The administration’s Certified Development Company (504) lending program traditionally provides long-term, fixed-rate financing for assets like real estate, heavy machinery or other improvements. But as of last Wednesday, it now permanently allows small business owners to refinance such debt, as long as it is used for expansion purposes.

“This is one more piece of the Recovery Act that is going to have a direct impact and put more money in the hands of small business owners just when they need it most,” said Karen Gordon Mills, head of the Small Business Administration, in a statement.

But the timing of such changes is a bit off, according to experts and analysts of 504 lending programs. They say that few businesses can currently afford to expand, to leave such good intentions unused.

According to Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, few small business owners may also feel up to the task. In May 2009, just 5 percent of business owners felt that the following three months would be “a good time to expand.”

This is a drop of 11 percent from nearly two years ago, according to data Shane cumulated from the National Federation of Independent Business. And while positive feelings unexpectedly spiked last September, overall trends speak volumes about the confidence level of such business owners.

“Small business owners’ views of the expansion-potential of the economy may have turned the corner, but we have a long way to go to get back to the point where a lot of small business owners think it’s a good time to expand,” Shane wrote Monday for the New York Times.

As president of Mercantile Capital Corporation – a conventional, for-profit 504 lender – Christopher Hern suggests fully lifting any restriction on refinancing, to really stimulate small business lending. Bob Coleman, publisher of Small Business Administration newsletter Coleman Report, agrees.

“This is another program stymied by too much regulation and will not deliver the intended stimulus desired by Congress and the Administration,” he commented to the New York Times.

Small business owners – will you take advantage of the new 504 lending program anytime soon? Why or why not?

Kerry’s economic stimulus plan targets small businesses over larger ones, and its key features include tax incentives for small businesses, offering double funding for specialist micro loans, and reducing the overall fees that businesses are normally charged on loans.

By doing this, it’s intended that small businesses will benefit from various tax incentives. For example, the amount of taxes that you can now write off for new investment has increased from $125,000 to a hefty $200,000, a substantial increase by anyone’s standards. The net operating carry back period for losses will also increase, rising from 2 years to 5 years if your year ends in 2007 or 2008.

One of Kerry’s key objectives for this new package is to help increase small business success rates, by encouraging them to use federal loan packages as opposed to higher priced business loans or even credit card expenditure. It’s certainly an area that is important to all Americans, and not just business owners. After all, small businesses now account for employing over half of the workforce in the US today, so it’s not as if it’s just a small part of the economy.

However, as good as the package and the various incentives seem, not everyone is a fan of the idea. Detractors claim it’s just a short-term fix, and won’t actually see any worthwhile results. One of the biggest detractors is Chief Economist of the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Council, Raymond Keating. He feels that the package doesn’t offer enough to allow business owners to re-invest in their business, which has always been the proven method of growing your company successfully.

His preferred alternative (and one that many others are backing) is the Economic Growth Act of 2008, which Keating claims allows all companies to put capital expenditures down as expenses. This would help the economy become, and stay, more competitive, as well as indexing capital gains and lowering income tax for companies.

There’s no doubt that both sides have a valid point, and that one of them will be more suited to your own company. Although it might be a little longer before you see your company benefit, at least the people that matter when it comes to helping you succeed are making the effort.