In the program, entrepreneurs share their wisdom and experience with small-business people free of charge
With a wistful acknowledgement that she was missing Mardi Gras, Sen. Mary Landrieu convened a Tuesday roundtable discussion of a small-business counseling program that she believes deserves a fatter budget even in the leanest of times.
View full sizeSen. Mary Landrieu was one of the Landrieu family members spoofed in this Krewe de Vieux float on Feb. 19, but she was in Washington working on Mardi Gras."As we meet, at this very moment Rex is passing Gallier Hall, and here I sit with you - very happily," said Landrieu, opening a conversation about the SBA"s SCORE program, in which entrepreneurs share their wisdom and experience with small-business people free of charge.
SCORE scored well in President Barack Obama's proposed fiscal 2012 budget, with its current $7 million funding level untouched for the next fiscal year, amid cuts in sister programs within the SBA.
But Kenneth Yancey, SCORE's chief executive officer, noting that he had been told he may have a "tin ear" for the tenor of the times, came to Capitol Hill Tuesday sounding like Oliver Twist asking for more.
"I need a bigger pie," said Yancey, at the gathering before the Senate Small Business Committee Landrieu chairs. "The pie I'm trying to slice up is too small."
Right now, the program cannot exceed its authorized appropriation of $7 million, and Yancey would like the committee to increase that authorization ceiling to $13 million in FY 2012, $15 million in FY 2013, and $18 million in FY 2014.
Ridgley Evers, a member of the SCORE board, anticipated the lawmakers' reaction: "You guys got to be nuts. What are you doing here asking for more money in today's climate?"
But Landrieu, who held the roundtable precisely because she considers SCORE a model of how a federal investment can leverage private resources, backs the higher authorization level for the program.
With only 17 paid staff, SCORE has some 370 chapters and 13,500 volunteer counselors nationwide.
"In this way, SCORE is leveraging private resources through the know-how of successful, experienced members of the business community, utilizing their particular skill set and expertise, to provide quality assistance to its clients," said Landrieu,
citing a Gallup survey that found that businesses helped by SCORE were projected to create more than 150,000 jobs last year.
Leonard Sedlin, a twice-retired engineer who works without pay or other administrative staff, runs the Louisiana program. There are now seven SCORE chapters in Louisiana, including one being rebuilt, post-Katrina, by Barbara Holloway in New Orleans. But, with even one additional staffer, Sedlin, who participated in Tuesday's roundtable, said he could open chapters in Alexandria and Thibodaux, where he said there is a clear appetite for the services they provide.
SCORE originally stood for the Service Corps of Retired Executives, but the volunteers who help guide neophyte small business persons through the trials and tribulations of staring a new venture, are no longer necessarily retired or executives. Some are former SCORE clients.
Altogether, Obama's 2012 budget request of $985 million for the SBA is down slightly from what it asked for in 2011, but represents a precipitous 45 percent drop from the $1.8 billion it had so spend in 2012 because of huge infusion of stimulus money.