U.S. Treasury officials release guidance on technical assistance for SSBCI 2.0
In its most recent “SSTI Digest,” the State Science and Technology Institute provided an analysis of guidance issued last Thursday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury related to the technical assistance funds authorized as part of the “State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0” (SSBCI).
SSTI noted that the federal legislation authorized a $500 million pool for technical assistance services, and the Department of Treasury has decided to allocate those monies as follows:
- $200 million to the states;
- $100 million to the U.S. Minority Business Development Agency; and
- $200 million to be retained in by the Department for now.
For those who like to read the details, the guidance from Treasury can be found here. If you want a summary, the SSTI analysis can be found here. Those highlights include:
- Technical assistance is broadly defined to include assisting with business formation, licenses, financial statements and financial management; developing term sheets; and preparing presentations to investors.
- States can provide the assistance themselves or work with subrecipients or contractors to deliver services. “In selecting contractors, states must have a preference for entities that are owned and controlled by socially- and economically-disadvantaged individuals (SEDI),” SSTI writes.
- The recipients of technical assistance must be SEDI companies or businesses with fewer than 10 employees. In addition, SSTI writes that “the state must plan to provide assistance to these companies in roughly the same proportion that the state received SSBCI capital allocations for these groups.”
