Arizona small businesses are eligible for drought-related disaster loans
Mar 29, 2018, 8:13 AM
PHOENIX — Nonfarm small business owners in over a dozen Arizona counties struggling because of drought can apply for low-interest disaster loans, a federal agency said.
Businesses that were eligible to apply for the loans included plant nurseries, agricultural co-ops and nonprofits in 15 counties — Maricopa, Pinal and Pima, among them, Arizona Business Daily reported.
Drought had to have affected businesses “dependent on farmers and ranchers that have suffered agricultural production losses caused by the disaster and business directly impacted by the disaster,” Tanya Garfield, director of the agency’s west disaster field-operations center, said this week in a news release.
Other Arizona counties on the list were Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Mohave, Navajo, Santa Cruz, Yavapai and Yuma.
Property damage was not a consideration for a loan.
The loans have an interest rate of 3.385 percent for businesses and 2.5 percent for private nonprofit organizations, with a maximum term of 30 years, Garfield said.
The SBA, by law, made the economic injury disaster loans available after the secretary of agriculture declares an agricultural calamity.
Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that decision March 8.
Deadline to apply, either online or by post, was scheduled for Nov. 8.
The agency will answer questions by phone or email.
