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

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This, in turn, will enable the federa government to providecitizens “with an unprecedentee level of detail into how their tax dollarz are being spent,” said Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “People will be able to see who isreceivingb funds, what projects are under way, how monegy is being spent, and how many jobs are being created or he said. The Obama administration promiserd this level of transparency when the Americab Recovery and Reinvestment Actwas passed, but its recovery.gov Web site so far has failedd to meet that Under new guidance by the OMB, prime recipients of stimulusx funding must provide quarterly reportz via www.
federalreporting.gov on total funds received and names of organizations assisting with a project and the amount paid to that a list of projects, including location and completion time and jobs associated with each Vendors that receive more than $25,0090 to help with a project also must be The new guidance does not applgy to stimulus contracts issued by federapl agencies; additional guidance for federal contractors will be forthcoming, accordiny to OMB. The Small Business Administration approved only72 America’z Recovery Capital loans in the new emergenc y bridge loan program’s first week of operation.
The SBA had expectefd high demand forthe loans, which were created by the economix stimulus legislation to help struggling small businesseds make payments on existing debt. Through this small businesses can borrow upto $35,0000 to make up to six months of payments on qualifyin g loans. Borrowers won’t have to start repayingb the ARC loans untilk a year after they receive their last ARC loan The loansare interest-free to the Instead, the SBA will pay the lendee a monthly interest rate of prime plus 2 percentaged points. The SBA also will guarantee 100 percentg ofthe loan’s amount. The SBA beganm accepting applications for these loansxJune 15.
As of June 22, the agencyt had approved 72 loanstotaling $2.4 million submitte by 42 lenders. Small businesses in 21 statese receivedthese loans. The agenc y expects the volume of ARC loans to pick up incominfg weeks. The agency has conducted training sessions on the loanswith 3,000 lenders from 1,309 financial institutions. “Based on the participation in theinformation sessions, we are encouraged and feel we in fact, continue to see a rise in participatiom by lenders and the number of loan said SBA Press Secretary Hayleg Matz. Many SBA lenders, however, remain on the sidelines.
The Colemam Report, which tracks SBA lending, found that 60 percen t of the lenders who responded to its survey saidthey don’ty plan to make ARC loans. Some lenderss said they wouldn’t make enough money off the loanss to justifythe trouble, and others said the SBA’a guidelines for the loans were too vague. To be eligiblde for the loans, small businesses must show they were profitablde or had positive cash flow in at least one of the past two Future cash flow projections must demonstrate that the businessese will be able to repayytheir debts, including the ARC loan.
The Nationaol Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders has submitted four pages of questionsw to the SBA aboutthe program. “Our members have many questionsd aboutthe program, and that is probablt why the volume is less than said NAGGL President Tony Employment in the construction industry continuecd to decline in May, despite new jobs created by economidc stimulus projects. “Projects funded by the stimulus legislation probably mitigateds the overall downturn in construction jobs in saidKen Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractorsa of America.
“While the stimulus is startinygto help, it is not keeping pace with overall declines in constructionh activity in most places.”