When the dust on Wall Street settles, will Michigan’s small-business owners still have access to financing?

That’s the question troubling most small-business advocates.

Lending has been down, said Richard Temkin, district director of the Detroit-area U.S. Small Business Administration.

The SBA’s most popular loan program has made 1,914 loans year-to-date, said Allen Cook, deputy director. This time last year, that number was 3,022 loans.

The already-tight credit markets are sure to tighten further as a result of the Wall Street crisis, Temkin said, adding that SBA-backed lending has been down in Michigan and across the country.

“Customer demand for loans has been declining all year,” Temkin wrote in an e-mail to Crain’s. “From what we’re hearing, the decline has accelerated over the past month or so. In addition, the credit quality of the applications seems to have worsened.”

Just 38 percent of Michigan’s small-business owners rated access to credit favorably in the Small Business Association of Michigan’s latest Business Barometer survey, said Mike Rogers, vice president of communications, the lowest level in the barometer’s 14-year history.

In 2000, 71 percent of respondents gave access to credit a favorable rating, he said. Last week, in a Detroit Regional Chamber poll, more than 75 percent of that organization’s small-business members reported negative outcomes related to the Wall Street crisis, including higher rates for borrowing money, less access to capital and slowing business as customers adjust to worsening economic conditions.

Rogers cautions that any Wall Street bailout program should not stop short at preserving access to credit.

“We want some assurance that the baby isn’t thrown out with the bath water,” he wrote in an e-mail to Crain’s. “It doesn’t benefit job-creating entrepreneurs if the bailout plans improve the availability of credit while at the same time they also create an onerous tax and regulatory climate that erects even more barriers to small business success.”

For Jennifer Kluge, executive vice president of the Michigan Business and Professional Association, the Wall Street crisis underscores the need for sound economic policy at home.

“We have some unique issues here in Michigan that our own legislators need to focus on to proactively prevent a ripple effect,” Kluge wrote in an e-mail to Crain’s. “We have time now to prevent the national financial situation from over-impacting Michigan. The most dire concern of our members is the impact of the Michigan Business Tax increase combined with a slow economy.”

Kluge said her organization fields calls daily from members concerned about the costs of the MBT and its surcharge.

After adjusting the MBT, Kluge said, the state Legislature should develop a long-term economic stimulus package for Michigan.

“The good news is we have fair warning, we can do something now as a state to ensure jobs, small business and economic growth can be enriched,” she wrote. “Our state legislators need to step up to the plate and proactively get our local small businesses relief immediately.”