The Small Business Administration is offering low-interest loans of up to $2 million to select small businesses and nonprofits across the state that experienced financial losses due to unseasonable amounts of rain and cold temperatures last May.
The SBA has issued a disaster declaration for all 16 Maine counties, along with four counties in New Hampshire.
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is available to eligible small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, nurseries, aquaculture enterprises and private nonprofits with financial losses directly related to weather conditions.
Excluded from the program are agricultural producers, farmers and ranchers.
Loans are available for working capital needs caused by the disaster, regardless of whether the applicant’s property suffered any physical damage. The loans can be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills not paid due to the disaster.
Loan amounts can be as high as $2 million with interest rates as low as 4% for small businesses and 3.625% for private nonprofits, with terms up to 30 years.
Interest does not accrue and payments are not due until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement.
“Through a declaration by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, SBA provides critical financial assistance to help communities recover,” said Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the SBA.
Application information is available on the SBA website and there are SBA offices in Augusta, Bangor and Portland.
The deadline to apply is August 24.