Nixon focuses on jobs on Day 1 as Mo. governor

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Jay Nixon is pushing for the quick establishment of a small-business loan program as one of the initial steps in his job-creation agenda.

Nixon also has ordered the creation of a pair of task forces: one aimed at attracting automotive manufacturing jobs to the state; the other to capture as much money as possible from a potential federal economic stimulus package.

"We are putting the framework in place to help create new jobs and turn this economy around," Nixon said Tuesday, at his first news conference since taking office around noon Monday.

His actions fulfill part of a job-creation initiative he outlined in December. Other parts, such as the expansion of a tax credit program for certain businesses, require legislative approval.

The main prong of Tuesday's announcement is a low- or no-interest loan program for small businesses. It would be financed with part of the revenues from an existing 4 percent fee imposed on tax credit recipients by the Missouri Development Finance Board.

That fee generated $2.4 million last year, of which $713,351 was used for a downtown revitalization program, finance board executive director Robert Miserez said Wednesday.

This year, the board projects to have just $321,000 left over from the fees after funding the downtown development program, but that pool of available money is expected to jump to $2.7 million in 2010, Miserez said.

Nixon is proposing a roughly $2 million program that would provide loans of about $25,000 each to 80 small businesses.

Miserez said the finance board could afford that, if it were a one-time pool of money, but could have difficulty supporting it if the governor sought $2 million each year for several years.

Nixon's executive order directs his Department of Economic Development to work with the finance board to create a pool of money for the small-business loan program. He said he hopes the program can be set up in 30 to 90 days, with safeguards to ensure the loans actually help create jobs.

However, the Democratic governor can't make the finance board implement the program, because the board is a separate entity. Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder currently is chairman of the 12-member finance board, though Nixon is about to pick up three spots reserved for his various department directors.

Kinder spokesman Gary McElyea said the lieutenant governor has not seen Nixon's proposal.

"He will review it, and we will debate the issues over the coming months," said McElyea, adding: "MDFB is a commission consisting of bipartisan members and will continue to operate independently of the governor's office."

Nixon has direct control over the two other task forces he created Tuesday.

He gave the 15-member Economic Stimulus Coordination Council until Feb. 27 to recommend ways to ensure Missouri gets the maximum amount of money possible from a federal stimulus package and to identify ways of accelerating the use of that money in Missouri.

The 12-member Missouri Automotive Jobs Task Force has a more long-term mission of positioning the state to win manufacturing jobs for the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles, Nixon said.

------

On the Net:

Nixon: http://www.governor.mo.gov