California Small Business Development Technical Assistance Expansion Act of 2018.

Existing law, the Economic Revitalization Act, establishes the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, also known as GO-Biz, under the control of a director. Existing law, the California Small Business Development Technical Assistance Expansion Act of 2018, until January 1, 2024, creates the California Small Business Development Technical Assistance Expansion Program within GO-Biz, under the director, 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, as defined. Existing law requires GO-Biz to issue a request for proposals for grants under the program, and authorizes the office to include specified information in that request for proposals, including funding instruments and operational capacity. This bill would instead require GO-Biz to include specified information when issuing a request for proposals, and would require the office to include a description of the types of funding instruments and operational capacity requirements. The bill would require GO-Biz, at least 30 days prior to the close of the application period, to post the process that would be used to reduce individual awards if the total amount of qualified awards exceeds the total amount of funds available, unless this information is already available in the request for proposals. The bill would require GO-Biz to post a list of grant awards under the program on its internet website providing specified information, and to add each award to that list within 5 days of making the award. Existing law requires GO-Biz, upon approval of an award to a federal small business technical assistance center, to issue a notice of an award that includes prescribed information. This bill would additionally require that the notice of an award include the number of businesses and hours of counseling and training related to exporting. Existing law requires GO-Biz to prioritize funding for applications that best meet certain factors and give preference to applications that propose new or enhanced services to underserved business groups, including women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses, and businesses in low-wealth, rural, and disaster-impacted communities included in a state or federal emergency declaration or proclamation. This bill would instead require GO-Biz to award funding for applications that best meet the certain factors and give priority to applications that propose new or enhanced services to those underserved business groups. The bill would authorize applications that propose and are awarded funds to serve priority underserved business groups to receive prescribed reimbursement for mileage as part of the grant award. This bill would make other nonsubstantive changes to the program.