By Michael Hill
Correspondent
This was a first for Kate Muldoon, the regional director for the William Paterson University Small Business Development Center.
“I thought the session was extremely informative. I think that there are so many times that people are looking for this kind of information,” she said.
Muldoon was in a room filled with counterparts and business owners at an advisory conference by Congressman Bill Pascrell.
“We gotta be able to help people to stay in the market and expand their possibilities in the market,” Pascrell said.
That’s the theme of sessions Pascrell has been holding since the late ’90s. He sounds off on the impact of what Congress needs to do, has done or has failed to, such as a five- or six-year transportation bill.
“As deeply as I want this to happen, you’re not going to buy me off,” Pascrell said.
The congressman bemoans the cut in funding for Urban Enterprise Zones.
“If you want to take government apart and if you want to dismantle it in the name of austerity and balancing the budget, then go ahead and we’ll wind up where Greece is in a very short period of time,” he said.
When asked about expanding gaming outside Atlantic City, Pascrell said, “Let’s put it right here. Right over here in the Meadowlands. You got a lot of the infrastructure already been done. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
In May, the congressman took the New Jersey Small Business Administration director on a Secaucus door-to-door, meet-and-greet to let business owners know what the agency could do for them.
Pascrell says he’s always been a big supporter of small business and the SBA says that more small companies have borrowed money than in all of last year.
“When things start going bad, we tend to see it. When things really start building up, we tend to see it and we’ve seen this whole buildup over the last couple of years and this year it’s taken off. I think that’s a great sign,” said New Jersey SBA District Director Al Titone.
A few hands went up when Pascrell asked who knows what the Import-Export Bank does or how it can help New Jersey businesses become exporters. The bank’s charter is set to expire and that’s fine with some presidential candidates, but not the congressman.
“That amounts to a unilateral disarmament in the international economic arena,” he said.
The Chamber of Commerce says these sessions are good for business.
“People in New Jersey, especially business people, like to know that somebody is paying attention and somebody is concerned about their concerns and I think the congressman is somebody that does that and my impression is people are going to walk away from this meeting very encouraged,” said New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Bracken.
“Knowledge is power,” Muldoon said.
The congressman says when you have information, the world opens up.