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Sen. Storms Proposes To Tighten Florida's Loan Criteria

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

cdolinski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 8, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Sen. Ronda Storms successfully advanced a proposal Wednesday to change which companies would qualify for Gov. Charlie Crist's small-business loan initiative.

Lawmakers agreed to take up the governor's $10 million "economic gardening" initiative this week as they shave roughly $1 billion out of state spending. It is the only new spending proposal under consideration during this special session, which was called to close a $2.3-billion hole in the budget.

Crist, who initially proposed spending $100 million on the loan program, is pressing lawmakers to pass the smaller version as a pilot project for possible expansion later. The program would provide low-interest loans of up to $250,000 for qualifying companies.

Those companies would have to have between 10 and 99 full-time employees, per the governor's proposal, and to have increased their staffs and their revenue by at least 10 percent over the last two years.

"You can't spread the peanut butter over the entire loaf of bread," said Dale Brill, head of the governor's economic development office. Brill told the Senate's economic development budget committee on Wednesday that restricting the program to robust companies would channel the stimulus to those most likely to generate jobs and boost the economy.

"This is not a bailout of faltering companies," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who chairs Senate committee. "These are companies that are doing well, but ... they're having a difficult time getting a loan" due to the nationwide freeze of lending capital.

But Storms, a member of the committee, argued Tuesday that the proposal might be "setting the bar too high." Reliable businesses that might well have met the program's criteria during boom times may fall short now due to the recession.

"Many of these businesses have had a history of being very successful ... except that, because of the circumstances today, because of the economy, they've had this rapid deceleration," said Storms, R-Valrico, relating the experiences of her family's own landscaping irrigation business. "I have to ask the question - why are we helping people that are doing fine?"

Fasano told Storms that she could propose an amendment, which the committee approved unanimously. Under her plan, companies would only have to have "steadily increased" their staffs and revenue during three of the last five years to qualify for the program.

Storms' amendment also limited the program to smaller companies - those with at least 10 but no more than 50 employees. The amendment, which the committee unanimously adopted, restricts the loans to companies that generate annual revenue of at least $1 million but not more than $25 million; the original version allowed up to $50 million.

Those restrictions, Storms, said will focus the program on what is more commonly considered a "small business."

"Somebody generating $25 million is on the outer edges of 'small business,'" she said. Storms noted that her family's business would not qualify for the program, and will not apply to it.

A House budget council approved the governor's plan late Wednesday, without the changes proposed in the Senate. House sponsor Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, said the Senate's changes were "good ideas," and that his version of the bill remains a work-in-progress.

Brill, of the governor's economic development office, said his top concern is getting the program established.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382.

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