MO BUCK$ loan program expansion signed into law | Mid-Missouri News [Video]

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri state treasurer’s office’s small businesses and agriculture loan program called MO BUCK$ is getting an expansion of available funds.

Currently, the low-interest rate loan program has a program cap of $800 million. Gov. Mike Parson signed the expansion (House Bill 1803) into law Thursday, which raises that cap to $1.2 billion.

HB 1803 passed in the House on Feb. 19 and passed unanimously in the Senate on April 18. It was sent to the governor’s desk on April 23.

Applications for the latest round of MO BUCK$ loans opened on Jan. 2 with $120 million to give to businesses and farms. But State Treasurer Vivek Malek said it was only open for six hours, due to a large number of applications. 

“My deputy treasurer reported to me after one hour that we were at almost half the capacity of the $120 million,” Malek said.

In 2023, the program awarded 450 small …