Immigrant entrepreneurship program facing 25% cut
Flick/William Zhang
A program that boosts immigrant entrepreneurs and rural economies could be cut by 25 percent in the current budget draft.
A state program launched under Gov. Mitt Romney that targets the "racial wealth gap" by boosting immigrant entrepreneurs and rural economies faces a 25 percent funding cut in the budget that Gov. Charlie Baker is reviewing.
The $750,000 recommended by the Democrat-controlled Legislature for the Small Business Technical Assistance program is lower than the $1 million recommended in January by Gov. Baker, a funding level that the House agreed to in April before the Senate signed off on $2.5 million in program funding in May.
“We are dismayed with the budget’s devastating and disproportionate cut to a successful program that is creating jobs, opportunity and new tax revenue across the Commonwealth,” Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, said in a statement Monday. "These cuts move us in the wrong direction."
The association called on Baker to use unspecified "discretionary funds" to restore program funding to at least $1 million.
The program is administered by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation and in fiscal 2016 created 1,056 jobs and preserved 1,594 jobs by opening, growing or stabilizing companies that predominantly serve communities that include people of color, immigrants and women.
The Legislature last week slashed planned investments across state government and Baker is in the midst of sweeping state trust funds as part of efforts to keep state finances balanced amid slow-growing tax revenues.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments