WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What the federal government’s stimulus package will mean for Indiana roads, how Super Bowl host cities have planned for traffic, and the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be among topics discussed March 10-12 at the 95th annual Purdue Road School.
Some 1,500 local and state transportation officials from throughout Indiana will participate in the event, sponsored by the Joint Transportation Research Program, which is housed at Purdue.

The conference, the oldest of its kind in the nation, will feature a number of state, federal, academic and transportation industry experts. All conference sessions, which will be held in Stewart Center, are free and open to the public.

Held at Purdue since 1914, Purdue Road School consistently attracts well over 1,000 Indiana local and state officials, consultants, and suppliers each year.

“This year’s program offers an exciting set of very important transportation topics, including the federal stimulus package, infrastructure and the progress of highway projects in the state,” said Kumares Sinha, Road School co-chairman and Purdue’s Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering. “Sessions will cover major engineering, economic and administrative issues in transportation.”

Bob Tally, administrator for the Indiana Division of the Federal Highway Administration, will give the keynote address at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday (March 10). He’ll talk about “Redefining the Three Rs: Recovery, Reinvestment and Reauthorization.”

The Road School will return to the topic of the stimulus package in a session at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday (March 11) on 2009 federal funding for road projects in Indiana. Speakers will be Mark Newland, transportation finance manager for the Federal Highway Administration’s Indiana Division, and Gary Eaton, director of budget, procurement and project accounting for the Indiana Department of Transportation.

During a 1:30 p.m. session Wednesday (March 11) organized by the Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE), officials from Tampa and Detroit, recent Super Bowl host cities, will talk about traffic during the big event. Indianapolis will host the Super Bowl in 2012.

Ken Voigt, ITE international president, will present an overview of traffic planning for special events. Talking about the Detroit experience will be Bob Brooks of traffic designer Parsons Brinckerhoff. Attending from Tampa will be Irvin Lee, public works director, and Mike Scanlon, signals engineer.

The speaker at the noon lunch on Wednesday (March 11) will be Joie Chitwood, president and chief operating officer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Speedway marks its centennial this year. Lunch tickets are $20.

Some other highlights from the program include sessions on:

• Traffic roundabouts, 1:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 10). Participants will be John Beery, Noblesville city engineer; Michael McBride, Carmel city engineer; and Jeromy Grenard and Craig Parks of American Structurepoint.
• Developing a code of ethics for an agency, 3:15 p.m. Tuesday (March 10). Cynthia Carrasco, executive director of the Indiana State Ethics Commission, will moderate a discussion by Patrick Lyp of the Blackly, Tabor, Bozik and Hartman law firm, and Michael Griffin, Highland clerk-treasurer.
• Applying environmental sustainability to roads and streets, 3:15 p.m. Tuesday (March 10). Participants will be Robin Mills Ridgeway, Purdue’s director of sustainability and environmental stewardship; Luke Leising, American Structurepoint sustainability director; and Jeremy Kashman, American Structurepoint project manager.
• Introducing commuter rail to Indiana, 8:30 a.m. Wednesday (March 11). Lori Miser, Indianapolis Department of Public Works administrator, will moderate a panel with Tom Beck of the City of Indianapolis, and Erica Pugh and John Myers of HNTB Corp.
• An update on major new construction within the state’s Major Moves plan, 10:15 a.m. Wednesday (March 11). Participants will be Jim Poturalski, INDOT deputy commissioner of highway management; Gary Mroczka, INDOT director of Production Management Division; and Greg Kicinski, INDOT manager of the Office of Project Management.
• Status of the leased Indiana Toll Road, 10:15 a.m. Wednesday (March 11). Jay Grossman, Elkhart County project engineer, will moderate a panel with Leigh Morris, INDOT deputy commissioner, and Matt Pierce of the Indiana Toll Road.

Various transportation-related associations will hold business meetings on Thursday morning (March 12).

The Road School, held annually at Purdue since 1914, brings together transportation-related professionals from the federal level to the smallest municipalities in the state. It is co-sponsored by Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

Detailed information on the Road School program and online registration are available at http://www.purdue.edu/jtrp

WASHINGTON, DC -– The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contains a package of loan fee reductions, higher guarantees, new SBA programs, secondary market incentives, and enhancements to current SBA programs that will help unlock credit markets and begin economic recovery for the nation’s small business sector.

“The tax incentives and credit stimulus elements of the Recovery Act will truly help small business owners affected by the credit crunch, and will provide financing opportunities to help them create new jobs in their communities,” said Acting SBA Administrator Darryl K. Hairston.

“There’s a lot to digest in the legislation, and SBA has established teams to tackle a wide variety of policy decisions, system modifications, regulatory changes, legal requirements, and new program launches authorized by the President and Congress,” said Hairston.

The bill provides $730 million to SBA and makes changes to the agency’s lending and investment programs so that they can reach more small businesses that need help. The funding includes:

• $375 million for temporary fee reductions or eliminations on SBA loans and increased SBA guaranteed shares, up to 90 percent for certain loans
• $255 million for a new loan program to help small businesses meet existing debt payments
• $30 million for expanding SBA’s Microloan program, enough to finance up to $50 million in new lending and $24 million in technical assistance grants to microlenders
• $20 million for technology systems to streamline SBA’s lending and oversight processes
• $15 million for expanding SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee program
• $25 million for staffing up to meet demands for new programs
• $10 million for the Office of Inspector General

The bill also authorizes refinancing for certain SBA loans so borrowers can expand their businesses on favorable terms, and expands leverage capability for Small Business Investment Companies.

“We are going to be part of the solution, and this bill gives us specific tools to make it easier and less expensive for small businesses to get loans, give lenders new incentives to make more loans, and help restore healthy SBA secondary markets to boost liquidity,” Hairston said, noting also that more details on implementation will be coming over the next few weeks.

The stimulus bill takes a comprehensive approach and attacks several problems facing small businesses at once by reducing fees, guaranteeing a greater share of certain loans, expanding capacity in the Microloan program, providing new loans to help small businesses keep their doors open through economic hardship, as well as new mechanisms to help unfreeze the secondary markets for SBA-backed loans.

Declines in SBA lending volume last year, which are continuing in FY 2009, reflect problems in the broader credit markets, and present hurdles to small businesses that are seeking credit in the current economy. The financial crisis has created a variety of conditions that impact small businesses, including a lack of liquidity in the banking system, a reluctance of many lenders to extend new loans, tightened credit standards, weaker finances at small businesses, and uncertainty about taking on new debt on the part of many entrepreneurs.

The Recovery Act addresses small businesses’ lending problems, and addresses key investment and contracting issues. The bill helps Small Business Investment Companies better leverage investment capital to reach more small companies. The bill also increases the current contract limit for SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee program, which will help small businesses compete for contracts.

90 Percent Guarantee
The bill allows SBA to raise its loan guarantee from the current levels to as much as 90 percent for some loans. At present, SBA can guarantee loans up to 85 percent on loans up to $150,000, and up to 75 percent on loans greater than $150,000. The 50 percent guarantee on SBA Express loans would remain unchanged. Increasing the SBA guarantee percentage will encourage lenders to extend more capital to small businesses by increasing the share covered by an SBA guarantee.

Business Stabilization Loans
The bill creates a new SBA loan program to provide deferred-payment loans of up to $35,000 to viable small businesses that need the money to make payments on an existing, qualifying loan for up to six months. These loans will be 100 percent guaranteed by SBA. Repayment would not have to begin until 12 months after the loan is fully disbursed. The bill provides $255 million for this new program. These loans will help ensure that small businesses have time to re-focus their business plans in order to succeed in the long run.

Microloans
The bill expands SBA’s Microloan program, which provides small loans (up to $35,000) paired with technical assistance to start-up, newly established or growing small businesses. The bill provides funding to increase loans from SBA to participating Microlenders by $50 million through September 30, 2010, and adds $24 million in grants to provide technical assistance to borrowers. Historically, these loans reach low-income individuals, women and minorities in both rural and urban areas. Expanding this program through the stimulus bill will help ensure these entrepreneurs are not left behind in the credit crunch.

Refinancing
The bill also gives SBA the power to use the 504 Certified Development Company program to refinance existing loans for fixed assets, providing fresh support for small business expansion. This change will help business owners expand their current development projects and create jobs in their communities.

Secondary Market Expansion
The bill authorizes SBA to establish a secondary market for pools of “first lien” loans under the 504 program. These “first lien” loans from commercial lenders currently have no SBA guarantee. The bill authorizes SBA to deploy federal guarantees for pools of these first lien loans, so that they can be sold to investors in a secondary market. Providing liquidity for these first mortgages will help encourage lenders to continue participating in SBA’s 504 loan program, which provides a key source of capital for community development and other projects.

The bill also empowers SBA to set up a Secondary Market Lending Authority that would make direct loans to broker-dealers that participate in the secondary market for SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans. These broker-dealers would use the funds to purchase SBA-backed loans from commercial lenders, assemble them into pools and sell them to investors in the secondary loan market. This program may help address some of the issues facing the secondary market for SBA loans and may ultimately help SBA lenders make new loans to borrowers.

Investment Program
The bill helps SBA-licensed Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) and families of SBIC funds better leverage the capital they use to invest in small businesses. The bill sets maximum levels of funding the agency can provide to these companies at up to three times the private capital raised by those companies, or $150 million, whichever is less. It also raises the percentage any one SBIC can invest in a single small business to 10 percent of total capital, and raises from 20 percent to 25 percent the percentage of any licensee’s dollar investments that must be made in “smaller” businesses.

Surety Bonds
The bill also raises the maximum contract amount that can be covered by an SBA guaranteed surety bond from $2 million to $5 million, and, under certain circumstances, for contracts amounting to $10 million, and provides additional funds to cover the costs of expanding this program. Small businesses need surety bonds in order to bid on and obtain many federal and other contracts. SBA guarantees surety bonds to small businesses that private surety companies would not otherwise be able to extend.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Sen. Brandt Hershman (R-Wheatfield) says Senate District 7 residents could help direct federal stimulus dollars to local infrastructure projects by submitting their ideas online.

Hershman said most of Indiana’s $4.3 billion in federal stimulus is meant for roads, Medicaid, schools, unemployment and other programs.

To make best use of the monies, Gov. Mitch Daniels charged the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs and Indiana Association of Regional Councils with the task of directing the use of funds from the 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Disaster Relief Opportunity and/or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“To achieve long-term and short-term economic development in Indiana, a survey was created to help state and local leaders generate a comprehensive list of potential infrastructure projects, which will be used to maximize the state’s use of federal dollars,” Hershman said.

Constituents can fill out the survey online by Wednesday, Feb. 25 at http://www.bsu.edu/cber.

Hershman said the survey will take less than 10 minutes per project and it is not a grant submission process. However, he said survey participants will benefit from a thorough review of projects, which will help identify all funding streams available through several government sources.

For project specific questions, please contact your community liaison from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs at (800) 824-2476 or click on http://www.in.gov/ocra/files/Community_Liaison_Map_11.17.2008(4).pdf.

You can also contact the Indiana Economic Development Corporation at (800) 463-8081 or click on http://www.in.gov/iedc/files/IEDC_Business_Development_Regions_1.22.09.pdf.