All seemed in agreement Tuesday afternoon, the Wabash Valley needs a strong small-business community.

“We need to particularly focus on small business,” U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., said at a media conference on the floor of Hulman Center.

Meanwhile, about 30 area employers occupied booths upstairs passing out information and accepting applications from hundreds of citizens at Bayh’s sixth annual Job Fair series across Indiana from through Friday.

Bayh and other speakers told those in attendance that by far, the majority of jobs created and maintained belong to small businesses.

“About 95 percent of Hoosier businesses are small businesses,” he said, noting that when tallying the jobs created by Fortune 100 companies against those cut by the same group, it’s often a wash.

And while it’s the large corporations that garner the media’s attention and government’s money, it’s America’s Main Street operations that keep it running, he said.

During the conference, Bayh was honored with the Guardian of Small Business Award from the National Federation of Independent Business, presented by Barbara Quandt, state director of the National Federation of Small Business in Indiana.

Quandt pointed to Bayh’s proposed legislation to make up to $400 million Small Business Association loan guarantees available to Indiana businesses.

If enacted, the Small Business Lending Stabilization Act could create 12,000 jobs in Indiana and would immediately reduce the cost of credit to small businesses loaning through the SBA, Bayh said.

“Small businesses need access to capital,” Bayh said, noting that 65 percent of banks are cutting lines to that very group as the economic climate grows less certain.

“We face a tough economic climate," Bayh said. “Hoosiers deserve good, steady jobs to make ends meet. Indiana’s small businesses — the engine of our state's economy — need capital to grow. These fairs will have a wealth of resources to help Hoosiers find and keep good-paying jobs. They will be especially useful for those who own or work at one of Indiana’s small businesses,” he said of the job fair, which ran from 2 to 6 p.m. in Hulman Center.

Daniel Bradley, president of Indiana State University, noted that “the state of Indiana needs every taxpayer it can get.”

Both Bradley and Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett lauded Bayh’s efforts at helping small businesses throughout the Wabash Valley, and Bennett added that overall, 80 percent of U.S. employees work for small businesses.

Also on hand was Steve Durham, president of MISCO Enterprises, a beneficiary of past SBA loan projects.

Durham, formerly an employee of MISCO, bought the company about 15 years ago and has expanded it with the help of government-backed loans, he said.

MISCO, a union contractor specializing in steel erector and crane services, works with most general contractors in the area, he said.

Quandt said “the real American dream” is establishing and owning a business, noting that Microsoft was founded in a garage.

Bayh said that despite recent events in the world economy, “when you look back at the history of our people and our country, you’ll see we’ve faced tough times before.”

He added another quote from an American civil rights leader, “we may have arrived on these shores on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.”

About 250 job openings were offered at Tuesday’s job fair, with 5,000 open statewide, he said.
Job fairs also were staged Tuesday in Evansville, with events in South Bend and Hammond today, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis on Thursday and Marion on Friday.

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