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Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri joined members of the local banking community, the Small Business Administration and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation at a press conference to unveil the details of the Governor’s Small Business Stimulus Package to help boost Rhode Island jobs.

The six point package included an infusion of capital into the State’s Small Business Loan Fund (SBLF), a state-backed loan guarantee program to encourage lending to small business, and a pledge from the local banking community to invest more than $165,000,000 into small and mid-sized Rhode Island businesses over the next two years, and an additional pledge of $5,000,000 in gap financing from the Business Development Company of Rhode Island.

The Small Business Stimulus Package is the result of meetings Governor Carcieri initiated with small business owners, the Small Business Administration, the lending community, and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

“Small and mid-sized businesses in Rhode Island are the foundation of our economy,” said Governor Carcieri. “Our small business community represents 90 percent of the businesses in Rhode Island, and employs 25 percent of our workforce. The economic downturn, especially the tightening credit market, has made it difficult for our small businesses to access the capital they need to keep Rhode Islanders working. My small business stimulus package seeks to leverage the talent and support of our local banking community to get credit flowing to businesses so they can retain and create jobs in every community across our state.”

“Getting capital into the marketplace and helping strong companies grow is one of the most important things we can do to turn the tide and get Rhode Islanders back to work,” continued Governor Carcieri. “We know the need is urgent and we are prepared to work aggressively to put the stimulus package plan into action and get this new capital flowing into the marketplace.”

“Access to capital is the lifeline of small business and the steps that are being taken today will provide an additional mechanism needed to prime our economic engine,” said Mark S. Hayward, Rhode Island SBA District Director. “The added guarantee from the State of Rhode Island will enhance the likelihood that our participating lenders will provide much needed short and long term credit to the small business community. I commend Governor Carcieri for reintroducing the SBA Guarantee Fee Tax Credit and applaud him, RIEDC and our lenders for showing leadership that will help us forge ahead during these difficult economic times.”

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm and is filed under job search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.