§ 4279.155 - Loan priorities.

Applications and preapplications received by the Agency will be considered in the order received; however, for the purpose of assigning priorities as described in paragraph (b) of this section, the Agency will compare an application to other pending applications.

(a) When applications on hand otherwise have equal priority, applications for loans from qualified veterans will have preference.

(b) Priorities will be assigned by the Agency to eligible applications on the basis of a point system as contained in this section. The application and supporting information will be used to determine an eligible proposed project's priority for available guarantee authority. All lenders, including CLP lenders, will consider Agency priorities when choosing projects for guarantee. The lender will provide necessary information related to determining the score, as requested.

(1) Population priority. Projects located in an unincorporated area or in a city with under 25,000 population (10 points).

(2) Community priority. The priority score for community will be the total score for the following categories:

(i) Located in an eligible area of long term population decline and job deterioration based on reliable statistical data (5 points).

(ii) Located in a rural community that has remained persistently poor over the last 60 years (5 points).

(iii) Located in a rural community that is experiencing trauma as a result of natural disaster or experiencing fundamental structural changes in its economic base (5 points).

(iv) Located in a city or county with an unemployment rate 125 percent of the statewide rate or greater (5 points).

(3) Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community (EZ/EC). (i) Located in an EZ/EC designated area (10 points).

(ii) Located in a designated Champion Community (5 points). A Champion Community is a community which developed a strategic plan to apply for an EZ/EC designation, but not selected as a designated EZ/EC Community.

(4) Loan features. The priority score for loan features will be the total score for the following categories:

(i) Lender will price the loan at the Wall Street Journal published Prime Rate plus 1.5 percent or less (5 points).

(ii) Lender will price the loan at the Wall Street Journal published Prime Rate plus 1 percent or less (5 points).

(iii) The Agency guaranteed loan is less than 50 percent of project cost (5 points).

(iv) Percentage of guarantee is 10 or more percentage points less than the maximum allowable for a loan of its size (5 points).

(5) High impact business investment priorities. The priority score for high impact business investment will be the total score for the following three categories:

(i) Industry. The priority score for industry will be the total score for the following, except that the total score for industry cannot exceed 10 points.

(A) Industry that has 20 percent or more of its sales in international markets (5 points).

(B) Industry that is not already present in the community (5 points).

(ii) Business. The priority score for business will be the total score for the following:

(A) Business that offers high value, specialized products and services that command high prices (2 points).

(B) Business that provides an additional market for existing local business (3 points).

(C) Business that is locally owned and managed (3 points).

(D) Business that will produce a natural resource value-added product (2 points).

(iii) Occupations. The priority score for occupations will be the total score for the following, except that the total score for job quality cannot exceed 10 points:

(A) Business that creates jobs with an average wage exceeding 125 percent of the Federal minimum wage (5 points).

(B) Business that creates jobs with an average wage exceeding 150 percent of the Federal minimum wage (10 points).

(6) Administrative points. The State Director may assign up to 10 additional points to an application to account for such factors as statewide distribution of funds, natural or economic emergency conditions, or area economic development strategies. An explanation of the assigning of these points by the State Director will be appended to the calculation of the project score maintained in the case file. If an application is considered in the National Office, the Administrator may also assign up to an additional 10 points. The Administrator may assign the additional points to an application to account for items such as geographic distribution of funds and emergency conditions caused by economic problems or natural disasters.