By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Two businesses in Glasgow had their loans officially forgiven by the Glasgow Economic Development Loan Fund Board of Directors during their hour-long meeting on Oct. 9.
As Glasgow Mayor Henry Royse explained, this board functioned as an “ad hoc” committee — meaning it does not have a regularly scheduled meeting but rather meets as needed — but organized the special-called meeting to discuss and authorize the board chairperson — who was selected to be Terry Bunnell — to sign the necessary letters stating Rural King’s and Federal-Mogul’s loans had been forgiven.
“We’re dealing with two loans [and the board] needs to take formal action saying they have complied with what was required for these loans to be forgiven,” Royse said. “It’s pretty straightforward stuff; the obligations have been met.”
Specifically the forgivable loans were entered into in 2018 and 2019 and require the two companies to create and/or maintain a certain level of employment, which were confidential according to the agreement. Rural King had a $150,000 loan and Federal-Mogul had a $100,000 loan that were forgiven.
“All along, as an incentive, we always planned on forgiving [these] loans,” Royse said. “It wasn’t a charitable gift just for the fun of it. As long as they met the requirements we were always going to forgive [these] loan[s] and this is a fairly common thing that happens.”
The GEDL fund has about $850,000 currently. Bunnell, who also serves on the Glasgow Common Council, said they are still “technically” repaying the loan as a contingency of the occupational tax increase, which the ordinance had its second reading in Sept. 2020, was that one percent of that money would go towards the GEDL fund.
According to Nick Hurt, Glasgow’s tax administrator, said occupational licensing fees annually bring in about $15 million, which would mean the fund gets an additional $150,000 a year.
