LANSING – Michigan could see $792 million more in small business loans as a result of $79.2 million in federal funds awarded to the state.
The funds, officially announced Friday, are from a federal program based on a state manufacturing loan assistance program. The grant allows the state to provide qualifying businesses with collateral assistance to receive loans that banks otherwise would have rejected.
Gene Sperling, counselor to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, said Michigan’s program was the seed for the federal program. “If you had to point to one person who was the impetus and leader behind this, it would be Governor Granholm,” he said.
“This would not be happening if we didn’t have people appointed by the administration who understand the human suffering and human pain that been caused (by the economic downturn),” Granholm said in a media conference call Thursday (the information was embargoed until Friday) to announce the grant. “That’s what this is all about is identifying great programs and taking them nationwide.”
As with the state programs, the funds are used to provide cash collateral up to 10 percent of the value of the loan for companies that do not qualify for standard loans because they do not have sufficient collateral of their own.
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