N.C. House legislators unveiled a draft bill Tuesday that would add $25 million to a “bridge loan” program to help small businesses stay afloat until more federal aid arrives.

The Golden LEAF Foundation is administering the program with an initial $15 million, addressing concerns from businesses that they won’t have enough cash to pay their bills and their employees until they receive federal funds from initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program, which has been slow to launch and is at risk of running out of money. Golden LEAF has been working with the N.C. Rural Center and lending partners to issue the loans.

The $25 million figure is lower than the $100 million addition that Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, proposed last week, but House Speaker Tim Moore said legislators could increase the amount.

He told a House committee that the program could become “more robust” depending on how much money is available when the legislature returns at the end of the month.

“We didn’t want to put a big number out there right now and have to back up on it,” Moore said. “We wanted to do something at the state level while at the same time recognizing we’re going to have some budgetary problems ourselves to deal with.”

The structure of the state-funded effort is similar to the $15 million program that Golden LEAF is already running with separate funding. Loans would be limited to businesses that have 50 or fewer employees, and they’d be interest-free if repaid within six months.

Businesses would be required to repay their loans when they get federal assistance. Golden LEAF would eventually return the money to the state, subtracting a small amount for administration costs and any loan defaults.

“It’s not probably all we need, but I think it’s a great start for us,” said Rep. Michael Wray, D-Northampton and co-chair of the House’s economic support working group.

As of this week, Golden LEAF has received 3,397 applications requesting a total of $121.5 million, with businesses requesting an average loan amount of $35,767.

“With applications far outpacing the available resources, what we’re doing is going to be a small step forward in alleviating the issues of the small business of North Carolina,” said Rep. Stephen Ross, R-Alamance.

The committee won’t vote on the draft bill until next week’s meeting to allow time for feedback. Also next week, Rep. John Szoka, R-Cumberland, said he wants the governor’s office to speak to the committee about its plans for reopening the state.

The economic support committee did take a unanimous vote Tuesday in favor of a three-page draft bill covering tax filing deadline extensions and changes to unemployment benefits related to coronavirus.

That bill was discussed in detail in previous meetings, but the latest update to the proposal matches state tax code with the latest round of federal tax extensions.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 6:46 PM.