September 1, 2009

Many small business owners in Florida are mighty mad about big banks getting a bailout, then not helping the little guy. Among them is Melinda McDaniel.

She’s run a successful catering business in Tallahassee for more than two decades now.

But like many folks, she’s having a tough year. She’s just one of the many small business owners who have contacted me recently about the difficulty in getting a loan.

And here’s something we’ve found out: only 65 newly created special loans backed by the federal Small Business Administration ( SBA ) have been issued in Florida so far this year. That’s because some of our largest banks – ones that received taxpayer bailouts – aren’t participating in the small business loan program.

The SBA launched the $255 million America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) loan program in June as part of the economic stimulus program. ARC is supposed to help viable small businesses get through the economic downturn by providing zero-interest, no-fee loans of up to $35,000. But the program relies on the banks to act as the lenders – and, they’re not lending.

Instead, some banks might even be more aggressively marketing higher-interest credit cards and lines of credit to small businesses.

After my recent meeting with Melinda, I sat down and wrote President Obama a letter urging him to step in. I also asked the government to investigate several published reports about banks offering the higher-interest-rate products.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of seeing taxpayers bail out banks that, in turn, refuse to lend even a helping hand to small business. And I’m going to push hard to fix it. As always, I appreciate your bringing such matters to my attention.