Women's grant halted...Congress cuts off funding to SLC Business Center

[SoCalDem]

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_2390184
08/04/2004

Women's grant halted
Congress cuts off funding to SLC Business Center
By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune

Lara Kierstead, owner of Salt Lake City's Singing Cricket Cafe, owes her success as an entrepreneur to the support of the Women's Business Center. "I wouldn't have stayed in business without the resources the center provided," Kierstead said of the Salt Lake Chamber-affiliated center that trains and supports women starting their own businesses. "I would not have lasted the first four years."

Understandably, news that the center, which has counseled nearly 4,000 budding entrepreneurs, has lost its federal funding stunned women throughout the community. Nancy Mitchell, the center's executive director, said Tuesday she received word last week through the Association of Women's Business Centers that Congress will not continue federal Small Business Administration funding to existing centers.

The Salt Lake City center's $125,000 SBA grant accounted for 40 percent to 50 percent of its budget, Mitchell said. The center has yet to receive formal notice from the SBA that its five-year grant has abruptly been terminated after only two years, she said. "Some people call it a betrayal by the SBA." Steve Price, SBA assistant district director for economic development,confirmed that Congress chose to fund new women's business centers, but declined to continue grants to existing ones.

"Anytime there's a reduction in assistance programs, it has an impact on the small-business community," Price acknowledged. "That's the age-old trade-off. They have limited resources and they have to decide where to put them." In April, Utah was named the nation's leader in growth of women-owned businesses. The Center for Women's Business Research in Washington, D.C., found that from 1997 to 2004, the number of women-owned companies in Utah grew 35 percent, compared with 17 percent nationally. Utah businesswomen attribute much of that success to the Women's Business Center.

snip.................

[salin]

1. trade off... say what the trade off is...

tax cuts. Tax cuts or more small businesses? Small businesses tend to keep the money in the community (owners and workers earning $ live, work, spend and save in the community...) But we need to run bigger deficits in order to have those precious tax cuts at the top of the economic ladder... don't we? :crazy:

[Mel]

2. what's up with the link?

it took me to this
HBO says 'I do' to drama about Utah polygamist

Waa! I wanna' read the story you posted.

[SoCalDem]

3. oops... brb..

:blush:

[MaryBear]

5. I clicked on the "business" link at top of page, and

I found the article.

[SoCalDem]

4. correct link

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_2390184

[Mel]

6. thank you!

Figured I better read the whole thing before I ranted about the attack on women.
Which it is they do hate us!

I really do feel bad for us women hell for all of us we are getting screwed left and right. It's coming so damn fast I can hardly keep up that's what they want though isn't it?

Have I mentioned tonight how much I hate these people?!!! :evilgrin:

[TaleWgnDg]

8. hey, wait awhile . . .

it may get worse. Just think if GWBush and Thugs get re-elected for four more years?! First things first. Two justices will resign from the U.S. Supreme Court, at least. Sandra Day O'Connor and William H. Reinquist. Reinquist will make no difference because GWBush and Thugs will replace him w/ another Reinquist-type. But, Sandra Day O'Connor will be horrific if lost from the bench and GWBush is president!

HOLY CRAPOLA! There goes the last 70 or so years of fairly good to fantastic jurisprudence . . . eeeerrrrrr cases from the U.S. Supreme Court bench. GONE! POOF! ZIP-DA-DEE! including women's rights issues . . . EVAPORATED! I won't get into the litany of other legal case law consequences . . . eeeerrrrrr other issues that will be tossed . . .

VOTE IN KERRY!! :dem:

P.S. oh, yeah, and then there's Justice Stevens who's in his mid-80s, too. That's 3.

[kodi]

7. SBA helps small businesses that create the most jobs, and Bush cuts it?

the distance between what bush does and says dwarfs the grand canyon.

[blm]

9. He probably cut it because it was supported by Kerry and his work on the

Small Business Committee.

[sandnsea]

16. It was Kerry's program

He's the one that introduced the legislation to support existing Women's Business Centers instead of only new ones. He wrote alot of the SBA legislation for women and minorities. Just shows how petty and vindictive they can be.

[criticalmass]

17. Yep, that's true

Another reason to vote Kerry. A snippet from his own lips:

As the author of the Women's Business Centers Sustainability Act of 1999, I can tell you that when the Women's Business Centers Sustainability Act of 1999 was signed into law, it was Congress's intent to protect the established and successful infrastructure of worthy, performing centers. The law was designed to allow all graduating Women's Business Centers that meet certain SBA standards to receive continued funding under sustainability grants, while still allowing for new centers -- but not by penalizing those that have already demonstrated their effectiveness.

[SoCalDem]

10. It's stuff like THIS that needs to be amplified

Women are the starters of MANY small businesses..and lots of families DEPEND on the income from them ...

It's a REPUBLICAN congress AND white house that is doing this stuff..

They are FRONT page when they come up with some sweet sounding bullshit...and last page 1 paragraph when they refuse to fund it..or cut it altogether..

Kerry MUST start meeting with people who have been affected by this nonsense.. THOSE are the commercials that will hit home with the small business person

[MaineDem]

11. "W is for Women" or so says the rally signs

Yeah right!

I'll kick this for the morning crowd.

[UpInArms]

12. has anyone else noticed that be "recognized"

is the death knell?

In April, Utah was named the nation's leader in growth of women- owned businesses.

Daycare centers, cooperatives, etc. Those are the ones that get their funds cut.

:grr:

[LizW]

13. Remember that above all else

Republicans love cheap labor.

The more people who can start their own small businesses and make it, the less cheap labor there is out there for the Repugs.

Any time you see the Republicans do something that seems nonsensical and counter-productive, you have to return to their real plan for the American work force, especially the female work force: dependency and desperation.

[mtnester]

14. The Handmaids Tale

should be required reading or re-reading again for women, particularly right now. I am telling you, I have taken measures to make sure that could not happen to me kiddies. I know that sounds ultra paranoid, but really, it is not. Just simple common sense that would not allow anyone to force me to do anything like that or find me if it came to that. The neocon movment WANTS women back in the house, be it as a domestic or house of ill repute, which is where they belive you ought to be as a women, you are either respectable and obedient, or a whore...period

It is a short book, would only take a few hours out of your time.

[SoCalDem]

15. kick for daytimers

:)