Small Business Week focuses on legislation
As part of national Small Business Week, President Barack Obama is urging Congress to pass a package of legislation aimed at helping small business.
Under the proposal, introduced in February, the $30 billion package would include tax relief for investing in small businesses, expansion of loan programs through the Small Business Administration as well as funds aimed at community banks to help local business.
From the middle of 2007 through the end of 2008, small businesses lost 2.4 million jobs. Through the Obama administration’s stimulus package, more than 64,000 loans representing $27 billion in new lending has been made to small business nationwide.
According to the Office of Advocacy, there were more than 107,000 businesses across Arizona with less than 500 employees in 2006, the latest data available. Men owned about 52 percent of those businesses while women made up about 28 percent of small business ownership. Nationwide, there were 29.6 million businesses in the United States in 2008, according to advocacy estimates.
Small Business Week is being celebrated this week: www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com.
Filed under: business by Forest