Small business technical assistance: California Business Retention Program.

Existing law, the California Small Business Development Technical Assistance Act of 2022, establishes the California Small Business Development Technical Assistance Program within the California Office of the Small Business Advocate for the purpose of assisting small businesses through free or low-cost one-on-one consulting and low-cost training by entering into grant agreements with one or more federal small business technical assistance centers. Existing law defines "small business technical assistance center," for purposes of the program, to include a federal small business technical assistance center or any established nonprofit community-based organization, exempt from federal taxation, which meets specified criteria. This bill would provide that a "small business technical assistance center" includes, for the purposes of making certain supplemental grant awards under the program, a local government. This bill would create, under the program, upon appropriation of the necessary funds by the Legislature, a supplemental grant program designated as the Small Business Retention Program. The bill would require the office to establish the Small Business Retention Program to provide grants to small business technical assistance centers for the purpose of supporting the retention of small businesses by leveraging the state's economic development and small business technical assistance providers, as provided. The bill would also make conforming changes.