Last week, the United States Department of the Treasury announced the approval of applications from Louisiana and a handful of other states for State Small Business Credit Initiative (“SSBCI”) funding. The SSBCI is an important component of the Small Business Jobs Act (“the Act”) that was signed into law last fall. This funding is intended to provide support to state-level programs, and is designed to generate billions in additional small-business lending and help create new private sector jobs.
Under the Act, these states’ programs may receive a total of $360 million in SSBCI funds. Under the SSBCI, states must demonstrate a reasonable expectation that each $1 in federal funding will generate a minimum of $10 in new private lending. Accordingly, this $360 million allocation is expected to support more than $3.6 billion in new private lending.
The states approved for SSBCI funding are: Alabama ($31.3 million), Florida ($97.7 million), Idaho ($13.2 million), Iowa ($13.2 million), Louisiana ($13.2 million), Mississippi ($13.2 million), Ohio ($55.1 million), Oregon ($16.5 million), Tennessee ($29.7 million), Texas ($46.6 million), Virginia ($18.0 million), and Washington, D.C. ($13.2 million).
The Louisiana Department of Economic Development will use its funds to support two existing programs: the Louisiana Small Business Loan Guarantee Program and the Louisiana Seed Capital Program, a venture capital program.