep all the property taxes on new development in a designated area until public investments that helped spur that development are fully paid off.

About Laurel Walker
Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.
0 Share Tweet Print
NewsWatch

Advertisement

Photo Galleries

Advertisement