Part of the financial plan for a startup is consideration of sources of funding (more next week on the sources). A source of small business financing that is often overlooked is incentives provided by the local, state, and federal governments. Check out the following link Austin Chamber of Commerce. As you can see, both state and local governments provide financing incentives to small business. Two arguments have been used to support the notion that neither the state nor local governments should be using public money to finance small business. First, incentives don't work. If a business can't make it without incentives it probably isn't a good idea. Second, it's not government's role to be involved in financing private small business.

Do you agree or disagree with the arguments? Why?