a. Approximately 98% of New Jersey’s employers are small business operators and more than 1.5 million employees are working in small businesses in this State;

b. Testimony taken at legislative hearings revealed that between 1987 and 1992, corporate down-sizing created a sizeable group of displaced and dislocated private sector workers, 12 to 14% of whom have undertaken self-employment opportunities, with the balance remaining underemployed or unemployed;

c. While the New Jersey Development Authority for Small Businesses, Minorities’ and Women’s Enterprises has a peer group micro-lending program in place which targets certain geographical regions of the State, it is imperative that we find new and innovative ways to help unemployed and underemployed individuals throughout the entire State to re-enter the marketplace; and

d. Experience in numerous other states and in certain urban areas in New Jersey has shown that “microlending,” or carefully underwriting small loans to individual entrepreneurs with well-developed, realistic business plans, has been successful in helping individuals, without regard to geographical location, to start, maintain and expand small businesses.

L.1995,c.206,s.2.