WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) – Marathon County board members will decide tomorrow whether to declare the county a recovery zone.
The move would qualify the county for more than $19 million in bonds to pay for public infrastructure and other economic development projects.
The county can qualify for the money because its unemployment rate of 9.2 percent in May was higher than the state and national averages during the same month.
Two pots of money are available for economic development.
The first, worth $11.6 million, are bonds that the county can help secure for qualified businesses. The interest that businesses pay back is tax deductible.
The second, worth $7.76 million, are bonds for public infrastructure projects, like a proposed water pipeline between Wausau and Abbotsford. The incentive is that the federal government will pay 45 percent of the interest.
The advantage of both bonds, says the Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce’s Dave Eckmann, is that they have an interest rate 2 percent lower than traditional rates.
The county must act now, Eckmann said. Bonds will only be issued until January 1, 2011, and it can take up to six months to apply for them.
