BUSINESS & FINANCE
New Program to Help Small Businesses Compete for Government Contracts
I
n May 2010, U.S. Transportation Sec- retary Ray LaHood announced a new bonding education program aimed at helping qualified small and disadvan- taged businesses compete for govern- ment contracting opportunities. In collaboration with the Surety
and Fidelity Association of America (SFAA), the U.S. Department of Trans- portation’s Office of Small and Disad- vantaged Business Utilization (OSD- BU) hosted a series of pilot education workshops to get small businesses bond ready. The start dates and city locations for the pilots were Chicago, May 27; Dallas, June 10; and Atlanta, June 24. “President Obama, Vice President
Biden and I want to ensure that as the economy recovers, small businesses have every opportunity to compete successfully for contracts in the trans- portation and construction industries,” said Secretary LaHood. “We think this program will go a
long way to provide the type of tar- geted assistance that small businesses competing in the transportation in- dustry need right now,” said OSDBU Director Brandon Neal. “It will really help level the playing field for smaller companies eager to compete.” Companies accepted into this pro-
gram received expert guidance from SFAA to help prepare them for bond readiness. Once bonded, companies can land bigger and better contracts without having to rely on a prime con- tractor, as they’ve been required to in the past. For many small companies, bonding authority signals an impor- tant step toward greater independence and opens the door to new opportuni- ties for growth and expansion. The program included a 10 week
course covering an array of subjects to help small businesses become bond- able. At the end of 10 weeks, business-
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es are paired with local bond produc- ers to work side by side in the bonding process. The businesses that attended in-
cluded small businesses, Disadvan- taged Business Enterprises, 8(a) firms, Woman Owned Businesses, Historical- ly Underutilized Business Zone firms, Veteran Owned Small Businesses and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses.
About the Small Business Health Care Tax Starting this year – indeed starting
retroactively to January 1, 2010 – a new small business health care tax credit will be in effect that will provide a 35% tax credit on health premiums, with the credit rising to 50% in 2014. A simi- lar tax credit will even be available to non-profits. This type of small business tax relief – long championed by Sena- tor Durbin and many other members
of Congress from both parties – is tar- geted to where the barriers and lack of coverage are the greatest. The $40 billion in tax credits over ten
years will be aimed at many of the four million small businesses with under 25 employees (just 53 percent of firms this size provide coverage), and will be most generous for the firms with 3 to 9 workers, whose rate of offering health insurance has fallen from 58 percent in 2002 to just 46 percent in 2009. A small business with 12 full-time employees that fully paid for health care could see tax relief of over $25,000 in 2010 – and over $40,000 in 2014. That’s not a lot for Wal-Mart perhaps, but it could be enough to help support a new hire, a critical new investment, or health coverage for part-time work- ers at hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country. For more information visit
www.ushcc.com
Source: Hispanic Business Women’s Alliance
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