The Marine Retailers Association of America applauded President Obama's proposal Wednesday to raise the maximum size of SBA-backed loans to small businesses.
"Marine retailers have been hard hit by the recession. MRAA has assisted the SBA in setting up workable loan programs for the marine industry," said MRAA chairman Ed Lofgren. "We understand several dealers are in the final review process for the SBA floorplan financing loan guarantees. This announcement will only enhance the program and make it available to more small-sized dealers and hopefully help dealers get through these tough times."
Specifically, President Obama called for:
Click here for details on the new proposal.

Our dealership is in Virginia and we have not found any local banks that are willing to work with SBA loans. As a matter fact SBA is telling us they do NOT know of a bank anywhere that is working with this program. I don't know what the Marine Retailers Assoc. is thinking but apparently they don't know what is going on.
Maybe I've missed some thing here. They are now raising the limits,
which will help the FEW, just as TARP did for the financial houses and
their CEOs.
What about the addressing lower limits of this plan? Did all of you out
there have a floor plan approved for $500,000. I sure didn't. Mine was
$125,000. I live in a small coastal community that cannot support a
$500,000 floorplan. Yet my neighbors would still like to buy boats and
motors if I could make them available to them. No matter what this plan
does it will not help the SMALL guy like me.
I agree with Eric K. Enlarge the size of government and add more regulation with more unelected ivy league pay czars. Take the all money from all the top executives and put it into a fascist government system where we own all the assets and the government tells us how to run our businesses more effectively. I'm game if guaranteed a salary and pay raises every year.
P. S. I can't wait to get my 2010 boats with the new catalytic converters and watch my customers jump for joy with all their added benefits and cost.
The SBA is a total and complete waste of time.
Maybe we are going about this all wrong... What if we all agree to not pay our top execs millions of dollars in bonuses this year, we just might be able to get ourselves a huge government bailout!
My customers sometimes treat me as a bank anyway.
Obama can raise all of the limits he wants to, but since there is not a bank in town or the COUNTRY that will do a flooring line for a dealer. It is like the others who responded to this, it is all a hoax to make the government look like they are doing something when the are not. All I know is at the next election anybody who is in office now, I will not be voting for no matter what. They have all let us, the American citizen down.
Have a nice day
Find a bank that will lend to Marine Dealers and they will become swamped with applications. I have contacted several banks and none of them want to get involved with floorplans. It is another scam from our goverment to make it sound like they are doing something for the small business man. JOKE
Great! So these marine businesses can find themselves in the same situations as homeowners with oversized loans found themselves in recent years.
Dealers are having problems selling their EXISTING inventory - how is buying more going to resolve the situation?
If the government would like to help, cut the excess taxation and stop penalizing small businesses for contributing to the economy.
Let me see if I understand this policy. Take the main stream dealer and have him put two to five million dollars of "new boat inventory"on a floor plan for product that has to compete against national liquidation houses, dealers that are selling dated inventory at cost or below cost (just to keep from having to carry this "dead" product another year), the internet discounters that have driven every ounce of possible profit from the market, and manufacturers who now are selling direct or buying back repo boats @ 30% of book value and auctioning them back into the market place.
Makes perfect sense if you are the NMMA.
Will the dealer who plans on bringing in two to five million dollars worth of fall and spring orders, please call me. I have a dealership that is available for a whole lot less and a bridge over the Hudson and a lot of land (only visible on a minus 4' tide).
Maybe when Obama finds out where the last trillion dollars that he burdened us went (try looking into the congress's offshore accounts BHO), and he distributes THAT money to the dealers...we can get back to being liquid enough to consider buying boats from our manufacturers.
Yep this is very good for all of us..
This will definately help to improve economy.
Jim
http://www.marlanindustries.com/