Hey Corzine, how about cutting no show jobs instead?
A statewide program that dispenses free help and advice to entrepreneurs and small businesses stands to lose its entire $1 million funding under Gov. Jon Corzine’s proposed state budget — and that cut will trigger an additional loss of more than $800,000 in matching federal funds.
Last year, the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers provided 22,000 businesses with courses, workshops and individual counseling, and those efforts would likely be cut in half if the legislature affirms Corzine’s cuts, said Deborah Smarth, associate state director of the SBDC.
The Legislature must approve a budget before the new fiscal year begins on July 1. Lawmaker are now wrestling with a Corzine budget that’s $500 million less than the current year’s and slashes outlays for municipalities, schools, hospital charity care, college scholarships, Medicaid, state parks and government jobs, said Jim Gardner, a spokesman for Corzine.
“The governor has expressed a willingness to be flexible regarding the allocation of budget resources, but the restoration of funds in one area is going to require offsetting cuts in another area to keep the budget in balance,” Gardner said.
If the SBDC loses the $1 million in state funds, the U.S. Small Business Administration, under its matching-fund rules, will cut is funding $831,000, to $1.74 million, from $2.58 million.
In a letter last month to Corzine urging the $1 million be restored, James Kocsi, SBA’s district director for New Jersey, said the SBDC provides education and technical assistance that supports SBA loans, which totaled $585.5 million last year. Kocsi said the 11 SBDC counseling centers, mostly located on college campuses across the state, “have a direct relationship to the SBA’s ability to help small businesses to obtain loans and to win federal contracts.”
Smarth said the SBDC helps small businesses expand and create jobs, “and it doesn’t make sense to cut back on this at a time when we may be in a national recession and job growth is faltering.”
She said SBDC clients range from entrepreneurs hiring their first employee, to companies with scores of workers and millions of dollars in revenue. In the past three years, the legislature has doubled its funding of the SBDC, to $1 million, from $500,000, “so we were shocked to be cut out of the budget,” Smarth said. “We return more than our budget to the state in job creation, retention and taxes.”
Smarth argued small businesses are a significant job-creation engine, and figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics support that view.
Nationwide, employment at firms with fewer than 5 employees grew by 786,954 workers between 2001 and 2007, an 11.4 percent increase. Firms with more than 1,000 workers lost 1.2 million jobs during that time, a decline of 8.9 percent.
New Jersey’s middle class takes it in the neck one more time.
