Board took proposal out of budget, no real progress since

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele proposed in his 2012 county budget a revolving loan fund for business development.

The move would have gone part of the way toward keeping a campaign promise Abele made to create a fund that would give loans and grants to businesses.

Under his plan, up to $5 million from sales of county land would have been directed to the fund. But the plan ran into trouble during the budget process.

The County Board"s budget committee on Oct. 26, 2011 voted instead to use money from the sale of county land, as well as private donations, to create a $1 million Ready to Work training program and a $1 million Economic Development Fund.

Abele vetoed that alternative, but the County Board voted to override his veto.

Under the action taken by the County Board, the money in the Economic Development Fund can be used for providing loans to small or minority-owned businesses. Abele spokesman Jeff Bentoff said that is Abele's hope. But nothing is definite, and other possible uses for the money include housing development, environmental cleanup and "economic development” in general.

So, the County Board killed Abele's revolving loan proposal, although it did create a fund that could be used for loans. It seems unlikely that a loan program like the one Abele promised will be put in place before his one-year term ends in April 2012. But in the meantime, we'"ll rate this promise as Stalled.