Business advocates insist a proposed economic stimulus package for small businesses is desperately needed, but the chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee is skeptical about how effective it would be and whether the state should be on the hook for $25 million in potentially defaulted loans.

“Quite honestly, I’m not sure a state-backed guarantee to small-business loans should be what we call ‘a stimulus package,’” said Steve Costantino, chairman of the finance panel weighing key parts of the stimulus package proposed almost two months ago by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and the R.I. Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The general public, the Providence Democrat said, is “extremely leery of bailouts or perceived bailouts, particularly with customers that the banks are not finding creditworthy.”

Full Story: House Finance chair leery of aid plan Source: Providence Business News, January 31st, 2009 Author: Denise Perreault Added on February 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 am, by Matt Mikula