Black Business Owners Decrease In Cook County Under Lipinski's Watch
Thanks to Charise, a black business woman who runs an upscale hair salon in LaGrange Illinois. Charise is a business woman who is sick of the taxes and government red tape that is hampering her business from growing in the 3rd Congressional District in Illinois.
Learn more about BLACK MALE UNEMPLOYMENT IN ILLINOIS read the article here!
Learn more about BLACK MALE UNEMPLOYMENT IN ILLINOIS read the article here!
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, black business owners in Cook County are amongst the highest in the nation. "Among counties, Cook, Ill., had the most black-owned businesses, with 83,733, accounting for 4.4 percent of all the nation's black-owned businesses. Los Angeles followed with 59,680 (3.1 percent) and Kings, N.Y., with 52,705 businesses (2.7 percent)."
However, the St. Louis Dispatch reports that small business ownership in the African American community is increasingly hard to come by. Their December 2013 report states that the SBA tried to raise the borrowing caps on the loans it guarantees to add more lenders to its program, but the growth of small business loans hasn’t been evenly distributed. "In Illinois, the decline was just as stark; 669 loans totaling $56.6 million were made to black borrowers in 2007. In 2012, that number had dropped to 62 loans totaling $29.4 million. During the first 10 months of 2013, blacks received 32 SBA loans in the state." They further report that that the "SBA has no initiative that specifically targets lending to minorities," and that "during the great recession, incomes dropped more for blacks than for other groups. Banks have tightened lending standards and are looking to lend to established businesses and entrepreneurs with greater wealth and stronger credit histories, ruling out many minority-owned firms."
Forbes, August 2013, reported: "According to a report by the Center for Women’s Business Research, Hispanic and African American women are the fastest growing entrepreneurial segments in the country growing at rates of 133.3% and 191.4% respectively from 1997 to 2007. Combined they represent more than two million of the roughly eight million women-owned businesses in the country and more than $14 billion in gross receipts. Further, African American and Hispanic women are three to five times more likely to start a business than their white counterparts. For most minority women, the problem isn’t entrepreneurial appetite or the often-preached go-getter mentality; it’s sufficient financial and social capital resources to ‘lean on’."
"Dan Lipinski (D-IL Dist.3) has neglected the African American community in the Chicago-land area. If elected to Congress, I will work with the SBA and try to foster new growth for entrepreneurs. Small business is the back-bone of our nation and small businesses, like Charise's, need the opportunity to flourish and thereby create JOBS in our community. Dan Lipinski isn't fighting for the small business community - African American or otherwise - so we need new leadership in the 3rd District, someone who understands the economy and how to produce JOBS. We need to give entrepreneurs, of any kind, an avenue where red-tape is eliminated, request for licenses are fast-tracked, and, the barriers to create a business are slashed. If you stand with me this November, together we can turn our economy around. You know, 92% of African American teenagers in 2014 are unemployed in the Chicago-land area (as opposed to 83% across the United States) - this is the "Lipinski Economy." In addition, an April 2014 report, by the National Urban League, states that the "underemployment rate for African-American workers was 20.5 percent." We can do better in Illinois and across the nation. Let's vote for a new growth in JOBS and the economy by supporting our campaign. Give me a chance, I know I can do better for you!" -- Sharon Brannigan
