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Dodge City and Ford County are now an E-Community. And no, it’s not an electronic community. An E-Community is an Entrepreneurial Community č╩a partnership with NetWork Kansas that allows communities to invest in local businesses.
Erik Pederson, associate director of NetWork Kansas, visited the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corp. Thursday to announce the city and county’s inclusion in a revolving loan fund.
Dodge City/Ford County is now one of 24 E-Communities. This year, Dodge City/Ford County was selected along with Coffeyville, Phillips County and McPherson.
Seven communities applied to be E-Communities through NetWork Kansas.
“They have provided just under $1 million in loans and grants to about three dozen businesses across the state,” Pederson said. “And we were noticing that it just continues to build on itself.”
The E-Community program began in 2007 with six communities. Six more were added in 2008, eight in 2009 and four in 2010.
How it works
JoAnn Knight, executive director of the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corp., sold tax credits so the city and county could become an E-Community.
By soliciting $240,000 in donations to the Kansas Center of Entrepreneurship and the Kansas Partnership Fund, the Development Corp. qualified for a revolving loan fund of $150,000, which is the maximum amount the agency can request.
These are 75 percent tax credits, so 75 percent of the credits sold go into the revolving loan fund.
“If somebody is in a higher tax bracket, like a 30 percent tax bracket č they can basically, if they donate $10,000, they’ll get a $7,500 tax credit toward their Kansas tax liability,” she said.
Knight said people in these higher tax brackets can actually make money by donating.
As for the $40,000 that came from donations to the Kansas Partnership Fund, ten percent of those tax credits, or $4,000, will go into a fund for emergency housing situations, Knight said.
“If someone has a life safety-type issue, and they flat can’t afford to do something, we’ll come in and help them with it at zero percent interest,” she said. “And then we also use that same fund — we have some money set aside — for facade improvements to the main street area.”
The $150,000 in the revolving loan fund can be accessed by start-up businesses in Dodge City and Ford County. All they have to do is apply at the Development Corp. for the loan.
Once that is done, NetWork Kansas makes sure the business is for profit and meets the criteria for a loan through the program.
Dodge City and Ford County are now an E-Community. And no, it’s not an electronic community. An E-Community is an Entrepreneurial Community č╩a partnership with NetWork Kansas that allows communities to invest in local businesses.
Erik Pederson, associate director of NetWork Kansas, visited the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corp. Thursday to announce the city and county’s inclusion in a revolving loan fund.
Dodge City/Ford County is now one of 24 E-Communities. This year, Dodge City/Ford County was selected along with Coffeyville, Phillips County and McPherson.
Seven communities applied to be E-Communities through NetWork Kansas.
“They have provided just under $1 million in loans and grants to about three dozen businesses across the state,” Pederson said. “And we were noticing that it just continues to build on itself.”
The E-Community program began in 2007 with six communities. Six more were added in 2008, eight in 2009 and four in 2010.
How it works
JoAnn Knight, executive director of the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corp., sold tax credits so the city and county could become an E-Community.
By soliciting $240,000 in donations to the Kansas Center of Entrepreneurship and the Kansas Partnership Fund, the Development Corp. qualified for a revolving loan fund of $150,000, which is the maximum amount the agency can request.
These are 75 percent tax credits, so 75 percent of the credits sold go into the revolving loan fund.
“If somebody is in a higher tax bracket, like a 30 percent tax bracket č they can basically, if they donate $10,000, they’ll get a $7,500 tax credit toward their Kansas tax liability,” she said.
Knight said people in these higher tax brackets can actually make money by donating.
As for the $40,000 that came from donations to the Kansas Partnership Fund, ten percent of those tax credits, or $4,000, will go into a fund for emergency housing situations, Knight said.
“If someone has a life safety-type issue, and they flat can’t afford to do something, we’ll come in and help them with it at zero percent interest,” she said. “And then we also use that same fund — we have some money set aside — for facade improvements to the main street area.”
The $150,000 in the revolving loan fund can be accessed by start-up businesses in Dodge City and Ford County. All they have to do is apply at the Development Corp. for the loan.
Once that is done, NetWork Kansas makes sure the business is for profit and meets the criteria for a loan through the program.
“Any business in Ford County can apply,” Knight said. “We really feel like a lot of it will probably go into the downtown, because that’s where you see a lot of small start-up businesses.”
Pederson said business owners have to work with local resources before they are eligible for the revolving loan fund.
“We don’t want to replace the private capital, so certainly the banks are the first option,” he said. “After the banks have been an option or participated in a loan and are not able to participate, then the group here knows the E-Community funds exist.”
The E-Community fund has to have a matching component. So if a business needed $1,000, the E-Community can only be 60 percent of the total. The remaining 40 percent has to come from private capital, Pederson said.
Being an E-Community is just one tool that small businesses have available to them, he said.
So Dodge City and Ford County’s tool box just got a little bigger and more diverse.
Reach Mark Reagan at
(620) 408-9931 or e-mail him at mark.reagan@dodgeglobe.com.
