Small Firms Foil California Balloon Ban
The Save the Balloons Coalition, an organization of more than 20,000 florists, small retailers, grocers, unions and other concerns, has been successful in getting a state lawmaker to scale back his bill that would make it illegal to sell helium-filled foil balloons and instead require more consumer education on the part of balloon retailers. State Sen. Jack Scott's intentions were good - he offered SB 1499 because he believed that many of California's power outages were caused by these balloons getting caught in power lines. The measure was backed by some utility companies, although bill critics cited the California Public Utility Commission as saying that none of the state's approximately 6,000 annual power outages were caused by foil balloons. Coalition member The Balloon Council, a group including small retailers, manufacturers and unions, was integral to the effort to temper the bill. The council was formed in 1990 - around the

Voter Resource Group Slams McCain Over Tax Allegations
Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit resource for voters that aims to reduce confusion about topics discussed in U.S. politics, parsed Republican presidential aspirant John McCain's allegation that Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama would raise tax rates for 23 million small-business owners and concluded that it is a "false and preposterously inflated figure." Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said that after analyzing the charges, "we find that the overwhelming majority of those small-business owners would see no increase, because they earn too little to be affected. Obama's tax proposal would raise rates only on couples making more than $250,000 or singles earning more than $200,000." McCain (R-Ariz.) has been making his claims for months. In early June he spoke to the National Federation of Independent Business and said of the Illinois senator: "Obama's tax increases will hurt the economy even more, and destroy

Report: SBA Mismanages Billion Dollar HUBZone Program
The Small Business Administration relies on an outdated, inaccurate map to maintain its billion dollar HUBZone program that is rife with fraud, according to a government report (pdf) to be released Thursday at a House Small Business hearing. The House panel is holding the morning hearing to unveil the results of the Government Accountability Office report that exposes fraud in the $8 billion HUBZone program, which is designed to award federal contracts to small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas. The report said the map, which is designed to help firms determine if they're in a HUBZone area, contains areas that are not eligible for the program and excludes some eligible areas because the SBA has not updated the map since August 2006. The outdated map incorrectly includes 50 metropolitan counties that are ineligible and excludes 27 eligible non-metropolitan areas. "As a result, ineligible small businesses participated in the program and

Sen. Snowe Meets with SBA Nominee
The official process to get Santanu "Sandy" Baruah situated as head of the Small Business Administration is slowly moving along since President Bush announced his intention to nominate Baruah last month. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, met with Baruah this afternoon for about 30 minutes in her offices on Capitol Hill. Among the concerns she expressed with Baruah, is his positions on the controversial women's procurement issue, according to a Senate aide. "For nearly eight years, the SBA has chosen the path of absolute least resistance and ignored a congressional mandate to make certain that women-owned small businesses can finally have a procurement program that makes a real difference," Snow said in a statement released today. "I am very concerned that the SBA will just re-issue this flawed rule as the final rule and undermine the will of Congress.

How Do I...Deal With a Disaster?
Hurricane season is upon us, floods recently have ravaged places like Iowa and Wisconsin and wildfires have been burning some of California's most beautiful coast, so I thought I'd take a look at the resources available to help small firms prepare and recover from a disaster. I interviewed Admiral Steve Smith, who heads the new Small Business Administration Executive Office of Disaster Strategic Planning and Operations, to find out about the new office and how it can help. This is the first in an occasional series of tools, tips and resources to help businesses think about disaster preparedness and response on federal, state and local levels. Admiral Steve Smith heads a new disaster assistance and recovery office at the SBA. (Photo courtesy of SBA) A month ago, Admiral Steve Smith joined the SBA to head the office, which reports directly to the SBA administrator and is responsible for overseeing the