bizjournals: Reinventing the SBA -- bizjournals.com

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The Small Business Administration's futurer is one of many issues facing the next presidentf of theUnited States. President Bush's small business policy has focused on cuttint taxes and reducing regulatory He has slashedthe SBA's budget by nearly 30 Taxpayers no longer subsidize the SBA's main loan the largest single source of long-term financing for smalp businesses. "Basically the administration doesn'ft believe in the SBA," Sen. John Kerry, told SBA Administrator Steven Preston during a budgeft hearingthis February. If that's the Bush administration is not The SBA is irrelevant to manysmall businesses.
In a 2006 surveyu of small business owners by the Nationalo Federation ofIndependent Business, 85 percent said the SBA had no direcgt impact on their businesses over the past threew years. "If the SBA were to go away tomorrow, wouldf anybody really notice?" asks Susan Eckerly, vice president of federal public policy for the Nationaol Federation ofIndependent Business. NFIB's indifference towardf the SBA is noteworthy becausethe Republican-leaning groulp is the most powerful organization lobbying for small businesses in Washington. Carl Schramm, chief executivwe officer of theKauffman Foundation, also questionsx the SBA's value. Schramm's Kansas City, Mo.
-basede foundation promotes entrepreneurship, and Schramm himselrf has started companies in thehealth care, financse and information technology industries. "Very few entrepreneuriakl businesses owe their genesis tothe SBA," Schram writes in "The Entrepreneurial Imperative," a book publishex in 2006. "It is not a wise use of Other small business expertsstrongly disagree. Every SBA progran was created to fill a needthat wasn'r being met by the whether it's access to capital or access to government said Jere Glover, a D.C., attorney who headed the SBA'd Office of Advocacy during the Clinton administration.
Giovanni Coratolo, a former restaurang owner who now directs small business policyu atthe U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said small businesseds also benefit from having one agency in the federall government that focuses solelg ontheir interests. But does that agency have to look likethe SBA? Is therd a better way to serve small businesses? Now is a good time to ask thoser questions, said Karen president of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship "There is the opportunity for a new administratio n to start from scratch, think innovatively and focus resourcee in areas that reflect what is happening in the economu as a result of globalization," Kerrigan Here are some ideas, basef on conversations with small businesds experts: Even SBA skeptics like the NFIB are stronyg believers in the SBA'as Office of Advocacy.
The office makes sure federal agenciews consider the impact regulationsz have onsmall businesses, and conducts and compiles researcyh on small business issues. Some say the officde could be more however, if it weren't part of the SBA. Its fundingg now is up to the discretiojn of the SBAadministrator -- a potential threa t to the office's independence as well as to the resources it needs to do its job. "The currentr chief counsel is very strong and independent and knowzhis job, but that is not to say future ones will work that way," Kerrigamn said. An independent office should be give n more power to force agencies to act on its small businessadvocates contend.
That's becaus e small businesses create most new jobs and the cost of complyingg with regulations is disproportionately high forsmall businesses, they say. Such an supporters of the idea say, would be involvesd in shaping economic policy for the next That was the case duriny theClinton administration, when the SBA administrator was part of the president's Glover said. "We were a player in the old he said. John Arensmeyetr is a former Internet company CEO who now head SmallBusiness Majority, a Democratic-leaning advocachy organization. He contends small businesses deservesa Cabinet-level voice.
"You're talkinv about a special interestgroup that's half the economy," he said. Coratolo, however, said makingg this office a Cabinet-level position could jeopardizethe office's independence, because Cabinet officials play political roles as advocate for the president. This officre needs to advocate solely forsmall businesses, he "We want to make small business apolitical within an he said.