Guest LAW Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 Listening to Small Businesses, in Cleveland and Across the Country The President joined some of his top economic advisors in Cleveland today for a "Winning the Future" Forum on Small Business -- after some opening remarks and stopping by a couple of the breakout sessions, he also stopped by an online session with CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee where he explained a bit about why he was there: Well, Cleveland I think is a great example of cities all across the country, but especially in the Midwest, who are starting to reinvent themselves. These are typically manufacturing cities. They were built on the auto industry, on heavy manufacturing, steel. And as manufacturing has become much more productive, fewer workers are in manufacturing -- even though manufacturing continues to contribute a lot to the economy -- and so these regions are having to think what’s going to be the businesses of the future that end up employing more people and providing more opportunity. And small businesses are going to be the ones that I think are going to be making the biggest impact on regions like this one -- a lot of risk-takers, a lot of entrepreneurs here. What we wanted to do is make sure that we listen to small businesses, hear from them, find out what kind of barriers they’re meeting -- whether it’s capital, or finding the right workforce, or how do they partner with larger companies. And so far we've already gotten some terrific ideas. The first question the President took was on a topic that came up a lot both in the course of the summit, and in response to our "Advise the Advisor" series that Goolsbee led over the last week: MR. GOOLSBEE: He’s better at this than we are. (Laughter.) We got some questions for you from WhiteHouse.gov -- THE PRESIDENT: All right. MR. GOOLSBEE: -- James in Addison, Texas: With the virtual death of local banking, it’s next to impossible today to get bank loans for anything other than fixed assets. For working capital, speculative funding, for others, entrepreneurs must look to save capital, family, friends, or even a first customer. Traditional financing sources only help the more traditional forms of business. Innovators must look elsewhere. We're locked in this and we were wondering what your view is. THE PRESIDENT: Well, one of the things we hear most frequently from small businesses is the problem of start-up capital. Obviously a lot of small businesses do get started with the entrepreneur -- savings, family loans, credit cards. But over the last two years it’s been especially tough for small businesses because of the credit crunch, both in the banking industry as well as the fact that folks don't have home equity loans that they could use potentially to start a business; their credit cards might have been maxed out. And so what we did over the last two years was try to make sure that the Small Business Administration, the SBA, filled some of this hole. We increased the guarantees that SBA would provide to banks if they loaned -- if they made a loan to a small business. We eliminated some of the fees that might be required. And as a consequence, volume from the Small Business Administration went up substantially. The other thing that we did was we increased the limits on the loans that might be provided through the SBA. So the SBA has done a lot of good work. The Treasury Department has also tried to make sure that they set up funds that would help to facilitate lending to small businesses. That's especially important in part because small businesses a lot of times have trouble getting loans when their collateral has gone down, the value of their holdings have gone down. And typically that's been real estate for a lot of small businesses. So we got a range of products that, through the SBA, through Treasury, are providing loans to small businesses, helping encourage small banks to get back into the business of lending again. But we heard some good ideas here today about, for example, providing tax credits for angel investors -- that right now there have been some discussions in Congress about setting up some additional legislation that could help small businesses, and we’re going to see if we can implement it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chris Posted April 6, 2011 Report Share Posted April 6, 2011 COCHRAN VOTES TO REPEAL IRS MANDATE ON SMALL BUSINESSES Senate Sends White House a Bill Striking Health Care Reform Requirement U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) voted to repeal a section of the year-old health care reform law that would have required businesses, local governments, churches and charities to file Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1099 forms for transactions totaling more than $600 a year. The Senate voted 87-12 on Tuesday to fully repeal the IRS 1099 reporting requirement that was signed into law in March 2010 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The repeal legislation (HR.4) will now be sent to President Obama. "Overturning this mandate on small businesses and local governments will eliminate the burden on them to spend valuable time and resources reporting to the IRS. This mandate should not have been part of the health care reform process in the first place," Cochran said. "The repeal of the IRS 1099 reporting requirements is just the first of many steps Congress must take to turn back the serious flaws in the health care reform law," he said. Without a congressional repeal, businesses, local governments, churches and charities would have been compelled to issue IRS 1099 tax forms to individuals, corporations or contract workers from which they purchased more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year. This year, Cochran cosponsored similar Senate legislation and amendments offered by Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) to repeal the 1099 provision from the health care reform law. The Senate this week also could consider an amendment cosponsored by Cochran to stop implementation of the health care reform law at federal and state levels until there is a final judicial resolution of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. The amendment is currently pending as part of the Senate debate on the Small Business Innovation and Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Program Reauthorization Bill (S.493). The state of Mississippi is party to one of the major suits against the health care reform law. Since the start of the 112th Congress in January, Cochran has cosponsored a number of measures related to the Affordable Care Act. He cosponsored the Repeal the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act (S.192) to completely overturn the Affordable Care Act and the health care-related sections of the subsequent Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (PL.111-152). He also signed onto three other measures (S.18, S.19 and S.20) to repeal certain provisions of the law, including employer and individual mandates regarding health insurance coverage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LAW Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Why doesn't the SBA start making all the loans direct loans from the US Treasury. Eliminate the middle man just like we are doing with student loans. There are plenty of unemployed bankers around to place in an office in just about every county or major metropolitan area. Investing in small business direct sure seems like a better bet than handing out billions direct to large bankers. Total of 130 Banks Have Now Received More than $1.8 Billion in Funding through Small Business Lending Fund WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that an additional 50 community banks across the country received a total of $767 million as part of the next wave of funding provided through the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF). The SBLF, which was established as part of the Small Business Jobs Act that President Obama signed into law, encourages community banks to increase their lending to small businesses, helping those companies expand their operations and create new jobs. Including today’s announcement, 130 community banks have now received more than $1.8 billion in SBLF funding. Additional SBLF funding announcements will be made on a rolling basis in the weeks ahead. “These funds will provide a powerful incentive for community banks to expand their lending to small businesses, spurring new investment and job creation” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal S. Wolin. “Breaking down barriers to credit will provide critical support to Main Street entrepreneurs looking to invest in their local communities, grow their businesses, and put more Americans back to work.” Small businesses play a critical role in the U.S. economy and are central to growth and job creation. Small businesses employ roughly one-half of all Americans and account for about 60 percent of gross job creation. But small business owners faced disproportionate challenges in the aftermath of the recession and credit crisis, including difficulty accessing capital. The SBLF helps small businesses meet this challenge by providing capital to community banks that hold under $10 billion in assets. The dividend rate a community bank pays on SBLF funding is reduced as that bank increases its lending to small businesses – providing a strong incentive for new lending to small businesses so they can expand and create jobs. For more details on the SBLF program, please visit, link and link. The SBLF is one part of the Obama Administration’s comprehensive agenda to help small businesses access the capital they need to invest and hire. The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), which is also a key part of the Small Business Jobs Act, allocates $1.5 billion to new and existing state programs that will leverage private financing to spur $15 billion in new lending to small businesses and small manufacturers. The Obama Administration has also supported 17 direct tax breaks that provide tax relief of more than $50 billion for small businesses. These tax breaks were designed to support job creation and retention, entrepreneurship, investment, and growth. The Administration has also worked with Congress to extend and expand existing Small Business Administration loan programs that helped put more than $42 billion in the hands of small businesses and deliver other important benefits to help small businesses expand and hire. The 50 community banks that received SBLF funding as part of today’s announcement include: Central Valley Community Bancorp (Fresno, California), $7.0 million GBC Holdings, Inc. (Los Angeles, California), $5.0 million First PacTrust Bancorp, Inc. (Chula Vista, California), $32.0 million Morgan Capital Corporation (Fort Morgan, Colorado), $3.3 million Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. (Lakeville, Connecticut), $16.0 million Gulfstream Bancshares, Inc. (Stuart, Florida), $7.5 million Florida Shores Bancorp, Inc. (Pompano Beach, Florida), $12.8 million First Federal Bancorp, Inc. (Lake City, Florida), $20.0 million CBOS Bankshares, Inc. (Merritt Island, Florida), $3.9 million HomeBancorp, Inc. (Tampa, Florida), $7.4 million Lowndes Bancshares, Inc. (Valdosta, Georgia), $6.0 million Bancorp Financial, Inc. (Oak Brook, Illinois), $14.6 million First Robinson Financial Corporation, (Robinson, Illinois) $4.9 million First Busey Corporation (Champaign, Illinois), $72.7 million Southern Illinois Bancorp, Inc. (Carmi, Illinois), $9.0 million Prime Banc Corp. (Dieterich, Illinois), $10.0 million Horizon Bancorp (Michigan City, Indiana), $12.5 million MutualFirst Financial, Inc. (Muncie, Indiana), $28.9 million MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. (LaFayette, Louisiana), $32.0 million Central Bancorp, Inc. (Somerville, Massachusetts), $10.0 million Leader Bancorp, Inc. (Arlington, Massachusetts), $12.9 million Katahdin Bankshares, Inc. (Houlton, Maine), $11.0 million McLeod Bancshares, Inc. (Shorewood, Minnesota), $6.0 million Redwood Financial, Inc. (Redwood, Falls, Minnesota), $6.4 million Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (Springfield, Missouri), $57.9 million Liberty Bancshares, Inc. (Springfield, Missouri), $23.0 million The Landrum Company (Columbia, Missouri), $20.0 million Liberty Bancorp, Inc. (Liberty, Missouri), $16.2 million Alerus Financial Corporation (Grand Forks, North Dakota), $20.0 million Western State Agency, Inc. (Devils Lake, North Dakota), $12.0 million New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. (Newport, New Hampshire), $20.0 million Crest Savings Bancorp, Inc. (Wildwood, New Jersey), $2.5 million The Elmira Savings Bank, FSB (Elmira, New York), $14.1 million Alma Bank, (Astoria, New York), $19.0 million Columbus First Bancorp, Inc. (Worthington, Ohio), $6.2 million Prime Bank Group (Edmond, Oklahoma), $4.5 million Codorus Valley Bancorp, Inc. (York, Pennsylvania), $25.0 million Emclaire Financial Corp. (Emlenton, Pennsylvania), $10.0 million CBT Financial Corp. (Clearfield, Pennsylvania), $10.0 million Enterprise Financial Services Group, Inc. (Allison Park, Pennsylvania), $5.0 million Carolina Alliance Bank (Spartanburg, South Carolina), $5.0 million Magna Bank (Memphis, Tennessee), $18.4 million Community First Bancshares, Inc. (Union City, Tennessee), $30.9 million FVNB Corp. (Victoria, Texas), $18.0 million Veritex Holdings, Inc. (Dallas, Texas), $8.0 million The ANB Corporation (Terrell, Texas), $37.0 million FB BanCorp (San Antonio, Texas), $12.0 million Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. (Luray, Virginia), $4.5 million County Bancorp, Inc. (Manitowoc, Wisconsin), $15.0 million PFSB Bancorporation, Inc. (Pigeon Falls, Wisconsin), $1.5 million Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke_Wilbur Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 I am going to contact some of these banks and see if the lending environment is different from the banks that are not part of the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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