September 14, 2005
- Hurricane Katrina Aftermath, Rebuilding
- NASE Members Voice Retirement Savings Concerns
- ASBDC Holds Annual Conference, NASE Awarded
Hurricane Katrina Aftermath, Rebuilding
As New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama start to piece themselves back together, Congress has been hard at work trying to facilitate that process. Last week the House and Senate acted quickly with bipartisan support to pass two bills totaling $62.3 billion in aid for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The most recent bill signed into law for $51.8 billion will mostly be distributed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and includes $23.2 billion for housing aid and grants to individuals and $7.7 billion in reimbursements for state and local governments. Much of the grant money will be distributed in the form of $2,000 grants for families to begin rebuilding homes.
Some legislators are proposing relief for small businesses in particular. This week senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) offered an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill proposing access to low-interest disaster loans to cope with increased gas and oil prices and access to short-term loans that will be rapidly approved to help business that are waiting for SBA loan approval begin to rebuild immediately. The amendment would also include a two-year deferral on the interests and payments for Small Business Association (SBA) disaster loans and increased business assistance through SBA’s entrepreneurial centers. The amendment may be decided on this week.
NASE Members in Disaster Areas
The NASE is looking into the status of our members and the damage done to their homes and businesses. The NASE encourages members in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida to utilize these federal resources:
These agencies are providing grants for rebuilding as well as tax relief for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
What YOU Can Do to Help
The Red Cross is accepting donations to continue the relief effort. Visit www.redcross.org to make a donation to the hurricane relief fund.
Women-Owned Businesses Unite
The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Institute for Entrepreneurial Development has teamed with Center for Women’s Business Research, Count-Me-In, and others to support women business owners impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, there are 370,937 women entrepreneurs in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama with 47,000 in New Orleans alone. NAWBO has created the Web site www.womenbizrelief.com to connect women business owners who want to help with owners affected by the hurricane.
Additionally, NAWBO will work with Count-Me-In to distribute grants to women business owners trying to rebuild their businesses. The grants have been made possible through donations, the first $10,000 of which were matched by NAWBO.
For more information or to make a donation, visit www.nawbo.org.
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NASE Members Voice Retirement Savings Concerns
| A majority of micro-business owners do not feel confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably through retirement according to a recent online member poll by the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE). Only 7.5 percent of respondents feel very confident about retirement, while 56.6 feel not very or not at all confident. Half of respondents currently save for retirement but nearly twenty percent do not or are not able to save for retirement. |
How confident are you that you will have enough money to live comfortably through retirement?
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“Retirement savings often have to take a backseat to other pressing micro-business costs,” said NASE president Robert Hughes. “Here at the NASE we do all that we can to encourage the self-employed to invest in future retirement plans and encourage the government to provide incentives for retirement saving.”
Nearly thirty percent of respondents currently have no savings for retirement (28.4 percent) and about one quarter of respondents have less than $15,000 saved. About 25 percent of those saving do so in a traditional or Roth IRA. Other popular choices were 401(k) plans and savings accounts.
The NASE backs new incentives for personal savings and new small-business pension plans that are simpler and more financially attractive. The NASE will continue to work with the Savings Coalition of America to help micro-businesses save for retirement.
“Because of the difficulty in saving for retirement, the NASE focused this month's issue of the member magazine, Self-Employed, to providing tips on retirement planning,” said Hughes.
To see the full results of the survey, visithttp://advocacy.nase.org/membersurvey/default.asp. For more information on the Savings Coalition, visit http://www.savingscoalition.org/. |
Methodology:
Posted in the members-only portal on the NASE Web site, the survey was available for members to take through the month of August. Over 400 NASE Members opted-in to the non-scientific survey and members were prohibited from taking it more than once. |
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ASBDC Holds Annual Conference, NASE Awarded
During the Association of Small Business Development Center's (ASBDC) 25-year silver anniversary celebration, the organization named inaugural recipients of its new Champions of Small Business Development award. The National Association for the Self-Employed was the recipient of this award along with senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and John Kerry (D-MA), representatives Donald Manzullo (R-IL) and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Entrepreneur magazine editor Rieva Lesonsky among others.
"Small business is the engine of the American economy and the Champion of Small Business Development and Founding Fathers awards recognize individuals and organizations making significant contributions to small business development," said Donald Wilson, president and CEO, ASBDC headquartered in Washington, D.C. "We congratulate our inaugural award recipients and we look forward to their continued contributions to small business development."
The conference brought together over a thousand Small Business Development Center professionals to provide practical, cutting-edge techniques to help SBDC program be more effective. This year’s conference took place in Baltimore, MD.
For more information on the Association of Small Business Development Centers, visit http://asbdc-us.org/.
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