Flower shop owner, Zions Bank hail new small business bill

SALT LAKE CITY — After a difficult divorce in 1977, Pam March managed to painstakingly scrape together five $20 bills. From there, she revamped an older building where she and her young daughter slept on the floor in sleeping bags while March turned the place into a florist shop.

The firm took off and was flourishing until the Great Recession hit.

Then orders dropped, revenues sagged and March arranged for reduced hours for her 11 employees so she wouldn't have to lay anyone off.

So it came as wonderful news for March when President Barack Obama signed the new Small Business Job Creation Act into law on Monday.

The new legislation offers several new features.

Among them: tax breaks for small-business owners, more leeway in the sums banks can lend and changes in the government guarantees for banks if business owners default.

"I'm excited about what the president is proposing for small business, because we're hoping to benefit from it," March said Monday at a press conference inside her company's main store, Every Blooming Thing, at 444 S. 700 East.

"I hope this boomerangs around the country and makes everyone feel business is going to return to business as usual."

Zions Bank also announced it has created a new Small Business Banking Division, overseen by Lori Chillingworth, who will be executive vice president of the new division. It will offer more capital to entrepreneurs in Utah and also Idaho.

"This bill is definitely a step in the right direction," Chillingworth said.

Among other things, Chillingworth said the bill will:

Set aside $12 billion for tax breaks for small businesses so owners can deduct more for such things as capital expenses, employee health care and certain start-up costs.

Permanently increase the size of SBA-backed loans banks are permitted to offer to small businesses from $2 million (which has been the cap for 25 years) to $5 million.

Eliminate guarantee fees paid by small business owners for SBA-backed bank loans through December and well beyond that, allowing bankers to have higher government loan guarantees, which is expected to make it more attractive for banks to risk lending to small businesses.