If Frank Knapp Jr. has his way, the Biden administration will budget more money for small businesses and give out more loans to entrepreneurs in underserved communities.
âThe SBA (Small Business Adminisrtation) is broken,â Knapp said when he visited the area as part of his nine-city, one-man tour, bringing his message to the attention of the public and media.
âWeâre at a 40-year low in new business startups,â he said. âEconomists tell us that all net-new jobs in the nation are created by businesses less than five years old and that they have four or fewer employees.â
Meanwhile, he cited the SBA Office of Advocacy which found the number of commercial banks declined from 14,400 to 4,600 since 1980, representing a 68% drop due to consolidations and failures.
Kelly Harris runs restaurants on Jacksonville’s Southside and Frank Knapp Jr. runs business groups in South Carolina. But on frustrations over roadblocks facing small businesses, they’re in the same place.
That’s why Knapp, president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, ended up Monday outside Harris’s Village Bread Café on Philips Highway launching a nine-city swing through Florida to publicize a campaign labeled “Reform the SBA.”
Despite regular statements by politicians that small businesses are the backbone of America’s economy, Knapp said, “the backbone of our economy is deteriorating.”
The campaign highlights concerns about slumping rates of new business startups and asks Floridians to urge members of Congress to create a new federal small-business loan program and give new responsibilities and resources to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Racial disparities trouble COVID-19 vaccine rollout
• 7 min read
How US can ramp up COVID-19 vaccine distribution
Dr. Jen Ashton presented her plan for speeding up the vaccination process.Nathan Howard/Getty Images, FILE
In the ongoing effort to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19, communities are expressing concerns around racial disparities in the distribution of limited doses.
In Florida s Miami-Dade County, 17.7% of the population is Black, according to U.S. Census data. But so far, only 6.5% 11,001 of the 167,129 people who have been vaccinated in the county so far identify as Black, according to the state health department s latest vaccination report, released Thursday.