Van Nuys, CA - This past Tuesday, United States Congressman Howard Berman hosted a small business town hall meeting at the Government Center in Van Nuys. In this tough economic time, it was a great opportunity to hear from representatives from different government agencies. In an effort to address the small business community needs, Congressman Berman brought in Meaghan Burdick of the Small Business Administration (SBA) as a presenter, as well as Herb K. Schultz, who worked in the Grey Davis [sic] administration as the Labor Secretary and Larry Rillera, the Manager of the Clean Energy Business Program. For more information, visit the Congressman’s website at www.house.gov/berman. The following remarks were delivered Tuesday, April 6th at the Government Center in Van Nuys by Congressman Howard Berman:

“Welcome to this Town Hall meeting for Small Businesses. I’m happy to see you here and I hope
that the information presented today will be informative and useful to you. We’re going to focus on
special opportunities for small businesses that are included in the federal economic stimulus package
and in the recently passed health care reform bill.

There are a lot of provisions that focus on small businesses and following this briefing, my hope is
that you will be better informed about the tax incentives, credit stimulus elements, loan programs,
procurement opportunities and job creation. And, here’s the most important fact you will learn:
small businesses must be proactive to benefit from these incentives.

You and your colleagues are essential to our nation’s recovery from this recession. Our efforts to
jumpstart our economy, and to create or save millions of jobs depends greatly on what you as small
businesses do. You are the vital job-creating engines in our economy.

I’m going to focus very briefly on a few tax provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act that I think are especially important and then this very distinguished panel of experts will present
a more comprehensive explanation of the wide variety of opportunities awaiting you.

You should know that the Recovery Act includes several tax breaks for small businesses. I’ll mention
them, but I’m no tax expert and you should definitely confer with one to explain how they may
be relevant to your business.

• The Recovery Act reduced the estimated tax payment requirements for many small business owners, specifically, those whose adjusted gross income (AGI) for 2008 was less than $500,000. And the Act also expands some important tax breaks for businesses.

• Those businesses with gross receipts of less than $15 million may be able to use current losses to offset profits made during the previous five years. For some businesses struggling through the current downturn, using these losses to offset previous gains could mean substantial tax refunds.
  

• Also, businesses that hire employees from one of nine specific groups, such as unemployed veterans or disconnected youth can claim a credit equal to 40% of the first $6,000 of wages paid to a qualifying employee.
  

• The Recovery Act also creates or expands a number of energy-related tax breaks for businesses, including an advanced energy investment credit, a renewable electricity production credit, and an alternative fuel pump tax credit.
  

As you see, The American Recovery and Recovery Act may significantly affect your tax liability and ... again ... Do discuss these with your tax advisor.

On another front, President Obama very recently signed into law a very important bill which also has ramifications for small businesses -- historic health care insurance reform.  Here’s the major changes it includes for small businesses:

• The small business health care tax credit kicks in immediately and is retroactive to January 1, 2010.  If you hire less than the equivalentof 25 full-time workers, it can cover up to 35% of the premiums you pay to cover those employees. Then, in 2014,the rate will increase to 50%. If you now provide health care for your workers, you’ll receive immediate help with their premium costs.
  

• Starting in 2014, firms with 100 or fewer workers will be able to pool their buying power and reduce administrative costs by purchasing insurance through an exchange.
  

• This bill ends price discrimination against small businesses with sick workers.  Starting in 2014, community-rating rules will prohibit insurers from charging more to cover small businesses with sicker workers or raising rates when someone gets sick. And health insurance reform will prevent insurance discrimination based on health status, meaning
  that small businesses will no longer be unfairly subjected to arbitrary premium hikes if a worker falls ill.
• Currently, the cost of treating the uninsured adds a hidden tax of over $1,000 to every health care premium.  Health reform will significantly reduce this tax by covering an additional 32 million additional Americans by 2019. 
  

By and large, these reforms will make it possible for small businesses to offer coverage comparable to that of larger firms, enabling you to recruit and retain talented workers.  And workers that want to switch jobs or start their own small business will no longer be held back by the fear of losing access to affordable health coverage. 

I’ve invited experts from the Federal, State, City and County government to join me this morning to talk about the opportunities created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  They will share valuable information and direct you towards the available resources that will help your small business grow even in these hard times. I’ll introduce our distinguished panel of experts now -- and let me express my great appreciation to each of you for joining us today:

• Meaghan Burdick, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Small Business Administrator, has traveled
  3,000 miles from the nation’s capitol to talk to you about SBA opportunities, including loan fee
  reductions, higher guarantees, secondary market incentives, and enhancements to current SBA programs that will help unlock credit markets and assist small businesses in many new and important ways.
  
• Herb Schultz, Senior Advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Director of
  California’s Recovery Task force will talk about resources and and share information necessary to participate fully in the recovery effort. He will help you learn how best to compete for job creating contracting opportunities in California.
  
• Richard Benbow, the General Manager of the Community Development Department will discuss how the city is managing dollars received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Dustin Stevenson, of the South Bay Investment Board will talk about how you can add or retain employees for your business with up to 100% percent of their
  wages covered.
  
• Larry Rillera, Manager, Clean Energy Business Program will provide information
  on stimulus money for energy efficiency projects.
• At the tables in the back of the room you will find Michael Aguillo with the small Business outreach team who is an expert on the procurement process.
  
• Natalie Orta is here from the Small Business Administration.
  
• Valley Economic Development Center (VEDC) also has valuable information to help your small business.

Small businesses have suffered enormously from today’s economic crisis.  Hopefully, you will learn something today that will help you take advantage of the multitude of programs and resources the Recovery Act presents. Thank you again for coming. Now, I’ll turn the
forum over to Meaghan Burdick.” (Remarks made by Congressman Howard Berman at a Small Business Town Hall meeting in Van Nuys, CA)