small business administration. the small business administration covers not only san francisco proper but the bay area. the severed his third district is responsible for a business loan portfolio of 12,000 loans worth $4.2 billion. in 2009, the sba approved $500 million in lending. next, we have the executive director of the san francisco small business office. she was in san francisco in 1986 to open the buffalo exchange limited store, and in the 13 years she worked for buffalo exchange, tennis district manager, she held her open the company from four to 11 stores. in 2009, the mayor appointed her as executive director to the office of small businesses. next, we have the ceo of opportunity funds. he has combined his background as a community organizer with an education from stanford to develop an innovative, not-for- profit financial incision that uses market principles to affect systemic change. it operates one of the nation's largest individual development, programs, a leading provider of micro loans in californ

these issues are important to small business. senator levin. >> thank you for calling the hearing, thank you for the extraordinary leadership in getting this bill passed. it took your laser-like determination to get it passed. you had to overcome a filibuster, which is almostnow e complaint that it is not being implemented fast enough. a year filibuster against this bill, which was so desperately needed by small business, supported by community bankers, still supported very strongly by main street bankers? we have lots of kane streets -- main streets in michigan, too, and they talk about two things -- lack of demand, the economic situation generally, and the availability of credit. this bill is aimed at providing credit, and was filibustered by republicans for a year. now the complaint that this is not being implemented fast enough -- if the republicans had their way, it would not be in the books at all. chamber of commerce tells us that lack of demand -- the economic situation is the number-one problem for businesses. regulation

small businesses. we have more nonprofits that are funded through micro lending here in the city from sba programs. some are expected to be looked at for budget cuts. some will continue. but we have more of those programs in san francisco, really, in any other city in california. we also have a small business commission. that is unique. the folks who are here, who have been supporting small business for many years are the reasons why san francisco's small business community has a voice in ways that other cities and businesses in those cities do not. i think we have, in san francisco, the benefit of a lot of good resources here, some of which are here because of federal funds, some of which because folks in this room have been an advocate for small business. we are hoping the impact of tight budgets all levels still allows us to have the tools we have been able to use for small business. it is an important piece. >> [inaudible] >> there have been a cut in the budget. he wanted to know how that would cut

so, we have district offices, we have small business development centers, and we have a small small businesses that we match with banks. to the extent that you come in contact with banks and with small business owners who have concerns, who are struggling, who want to make more small business loans, we can help them with our programs. so we are in high outreach mode, and the best thing to do would send them to us. >> i know your administrator has called an awful lot, he's a friend of mine, and i can even say where all the sbic's are in my district as those who we are pretty well plug-in. you know, my banks are not talking about having troubles with lending money. it's not just sba money. aisha i have a letter for me from one of my banks that it's the treasury program that mr. schrader was mentioning that one of the rules to get the treasury loan is that the company has just start bashing certified you are not a child sex offender. is a parliamentary trick played last year to defeat this bill. and as we got included so now they're having trouble they need the money because of this provision, be

the small business lending fund, a new and bold initiative, was a key element of the small business job act. under a barrage of criticism and publicly declared obstructionism by the senate minority leader, this lending program was born. it is a wonder it survive at all. while some of my colleagues to date no doubt will be quick to point out the gap between initial expectations and actual oending, i would like t read into the record just a few letters from banks around the country that are participating in this program. the first, and i am not going to read the entire letter, i will submit them for the record -- the financial corp. from ellington, pennsylvania -- 612 main street is their address -- "the coley owned subsidiary bank serves eight counties in western pennsylvania through 13 offices. was nearly $500 million in total assets, we are able camilla areunity bank -- we rural community bank. our banks are the bank of choice for more than 40,000 local customers. four about banking offices are the only bank in town in markets where they are located. while we don't few government- spon

lots of lending to small business, but no small business lending. they were not using any other programs the war of able to them. we ask them why. they said it was too hard, and he said the large banks were doing it. really what the large banks have done is put together teams of professionals who did nothing but small business lending so that wells fargo, bank of america's of the world, they would have small business units because it was especially and it had especially because it was so complex. they didn't have the human capital or the money available to develop that area of expertise. so they asked us to please do whatever we could to simplify the process. we also heard that one of the things they focused on is micromini. they do a lot of microlending. we heard some great stories about loans under $100,000, how successful they've been used. when i asked them if they knew about the program, one of the things they said they had looked at it but that the paperwork for $50,000 loan was almost the same as the paperwork for a million dollars loan. the

there is demand out there by some small businesses. these small businesses can create jobs.need access to capital. " i agree with you. >> i would hope the administration would say we also have to give capital to main street where demand has been seen so businesses are growing. they are 75% of the job creation in america. >> i completely agree with you. >> you mentioned a lowering of marginal tax rates is good for economic growth. i could not agree it more. under kennedy and reagan, we lowered tax rates and lower the unemployment rate -- lowered the unemployment rate. your statement saying lowering rates would encourage economic growth seems to conflict with the policies of your administration and the majority party in the senate. the president's budget would increase marginal tax rates. a variation of your jobs plan would also have increased marginal tax rates. i do not know if you have had a chance to read the republican jobs plan. it will lower tax rates and simplify the tax code by getting rid of loopholes and even now the tax code. i wonder if i can assume your testimony

those are the small businesses who have been sued, and there are small businesses trying to preempt of a protect themselves against these issues. i will talk about the second rocket first. for the small businesses out there that have been hearing about compliance issues and what to protect themselves and make the improvement and have inspections done, we are willing to work with you and willing to look at the plans that you have any inspections you have to enable you to have tenant improvement to become compliant. for those folks, we would recommend that you go and get a task report done and see whether the contractor can lay out the plan and complete the requirement and then come to us and show us your plan. [inaudible] and have had complaints against them because of compliance, we are also able to work with your peer the fundamental requirement for those is that we need you to finish the lawsuit or settle the lawsuit before we can work with you in terms of providing financing. the reason for that is the conversations and these issues can go on for a long time, and we want to make sur

>> small business has it right, david. look at the new dodd-franks is will killing the banking industry . coming-- look at energy. shutting two plants because of epa regulation and 400, employees it will lay off. heritage foundation david estimates that regulations extract over trillion from our economy every year. >> kim, the treasury department said the opposite. that i am quoting from jan here who works for the assistant secretary two commonly repeated misconception. regulations is holding back business investment and hiring. the white house said it is not a problem. >> no, i mean, if you think about it, corporate america raked in more than 900 billion since the recession. larger companies have the money to hire. the problem is, there is too much economic uncertainty and doing more with less. how can convince shareholder to hire more people when they have increased profitability and skilled workers are a problem. here in silicon valley, which president obama visited over the past. >> that doesn't make him an expert. >>

small loans?>> well, thank you, congresswoman, and thank you for your letter. i know you met with over 50 small businesses. >> up to 80 now. >> well, and clearly you just said it better than i could, we have a product that we have designed. we reducing our paperwork, increasing turn around times, keeping the level of underwriting to be sure we have riskover sight, taking the principles and broadening them exactly as you had asked. >> you know, one of the other things i heard from my small businesses is that under the loan guarantee program, the criteria that sba has to qualify for the loans is sometimes broadened when they actually go to the banks to, you know, access the loan. the banks put on more criteria than sba requires. one of the issues they brought forward to me was while sba, the loan guarantee program, doesn't require real estate as collateral, when they go to the banks, the banks say, by the way, we are going to require that you put up real estate as collateral. what can we do in worki

small business. this project started when we heard from neighborhood merchants. unfortunately, they had access issues, visibility access issues. we have been working closely with many of our partners year today to educate about these -- many of our partners year today to educate about these issues. also in terms of board guidance. i want to thank all of you for coming. many of you may have assistance. i know many merchants could not be here. please do it share this information with other merchants in the area. we have virginia from the office of small business. we have roger from the bar association. no carla johnson from the office of disability. -- we have carla johnson from the office of disability. i want to especially it acknowledge my colleague to help us get the resources and brought legal expertise to the table. i do not want to take too much of your time. thank you for coming. >> thank you, supervisor chu. i want to express my admiration for a supervisor chu's commitment to you. so, from our

the $5 million small business loan program i am offering right now to make sure bthe financing for small businesses discontinued. i'm for a proud of the folks we have worked together with. they landed a grant from the federal government because they themselves were involved in rebuilding their housing. that is the way you get people back to work and stay here. families have to be involved in the actual building of san francisco. [applause] >> as a world-class city, we deserve to have a world-class public school system. if we do, families will stay here and move to san francisco and jobs will come to san francisco. my moment of obligation when i knew i had to run was not to circumvent the only way to achieve this was that the mayor makes it a high level priority. it takes a community wide effort to improve the public education system. i am a proponent of high-quality schools. i cannot tell you how many kids as young as seven, who i've met alone on the minutes of bus, going across town to get to their public school. we're not supposed to leave children at home alone at the age of 12. that

see what the small business doctors orded up. that's coming up on "your business." >>> hi, there everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business" where we give tips and advice to help your business grow. the world lost a visionary whose work impacts millions of people, including small business owners. steve jobs. he inspired the world. he died at the age of 56. from the earliest apple computers to ipods and iphones to pixar animation. he was a template for those with big and small ideas. we were just talking that it was so sad and it's amazing, these times when you have never met somebody and yet they have impacted your life so much you feel so sad when this happens. >> i worked with steve investing in a company building software back in 1990. i can tell you, he is -- we have lost something so huge. there was so few people that combine vision with this intense will and this complete inability to compromise that vision. >> you were telling us a story about something you showed him and it wasn't right. >> i got thrown out of

as soon as a small group of horses begins moving the others gradually join in. for most of the year the mustangs live in a type of harini there are three to four mezz with colts in each of them each arima has a leader he knows which meza his mates and does his best to protect them against terrorism and. stallions may kick up a fight even if one of them unintentionally trespasses on the territory of another family. the mustangs on the island have no enemies wolves can't get here because it's too dangerous for them to swim even feathered predators never nest here they prefer islands. migrating birds fly over lake managed below on one of the longest flight paths in eurasia. the lake is now a protected area found sums of mortal foul nest on the lakes small islands preparation the island is home to the largest colony. a rigid hierarchy is typical here just as it is of the mustang. caspian gulls dominate the island. somewhere else these brave birds are all never us they are plants and mice this helps them survive in any conditions the sun a feeling they can drive even

the small business lending fund was a key element of a small business jobs at. under a barrage of criticism, i dislike the program was born. it is a wonder it survived at all. while some of my colleagues today will be quick to point out the gap between the initial expectations and actual lending, i've like to read into the record just a few letters received by this committee from community banks that are participating in its lending program. the first -- i will not read the entire letter, but i will submit that for the record. and clear financial corp. from pennsylvania, 612 main street is their address. our bank, the national bank headquartered in vending go county, pennsylvania serves a counties in western pennsylvania through 13 offices. we are a clubroot county bank founded in 1900 serving businesses and individual interests. our banks employ 120 professionals and is the bank of choice. four of our banking offices are the only bank in town in markets where they are located. while we don't you funding as an optical form of funding, both programs have provided

the horse trail involved the island take stock has maintained what is now a small dried out lake. what makes the rust off reserve different is that this island is surrounded by a salt lake it's called managed good deal ok this is one of the lakes base the water is very salty the horses don't drink such water. as a seasoned explorer trails and only guide. i don't think a horse is smell could be mistaken for anything else with a view to i would say that it is very distinctive though. they must be somewhere here near by. your feet in. the free roaming mustangs on the island are in total isolation the locals have another theory as to how the horses came to lake managed. in the old days robbers stole whole says in neighboring villages and had them there to this day the horses a still mistrustful of people. the island is now closed to tourists and only research is can visit get few have been able to approach the stallions let alone get inside the hood. who are really are they order for these are the horses we have spent ages looking for there are eight young colts these free roaming hor

i am in support of small units. these units, because of their layouts are designed so that small does not work. the devil is in the detail. i take issue with the design and what it does not do more so than the smallness of the units. i believe that the building itself is still, for me, unfortunately, 12 pounds in a 10 pound bag. for example, i want to direct that part of my discussion to mr. gardner. i want to talk about the parking spaces. there is no parking required. in the six parking spaces which are proposed may be designed to serve the tenants, but they also might be designed to serve others because there is no access from the garage. you have to go to the street, open the door, etc. if those things would not be there, it might be a financial consideration because you're creating an additional benefit of the project. if the project was well- designed, it would register some of the units and come up with a design which is slightly different. for example, by saying that we want to talk about quality of design y

week -- 85% of san francisco businesses are small businesses. san francisco small businesses are not only excited about the unique opportunities of the america's cup, but they are very excited about the economic opportunities san francisco will experience in hosting america's cup. mayor lee has understood the importance of maintaining and growing our environment. is due to the vision and leadership that san francisco is becoming known for its dynamic business environment. wally city and the america's cup advanced and authority -- while the city in the america's cup -- america's cup advance in authority, mayor lee has authorized me to add the america's cup to san francisco's rich and the verse business community so they can help the -- make the america's cup truly a san francisco environment. mayor lee: thank you for being there. thank you for hosting this, regina. i see carrie mccullen, our small business commission, and of course, sfmade. and david chiu. he and my predecessor signed it that close to agreement. there were 11 different plans the

how do we get small. how do we grow. then within the last three years, a lot of boardroom discussions became how do we survive. because they have done their own assessment that this economy is stuck. it's not going anywhere, and it's going to stay stuck because of ineffective failed economic policies. and so when the business community sees that the unconventional candidates has gotten elected president, with a bold idea, they are going to get excited that he just might get this thing passed. and if the business community gets excited they're going to do together growth plans, or at least they will have them on the table ready to pull the trigger once members of congress say that we are going to move this through. and so this is what we badly need to is why i want to make it retroactive, because this economy can't wait. 14 million people without jobs and they can't find jobs. folks can't wait. this is our biggest domestic priority, in my opinion. >> thank you, mr. cain. we have been managing a conversation online about 9

small business tax reform. we've passed so many different jobs bills throughout this year, that are sitting over in the senate. here's the deal, we have a difference of opinion with the white house on how best to create jobs. we don't think doubling down on failed stimulus policies which have already proven to fail is the right way to go, so we want to work with ideas that have proven to work. that means helping small businesses grow. that means getting certainty in our policy, regulations, taxes, debt, so that small businesses can grow. temporary stimulus. sort of sugar high economics are not what businesses are telling us they need to create jobs. >> aren't tax cuts, with no eye toward tax increases as part of spending cuts, isn't that sugar economics, as well? sugar high economics? you refuse to budge on the tax cuts? >> what we're getting from the white house are temporary tax policies, stimulus, which didn't work when president bush tried it, and spending increases with permanent tax increases. let's look

i don't know about the small business commission. >> this is a distinct possibility. >> i think that you could get a lot more done than having the whole commission. >> thank you, commissioners. we will return to the calendar now. the board of supervisors and the board of appeals, and the commission -- that did not meet this week. >> a couple of brief announcements. i am happy to report that the planning department and the department of building inspection have signed a contract for the permit tracking system, and this is moving forward into the actual work of creating this system. we do believe it will take 80 months-24 months to have this totally implemented but -- 18 months-24 months to have this totally implemented. i will be out of town unexpectedly for a family funeral, so i will be leaving town on saturday. and kelly will be in charge of the department. i also have a short board of appeals report. the board of supervisors did not meet this week. there was no land use committee for full board of supervisors because of the holiday. the board of appeals did meet last night and the

see what the small business doctors have ordered up. that's all coming up next on "your business." >>> small businesses are revitalizing the economy, and american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc. >>> hi there, everyone, i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business" where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. the world lost a visionary this week whose work impacted millions of people, including small business owners. steve jobs, whose tireless drive for innovation inspired the world, died at the age of 56. from the earliest apple computers to ipods and iphones, to pixar animation, jobs' constant look to the future was a template for those with big and small ideas. colleen debase is special projects director at "entrepreneur" magazine and phil talent is an investment adviser and best-selling author. we are just talking that it was so sad, and it's amazing, these times when you've never met somebody and yet they've impacted your life so much that you feel so sadd

all of the utility relocation work was put out at 100% small business relocation participation -- small business participation. that scope, although small in comparison to the buttressed shoring scup, came in a 100% sbe participation and helps with the overall average and overall target. the sbe work, although large and complex, and because of its nature, it tends to lean towards larger contracts, on that subcontract as a whole, we are still meeting the 17%. we are in a good position right now, but one of our best tools is the ability to set aside, for instance, a landscaping package or specific trades package for small or disadvantaged business participation. also, if it suits within a specific package under the federal guideline, we can set aside a specific scope within a larger package for small business participation in to say, for instance, just pulling something out of the air, the door hardware shall be provided by a small business. we have flexibility there, and we would be looking at these tools with the unions to figure out what would be our best opportunity. >> thank you so m

two out of every three new jobs are created by small business. what you have right in front of you is the tale of our greatest assets. you have two young men who got together as a roommates when they were 25. they are, as they tell me, from detroit. they're from entrepreneur real families to their families were in the automobile industry as entrepreneurs, and they are taking the best they told me that they are carrying this entrepreneur spirit on in a new industry and in a new place. that is really america's story. that is what the small business administration and all of us to cross the administration are here driving. in addition to what you see here yet met the, there's a whole supply chain behind us. they buy and work with suppliers who are american manufacturers. all of this is produced here in america. in minnesota, illinois, indiana, and those are jobs. so when they prosper, we get a job creation all across america. so thank you, because this is really what we're out here trying to do. because as you grow and prosper, so does america grow

rapidly multiplied in this small. are new they have a hierarchy of. camels a base strong males some of the males are very aggressive they have to be removed from the herd to ensure the comfort of others this is especially important at a time when there are many young camels around we protect them from aggressive males but old and young alike co-exist peacefully. mean has devoted his life to studying horses so much so that his friends and colleagues gave him the nickname old mustang. for quite some time has conducted research on his own this is because wild horses dislike the presence of many people on the island. life all he needs in the step is water and packed meals he stays in a dilapidated cabin for the night the island's only structure. we constantly observe the mustang's way of life. we're looking for opportunities to create isolated territories for them so they can feel themselves at home without being bothered by humans. culture is that so much time in which of course he's right on it becomes obvious that they call it what you wish a major pol

southern russia lake manage below early morning is the best time for setting out for this small island from the mainland. this is because gale force winds blow here throughout the rest of the day. talked of leadin me a cousin mean a biologist is going to the deserted island avoid me the lakes most mysterious feature. it is couched in incredible legends and is the custodian of many secrets when and how it became home to a herd of horses is unclear. because of its population of noble beasts has since been called mustang island today it is part of europe's only nature reserve in the step. dr cans mean hopes to be able to get close to the mustangs to see how these federal descendants of domesticated horses live in the wild. to carry our good luck and godspeed if you find those horses thank you for the right. even when i find them i'll be sure to let you know ok. bye for now i'll. manage below is one of europe's longest lakes with a high concentration of salt. it stretches all the way from the russian playing to the caucasus mountains as it runs through the cooma manage depression a natural

i own a small hotel and a nightclub. these guys that have come before me i think what it pretty well. it is irritating to me as someone who has $3 million of my own money invested in this community to hear a supervisors say this is policy. it is not policy to me. it is my livelihood, the money i have worked my entire life to earn. over the last few months, i have raised almost $2 million in a private fund to expand my business, and yesterday in a board meeting because of this issue and this hearing, my board members decided to table two offers we were about to make in restaurants in san francisco that currently employed no one because they are close. when i bought my restaurant, it had four employees. it now has 22. i have had a proven track record of creating jobs, and we're going to take that track record and get out of the city and county of san francisco because the board of supervisors in particular does not appreciate what small business does, and we are going to look to liquidate our holdings in san francisco and