Seminar Provides Local Companies Information on New Tax Cuts and Lending Opportunities

(Bristol, PA) – Pennsylvania Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8th District) hosted a Small Business Assistance Seminar to provide local business owners valuable information about growing their companies, including through new lending programs, tax credits, government contracting opportunities and export assistance programs. He was joined by representatives from the US Small Business Administration, the IRS and the Department of Commerce.

“I’ll continue doing everything I can to support our small businesses and make sure they know what programs are out there to help,” said Murphy.

Business owners had the chance to learn about recently enacted programs to boost Small Business Administration (SBA) lending, a result of legislation Rep. Murphy fought for that guarantees lending amounts and cuts loan fees. They also learned more about the HIRE Act, signed into law earlier this year, which created a payroll tax holiday for businesses that hire unemployed workers.

This is the third Small Business Assistance Seminar that Murphy has hosted this year. At a previous lending seminar, Power and Energy, a local clean energy company, learned about an SBA finance program for exporting for which they could be eligible.

“Had we not gone to the seminar Congressman Murphy put together, we wouldn’t have learned about some of the programs out there to assist small businesses like Power & Energy. After talking to an SBA representative at the event, we applied for the export financing program and are now in the final stages of securing the funding,” said Noel Leeson, President of Power & Energy in Ivyland, PA.

Murphy has supported numerous other pro-small business initiatives to help local companies survive and expand, despite the economic downturn. He fought for tax cuts to help homeowners offset the cost of making energy efficient improvements to their home, generating demand and job growth in the hard hit construction industry. He also helped pass tax credits to encourage local green energy companies - like AE Polysilicon and Gamesa – to make crucial investments in clean technology and create high-paying, green jobs here at home.

For Immediate Release, July 9, 2010
Contact, Sara Schaumburg, (202) 225-4276