More than 20 business groups urged Congress to increase funding for the Small Business Administration and restore incentives that led to a record level of SBA lending last year.

The SBA approved a record $19.6 billion in government-backed loans through its flagship 7(a) program in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30. That was up from $12.5 billion the year before.

Much of this lending occurred in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, when the Small Business Jobs Act provided additional funds that enabled the agency to increase its guarantee on 7(a) loans to 90 percent and waive fees on these loans. These breaks made the loans less risky to lenders and more affordable to borrowers.

Those breaks are gone - and they're missed. Through Nov. 11, the SBA approved $1.4 billion in 7(a) loans this fiscal year, compared with $2.6 billion during the same period a year earlier. This year's total also is below the pace set two years ago, when these loan breaks were funded by the economic stimulus bill.

Twenty-one business groups, ranging from the American Apparel & Footwear Association to the Travel Goods Association, sent a letter to Congress asking it to restore these SBA loan breaks.

"Small businesses are critical to the creation of jobs and innovation in the U.S., and we must ensure that qualified small businesses have access to financing so that aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small businesses can continue to play a prominent role in leading our country's economic recovery," the letter stated. "The federal government must act to help small businesses obtain the capital they need to meet their financial challenges."

Banking associations also signed the letter, which noted that a group of banks in September committed to increase their lending to small businesses by $20 billion over the next three years.

But, the letter added, "we know more work has to be done to make sure capital reaches the aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners who need it.

"To that end, we encourage Congress to work with the private sector to create small business lending opportunities by pursuing policies with a proven track record of success."

This campaign to boost SBA funding may not yield immediate results, however. Congress appears set on punting decisions on SBA funding, as well as appropriations for most other agencies, for at least another month.

Retail support divided for online sales tax bill

A new bipartisan bill would allow states to force online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by out-of-state customers.

That's been a long-standing priority of bricks-and-mortar retailers, who contend the tax-free status of most Internet commerce puts them at a disadvantage. Technically, online purchasers are supposed to send sales taxes to the state where the online retailer is located, but this rarely happens because it's difficult to enforce.

As a result, state and local governments are losing an estimated $23 billion in taxes a year on online sales.

The big news about this latest online sales tax bill is that Internet retail giant Amazon supports it. That's because, under the legislation, states would have to simplify their sales tax systems in order to impose taxes on out-of-tax sales.

Amazon has opposed individual state efforts to tax Internet commerce, contending there needs to be national, uniform standards for online sales taxes.

The legislation aims to address concerns about the burden that collecting sales taxes would have on small businesses that engage in e-commerce. It would exempt businesses with less than $500,000 in online sales from collecting sales taxes.

That isn't good enough for eBay, which opposes the bill.

Tod Cohen, eBay's vice president for government relations, said the legislation "will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business competitors. It does not make sense to expand Internet sales tax burdens on small businesses at a time when we want entrepreneurs to create jobs and economic activity."

NetChoice, a Washington, D.C., advocacy organization, also opposes the bill.

"Small online retailers are right to fear the costs and compliance burdens of this proposal," said NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco.

But one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that if he were an online retailer, he'd begin making "plans to start collecting sales taxes wherever I sold things in the United States."

Entrepreneurial decline: Fewer see opportunity

The percentage of American adults starting or running new businesses fell to 7.7 percent in 2010, down from 8 percent in 2009.

That's according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which is based on research conducted by Babson College and Baruch College.

The study found that 71 percent of U.S. entrepreneurs in 2010 started their businesses because they saw an opportunity in the marketplace. That's down from 75 percent in 2009.

Although the U.S. remains a leader in opportunity-based entrepreneurship, the decline in this category is troubling because companies founded by opportunity-based entrepreneurs tend to be more innovative than other businesses.

The number of entrepreneurs who started a new business out of necessity - e.g. because they couldn't find a job - increased from 21 percent in 2009 to 29 percent in 2010.

Men accounted for 53 percent of entrepreneurs in 2010, as  entrepreneurship's gender gap continued to narrow.