Existing law, until January 1, 2024, creates the California Small Business Development Technical Assistance Expansion Program within the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), under the Director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development, for the purpose of assisting small businesses through free or low-cost one-on-one consulting and low-cost training by entering into grant agreements with one or more federal small business technical assistance centers, as defined. Existing law requires GO-Biz to make grants, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to federal small business technical assistance centers that GO-Biz determines meet specified eligibility criteria.
This bill would revise the definition of a federal small business technical assistance center to include a state trade expansion program as an eligible grant applicant.
Existing law, the Economic Revitalization Act, establishes the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, under the control of a director. Existing law requires GO-Biz to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and authorizes it to undertake specified activities, including supporting small businesses by providing information about accessing capital, complying with regulations, and supporting state initiatives that support small business. Existing law also creates the California Economic Development Fund for the purpose of receiving federal, state, local, and private economic development funds and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, authorizes moneys in the fund to be expended by GO-Biz to provide matching funds for loans or grants to public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private entities, and for other economic
development purposes, consistent with the purposes for which the moneys were received.This bill would create the California Small Business Technical Assistance and Expansion Program within GO-Biz, under the director, for the purpose of assisting small businesses through free or low-cost one-on-one counseling and low-cost training by entering into grant agreements with one or more federal small business technical assistance centers and providing
grants to those
centers to expand the capacity of small business development technical assistance programs in California. This bill, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature into the Small Business Technical Assistance and Expansion Account, which this bill creates within the California Economic Development Fund, would require the office to make grants to federal small business technical assistance centers. This bill would make the program inoperative on March 30, 2025 and repeal the program
on January 1, 2026.
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