261—51.3(15E) Eligibility.
	51.3(1) Eligible businesses. To be eligible for a grant under the program, an applicant shall meet all of the following requirements:
	a. 	The business must be located in this state. For the purposes of this paragraph, a business is located in this state if at least 98 percent of the business’s employees work at the business’s operations in Iowa or if the employees that are paid at least 98 percent of the business’s payroll work at the business’s operations in Iowa.
	b. 	The business must be incorporated or organized in Iowa or authorized to do business in Iowa.
	c. 	The business must not have been subject to any regulatory enforcement action related to federal, state, or local environmental, worker safety, food processing, or food safety laws, rules, or regulations within the last five years. For the purposes of this paragraph, regulatory enforcement actions include, but are not limited to, an administrative order, consent order or similar formal order issued by an applicable enforcement agency or an involuntary withdrawal of a state grant of inspection or federal grant of inspection.
	d. 	The business must only employ individuals legally authorized to work in the state.
	e. 	The business must not currently be in bankruptcy.
	f. 	The business must employ less than 50 individuals across all the business’s locations at the time of application.
	g. 	The business must be an establishment that holds a current license from the department in accordance with the requirements of Iowa Code chapter 189A or is actively working with the department to obtain a license. Factors the authority may consider in determining whether a business is actively working with the department to obtain a license include, but are not limited to, the number and frequency of contacts the business has had with the department, whether the business has submitted an application for inspection to the department or FSIS, and whether the department or FSIS has conducted a site visit at the business.
	51.3(2) Eligible projects. The applicant must propose one of the following types of projects:
	a. 	To expand or refurbish an existing, or to establish a new, state-inspected small-scale meat processing business.
	b. 	To expand or refurbish an existing, or to establish a new, federally inspected small-scale meat processing business.
	c. 	To expand or refurbish an existing, or to establish a new, licensed custom locker.
	d. 	To expand or refurbish an existing, or to establish a new, mobile slaughter unit.
	e. 	To rent or purchase buildings, refrigeration facilities, freezer facilities, or equipment necessary to expand processing capacity, including mobile slaughter or refrigeration units used exclusively for meat or poultry processing by a federally inspected small-scale meat processing business, a licensed custom locker, a mobile slaughter unit, or a state-inspected small-scale meat processing business.
	51.3(3) Matching support required. The applicant shall demonstrate the ability to provide matching financial support for the project on a one-to-one basis in the form of cash. The matching financial support must be obtained from private sources.
[ARC 5971C, IAB 10/6/21, effective 9/17/21]