Friday, September 18, 2009
staff report
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners designated the county a recovery zone under the federal economic stimulus act.
They also named the Youngs-town/Warren Regional Chamber the county’s clearinghouse for applications for the recovery-zone facility bonds program.
The stimulus act, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, revised the IRS code to create recovery-zone facility bonds, which may be issued only for private-business projects in a recovery zone.
The bonds, which provide tax-exempt financing, can be used to finance a wide range of economic development efforts benefitting commercial and industrial businesses.
Between now and the end of 2010, the program allows the county to authorize issuance of $10.4 million worth of bonds, which would be sold to investors. The program will use no county funds.
The chamber will evaluate the job creation and total economic impact of each proposed project, said Walter Good, the chamber’s vice president for economic development.
The chamber, which serves as the county’s economic development agency, will recommend projects to the commissioners, who will select the ones to be funded.
“Until this, tax exempt project financing was generally limited to manufacturing-related projects. This program broadens eligibility to other qualifying businesses, such as distributors,” Good said.
Arnold Clebone, the Youngstown-based regional economic development director for the Ohio Department of Development, asked the commissioners to consider authorizing the bond program here because he said his department has a potential project for the program.
If that company can use this bond financing, it can benefit from a 1.5 percent to 2 percent reduction in the interest rate, Clebone told the commissioners Thursday.
“It gives the company further opportunity to have more working capital,” increases its potential for success, and may allow it to expand further than it might otherwise be able to, he added.
Clebone declined to identify the company, the nature of its business or exactly where its proposed project would be located.