Community banks have received more than $1 billion in low-cost capital from the Small Business Lending Fund with a month left to go in the program.

As of Aug. 17, 80 banks had received the capital, which includes incentives for banks to increase lending to small businesses. The Treasury Department said more funding announcements will be made over the next few weeks. Since Aug. 17, at least a dozen additional banks have announced on their own that they've been approved for more than $200 million in SBLF funding.

The program, however, will fall far short of the $30 billion authorized by Congress a year ago in the Small Business Jobs Act. Many community banks don't need additional capital; others aren't strong enough to qualify for the SBLF; and others are leery of the possible stigma and restrictions involved with taking money from the government.

Some of the 900 community banks that have applied for the capital haven't been approved for the program because they are subject to dividend restrictions imposed by the Federal Reserve on some banks. Banks that receive the capital will pay it back to the federal government through dividends.

The Independent Community Bankers of America asked the Fed last month to approve waivers on dividend restrictions "to ensure that stable banks eligible for the SBLF program can participate." Failing to do so runs the risk of "potentially neutering the success" of the program, ICBA contended.

In its response, the Fed noted that most of the 5,000 banks that are ICBA members are not subject to dividend restrictions.

"Accordingly, it appears that there is an ample pool of qualified applicants without such restrictions in place to ensure that the program is a success," the Fed wrote.

Plus, it noted, dividend restrictions "are not imposed and enforced by the Federal Reserve without cause; they are only in place for companies when justified by safety and soundness concerns or legal restrictions that prohibit the safety the payment of dividends or require approval before dividends are paid (as for some newly established banks)."

The Fed said, however, that it had released "a number of SBLF applicants" from dividend restrictions, just as it would for any other bank, "if circumstances and performance warrant."

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department approved applications from 11 states and Washington, D.C., for $360 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative funding. That program, also created by the Small Business Jobs Act, supports state-level small-business lending programs. The $360 million is expected to be leveraged into $3.6 billion in small-business loans.

The Treasury Department earlier approved funding for six other state small-business lending programs. Congress authorized $1.5 billion for this program.

Work fatalities declined slightly in U.S. last year

There were 4,547 fatal work injuries in the United States last year, four fewer than in 2009, according to preliminary numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bad news is that the weak economy played a role in keeping occupational fatalities down - some high-risk industries, such as construction, saw continued declines in the number of hours worked. Fatal work injuries in the construction industry dropped 10 percent in 2010 and are down nearly 40 percent since 2006.

Construction still accounts for more fatal work injuries than any other industry, however, with 751 deaths in 2010.

The Associated General Contractors of America contends the industry's safety planning and training efforts deserve some credit for the decline in construction fatalities. The number of  fatalities has declined at a faster rate than the drop in construction spending since 2006, it noted.

"This industry has made safety a top priority in good times and bad, and the new data shows those efforts are saving lives," said Stephen Sandherr, the association's CEO.

Fatal injuries in the private mining industry, which includes oil and gas, jumped 74 percent last year to 172, due partly to the multiple-fatality accidents at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the chances of getting murdered at work continued to decline. There were 506 cases of workplace homicide in 2010, down 7 percent from 2009, and down more than 50 percent from 1994.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis noted that the number of workplace fatalities is down significantly from the 14,000 estimated deaths in 1970, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was founded.

"But it's not enough," Solis said. "We cannot relent from our enforcement of laws that keep our nation's workers safe. One worker killed or injured on the job is one too many."

Federal government last in public's view of sectors

Even the oil and gas industry has a better reputation than the federal government.

The government ranked dead last when Gallup asked Americans in August to rate 25 business and industry sectors. The oil and gas industry, which held the bottom spot last year, inched up to No. 24 as a result. Other industries in the bottom five included real estate, health care and banking.

The top five industries were computers, restaurants, Internet, farming and grocery stores.

Only 17 percent of Americans have a positive view of the federal government, compared with 63 percent that have a negative view. Gallup attributes the low scores to "Americans' frustrations with politicians and Washington - exacerbated by the contentious debt ceiling negotiations."

Kent Hoover is Washington bureau chief for American City Business Journals.