Reducing funding for The Office of Small Business Assistance (which would affect the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) at Palm Beach Community College) will not support the economic recovery of our county. Cuts to county services and programs are inevitable in tough economic times. However, reducing funding to programs that literally create local economic growth contradicts the stimulus plan. When small businesses struggle, jobs are lost; unemployed workers become potential wards of the county, no longer paying property taxes, no longer spending money in the county, drawing down the state's unemployment compensation fund, seeking county handouts. In other words, not only are jobs lost, but more burdens on local resources are created. Now, more than ever, the SBDC/PTAC network at Palm Beach Community College, funded in part by the Office of Small Business Assistance, is essential to recovery. Diminishing or reducing its capacity guarantees that the recovery will be slow and it will be even more difficult to give businesses incentive to start. WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, IMPLORE THE BOARD OF PALM BEACH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: DO NOT CUT FUNDING for THE OFFICE OF SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE!

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