New Web portal to streamline reporting of stimulus spending - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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This, in turn, will enable the federal government to providecitizens “with an unprecedentedr level of detail into how theire tax dollars are being spent,” said Peter director of the Office of Managementg and Budget. “People will be able to see who is receiving what projects areunder way, how moneu is being spent, and how many jobs are beinvg created or saved,” he said. The Obamqa administration promised this level of transparency when the Americajn Recovery and Reinvestment Actwas passed, but its recovery.gob Web site so far has failed to meet that Under new guidance by the OMB, prime recipients of stimulus funding must provide quarterly reports via www.
federalreporting.gov on total funda received and spent; names of organizations assisting with a projecy and the amount paid to that a list of projects, including location and completionh time lines; and jobs associated with each project. Vendors that receive more than $25,000 to help with a project also mustbe identified. The new guidancr does not apply to stimulus contract s issued by federal additional guidance for federalp contractors willbe forthcoming, according to OMB. The Smal l Business Administration approved only72 America’s Recovery Capitap loans in the new emergency bridgs loan program’s first week of operation.
The SBA had expectecd high demand forthe loans, which were created by the economicv stimulus legislation to help struggling small businesses make paymentsa on existing debt. Through this small businesses can borrow upto $35,000 to make up to six monthsx of payments on qualifying loans. Borrowers won’yt have to start repaying the ARC loan until a year after they receive their last ARC loan The loansare interest-free to the borrower. Instead, the SBA will pay the lenderf a monthly interest rate of prime plus 2 percentage The SBA also will guarantee 100 percent ofthe loan’s amount. The SBA begab accepting applications for these loansdJune 15.
As of June 22, the agency had approve 72 loanstotaling $2.4 milliom submitted by 42 lenders. Small businesses in 21 statez receivedthese loans. The agency expects the volumew of ARC loans to pick up in coming The agency has conducted training sessions on the loanswith 3,00 0 lenders from 1,300 financial institutions. “Based on the participation in theinformatio sessions, we are encouraged and feel we in fact, continue to see a rise in participation by lenders and the numbere of loan approvals,” said SBA Press Secretaryy Hayley Matz. Many SBA lenders, however, remaih on the sidelines.
The Coleman which tracks SBA lending, found that 60 percent of the lenderz who responded to its survey saidthey don’rt plan to make ARC Some lenders said they wouldn’t make enough money off the loansd to justify the trouble, and othersw said the SBA’s guidelines for the loans were too vague. To be eligiblw for the loans, small businesses must show they were profitabld or had positive cash flow in at leasy one of the pasttwo years. Futurer cash flow projections must demonstrate that the businessee will be able to repay their debts, including the ARC loan.
The National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenderes has submitted four pages of questionws to the SBA aboutthe program. “Our memberds have many questions aboutthe program, and that is probably why the volume is less than said NAGGL President Tony Employment in the construction industry continued to declin in May, despite new jobs createf by economic stimulus “Projects funded by the stimulusx legislation probably mitigated the overall downturn in construction jobs in May,” said Ken Simonson, chietf economist for Associated General Contractora of America.
“While the stimulus is startinvto help, it is not keeping pace with overalo declines in construction activity in most places.”