Missouri Treasurer Clint Zweifel has a way to create more jobs without spending an extra dime of taxpayer money.
Zweifel visited Joplin last week as part of a statewide tour for the “Invest in Missouri” legislation, which is sponsored by Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty, in the House and Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, in the Senate.
The plan involves the elimination of a cap on interest-rate return. Currently, Missouri can invest taxpayer money under the terms of its cap, thus guaranteeing less-than-desirable earnings.
Once the cap is removed, Missouri would have a better option for investing taxpayer dollars and get a much better rate of return than the U.S. Treasury’s rate of about 0.2 percent.
Another part of the bill would expand the Missouri Linked Deposit program by making more funds available to entrepreneurs seeking to create or expand businesses.
The expansion would allow more businesses and farmers to take advantage of the program, the newly elected Zweifel said. To get the funds, those entrepreneurs would apply for the loans through eligible banks.
Our only problem with the program: Smaller banks and credit unions might not be able to take part.
Zweifel said that lending institutions without a lot of assets might not be able to issue these loans.
Granted, this may account for only one or two banks in the entire state. But in general, we favor rewarding the banks and credit unions that haven’t committed large-bank sins (which triggered the current banking fiasco).
There’s no reason those financial institutions, many of which have eschewed bailout money, shouldn’t have the same access to state funds.
Such an oversight can be corrected as the bill moves through the Legislature. We hope to see this bill move through the General Assembly and get signed into law.
