Ohio lending program touted in visit to area

Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray

When Sandy Milligan wanted to expand her Bowling Green business last year, she took her plan to her banker and, to her great surprise, got a helping hand from a long-neglected state program.

It was cheap money, she said of the GrowNOW program, which allowed her to save 3 percentage points on the $300,000 loan she took out for a new warehousing facility. In January, Ms. Milligan fulfilled her commitment to receive the discounted debt: she hired 11 employees.

Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray spoke to Ms. Milligan and about four dozen other small-business owners yesterday at the Holiday Inn French Quarter in Perrysburg, urging them to take advantage of the state-sponsored program for small businesses.

It s a simple program, and we try to keep it simple, Mr. Cordray said.

The program, which has been in state law since 1983, invests the state s reserves with banks that do business in Ohio and agrees to trade up to 3 percentage points of its interest income to subsidize loans to qualifying small businesses who promise to create jobs.

Mr. Cordray has been criss-crossing the state to drum up business through the National Federation of Independent Business.

It s really kind of a Johnny Appleseed approach, the treasurer said, noting that the program paid out $70 million in loan subsidies in 2007, compared with $18 million in 2006. The program has up to $300 million in loan subsidies a year, he said.