(a) The General Assembly finds:

(1) There is a persistent shortage of capital available to small businesses in Arkansas, and there exists an immediate and urgent need to provide the means and methods for providing financing to:

(A) Improve the viability of small businesses in the state by stabilizing and increasing employment in small businesses;

(B) Foster an environment that promotes the establishment of new small businesses which reduce the state's unemployment rate by hiring new employees; and

(C) Complement Arkansas financial institutions to better serve their customers in ways which contribute to a strengthened and diversified Arkansas economy, and which does not compete with Arkansas financial institutions;

(2) Small businesses make important contributions to economic growth and vitality in this state;

(3) Small businesses comprise approximately eighty-five percent (85%) of the business entities in this state;

(4) Small businesses provide approximately ninety-eight percent (98%) of the private sector employment in this state;

(5) All national economic indicators establish that the greatest source of future new employment is in the small business sector of the economy;

(6) Many private sector financial institutions in Arkansas are limited in their ability to provide financing to small but rapidly growing businesses; and

(7) There exists a need to leverage private sector investment in entrepreneurial activity and in economic development finance, therefore, state assistance for development finance should reflect a leveraging investment strategy.

(b) It is the purpose of this subchapter to establish a capital access program under which the State of Arkansas through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority will provide public fiscal resources to assist Arkansas financial institutions to overcome obstacles and constraints in meeting the full range of economically sound financing needs of Arkansas small businesses.