Blog

February 18, 2009

How Does President Obama’s Economic Recovery Act Help NEPA Small Businesses?

Yesterday, President Obama signed the $787 billion Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, his first major initiative developed to combat the nations’s current economic slump. This bill is quite broad in scope and was designed to impact communities around the country in many ways in the months and years ahead.

Essentially, the plan has two main goals: short term job production and long term economic viability.  Through spending and tax cuts, the legislation is expected to be our nation’s road to economic recovery.  

But, if you’re a small business, I’m sure you’re still wondering, “What does this mean for me?”.  The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has a few specific programs that can directly benefit northeastern Pennsylvania small businesses.

The new law includes:

  • * $51 million in lending authority for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Microloan Program
  • * $24 million for SBA Microloan technical assistance
  • * $100 million for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund

This is great news for NEPA small busineses.  MetroAction, which is an federally certified CDFI and an SBA microlender, will be able to access these funds and pass the benefits on to local small businesses. 

Recently, as area banks have tightened their lending requirements, MetroAction has experienced higher demand for MicroLoans and other business development assistance. The programs supported in the Recovery Act will help ensure that small businesses in our community have access to the resources they need.

If your business needs small business financing or assistance, call us at (570) 341-0270.  When banks can’t help…MetroAction can! 

Details about how you can access the new funding and what affect this will have on MetroAction’s funding programs for Fiscal Year 2010 will be available soon. Stay tuned!

Want to share your thoughts about the funding for microenterprise development in the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act? Leave a comment for MetroAction’s Small Business Blog – be the first to start a discussion!