{"id":192330,"date":"2010-01-18T00:14:40","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T05:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/press-releases\/small-firm-eyes-stimulus-bonanza-2"},"modified":"2010-01-18T00:14:40","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T05:14:40","slug":"small-firm-eyes-stimulus-bonanza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/192330","title":{"rendered":"Small firm eyes stimulus bonanza"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

But it will be a tough sell to get Uncle Sam to fund such plans<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Greg Burns<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Leonard Maniscalco wants what just about every business owner could use: free money.<\/p>\n

Not a loan, mind you, but a grant, handout, giveaway — call it what you will.<\/p>\n

He wants $1.3 million, to be exact. In return, he is offering as many as 150 new jobs.<\/p>\n

As Maniscalco sees it, manufacturing jobs are worth a lot. They are, after all, a major focus of the federal stimulus package that will be kicking in big time during 2010.<\/p>\n

He has a plan to relaunch his fading manufacturing company into a promising related industry. And he sees no reason why Uncle Sam shouldn’t cut him a check, the sooner the better.<\/p>\n

“We read about this stimulus money, and it’s not helping small business at all,” he said. “This is what the stimulus should be all about.”<\/p>\n

As his general manager, Daniel Dwyer, asks, “Why can’t they invest in us?”<\/p>\n

If the idea sounds pie-in-the-sky, or maybe just batty, consider how the government expects to lose $30 billion on its investment in General Motors and Chrysler.<\/p>\n

By that score card, 150 jobs for $1.3 million would be a steal.<\/p>\n

Manufacturing jobs have been melting away. Illinois alone lost 52,000 last year. Nearly everybody agrees that producing goods in America makes it stronger, supporting a network of suppliers and distributors as well as a strategic industrial base.<\/p>\n

Maniscalco has a track record. His Bensenville-based company, Sackett Systems Inc., started making wheelbarrows and coal chutes at the turn of the century, eventually branching into heavy-duty steel racks for forklift batteries. He bought the company in 1982 and expanded from 10 employees to a peak of 150 a decade ago.<\/p>\n

In recent years, he has shrunk to 40 or so. He sold a major division and laid off the second shift at his plant on the outskirts of O’Hare International Airport. The rise of hydrogen fuel cells threatens to wipe out his remaining business.<\/p>\n

“What do we do?” Maniscalco asked. “Wait until the last minute, and then do something else?”<\/p>\n

During a trip through Newark, N.J., he noticed a parking tower made of steel that resembles a giant version of his company’s battery racks. A familiar sight in some densely populated European cities, these automated garages lift vehicles into their spots on a space-conserving metal framework.<\/p>\n

Maniscalco struck a deal with a U.S. company that makes them in China. For $1.3 million, he could refit his mostly vacant metal-fabricating factory and within six months pump out his first car park. “We know we can do it,” he said.<\/p>\n

If the economy were stronger, he would put up enough collateral to obtain a loan. If the opportunity were bigger, he would seek venture partners. For this risky, modest project, however, he couldn’t help noticing the nearly $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.<\/p>\n

Although that program passed in 2009, most of its government contracts for highway infrastructure, energy efficiency and other big projects will pay out in 2010, and Congress is mulling a second stimulus measure on top of that.<\/p>\n

While last year’s spending especially supported state and local governments, this year the “vast majority” of job creation will occur in the private sector, according to Michael Balsam, chief solutions officer at Onvia, a Seattle-based firm that tracks government spending.<\/p>\n

The money will flow to contractors providing everything from road construction to smart-grid software. If Maniscalco’s plan involved innovation or environmental benefits, it might conceivably fit into the program, Balsam said. Short of that, however, it’s very much a long shot.<\/p>\n

“Just saying, ‘We’re going to create jobs,’ won’t be enough,” he said.<\/p>\n

Even with the administration’s recent emphasis on Main Street over Wall Street, Uncle Sam won’t be doling out money to every company with an idea, noted John Fernandez, assistant secretary of commerce for economic development.<\/p>\n

“Our country’s still based on free enterprise,” said Fernandez, who attended a railroad transit conference in Chicago last week. “It’s not the federal bank of the U.S. becoming the loan officer.”<\/p>\n

Maniscalco, meanwhile, is keeping the faith. Walking through a vacant factory site on his grounds, complete with empty offices and break room, he said he wasn’t interested in putting it on the market. “I don’t want to sell it because I think we’re going to need it.”<\/a><\/p>\n

gburns@tribune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the original article from Tribune News Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But it will be a tough sell to get Uncle Sam to fund such plans Greg Burns Leonard Maniscalco wants what just about every business owner could use: free money. Not a loan, mind you, but a grant, handout, giveaway — call it what you will. He wants $1.3 million, to be exact. In return, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}