Texas Rural Municipal Finance Program

The Texas Agricultural Finance Authority (TAFA), a public authority within the Texas Department of Agriculture, provides loan (and bond) financing on favorable terms to rural political subdivisions and development entities — city and county governments, economic development corporations, and various districts — to support agricultural businesses and rural economic development. Projects must be located in a rural (non-metropolitan) area of Texas.

Institutional/rural-government borrowers located in rural areas of Texas that provide significant benefit to the rural area and evidence of ability to repay: city and county governments; economic development corporations; hospital districts; rail districts; utility districts; special districts; agricultural districts; and private water and wastewater corporations. The applicant must certify the project is located in a rural (non-metropolitan) area. Not for individual agricultural producers.

Loans (and, where applicable, bonds) from $50,000 up to an amount approved by the TAFA board of directors, with projects targeted at under $1,000,000. Proceeds may fund real estate purchase, building construction, site improvements, equipment, water and wastewater systems, municipal infrastructure, and other projects that support rural economic development. Administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture (program contact: Karl Young, 512-936-0281).

No public application, no form and no online portal is published for this program. The route is a phone call to the Texas Department of Agriculture, which administers it, followed by a decision from the TAFA board. Note first who this is for: the borrowers are rural local governments and development entities, not individual farms — if you are a producer looking for credit, TAFA's Agricultural Loan Guarantee Program and Interest Rate Reduction program are the producer-facing doors, and TDA links the USDA Farm Loan Discovery Tool (https://www.farmers.gov/fund/farm-loan-discovery-tool) for federal options.

The one published instruction. The Denison Development Alliance's description of the program — the fullest public write-up of it — says: "The Texas Department of Agriculture administers the Rural Municipal Finance Program. For further details on the program, please contact Karl Young at 512-936-0281." That is the starting point. TDA's general line is (800) TELL-TDA via https://texasagriculture.gov/Home/Contact-Us.

Be aware of the documentation gap. TDA's own TAFA page (https://texasagriculture.gov/Grants-Services/Rural-Economic-Development/Texas-Agricultural-Finance-Authority) does not carry a page, application, form or deadline for this program. It lists TAFA's other programs — Agricultural Loan Guarantee Program, Interest Rate Reduction, Texas Agricultural Grants — and describes the board's job as to "Establish selection criteria for grant applications, lenders and borrowers." So confirm current terms and the current process on that call before assembling anything; do not assume the third-party description is complete.

Intake is not a dated round. No application window, opening date or deadline is published anywhere. Requests are sized case by case — "Loan amounts range from $50,000 to an amount approved by TAFA's board of directors, but target projects for less than $1,000,000" — which means each one goes to the board. TDA posts TAFA board minutes month by month on the TAFA page, which is the practical guide to when decisions get made and how far ahead to file.

What a borrower must be ready to establish

• That it is an eligible entity type: "city and county governments; economic development corporations; hospital districts; rail districts; utility districts; special districts; agricultural districts; and private water and wastewater corporations."

• Evidence of "ability to repay the commitments," and that the project provides "significant benefits for the rural area."

• A rural-location certification to TAFA. The published test is that "An applicant must certify to TAFA that: The project is located in a non-metropolitan statistical area (county); or If in a metropolitan statistical area, the project is in an unincorporated area; or Located in a city with a population of under 20,000, that is not adjoining a city or group of cities with an aggregate population of 50,000 or greater."

• A defined use of proceeds. Eligible uses are "real estate purchase, building construction, site improvements, equipment, water and wastewater systems, municipal infrastructure projects and any other use that can be identified to improve or assist in the economic development of the rural area."

The governing rules, if you need to read the authority behind all of this, are the Texas Agriculture Code, Chapters 44 and 58, and the Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 28.