Members of the ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) – Tampa Bay met at the TBBJ offices to discuss a question on everyone’s mind these days: Where’s the money?

It’s a different economic climate from two years ago, said John Connery, a shareholder with Hill Ward & Henderson PA. Back then, there were plenty of “tremendous” deals to sell a company.

“From an attorney’s perspective it was wonderful. You see the American Dream realized right in front of your eyes at a closing table,” said Connery. “That doesn’t exist today.”

The “fast and furious lending” of the past two years has slowed to a crawl, said Penny Hulbert, president of consulting firm Links Financial LLC and current president of the ACG Tampa Bay (and a current Vice Chair of the Board of the CEO Council).  “These are pretty tight times for a business trying to get financing.”

The response from the group was mixed when TBBJ editor Alexis Muellner asked what changes they anticipate with the advent of stimulus funding. Several attendees, including Connery, reported little change in business so far.

“An awful lot of people don’t believe anything is done until it’s done, and they are not sure where the money is going to go,” said Glenn Oken, a partner with private equity firm Mangrove Equity Partners LLC.

At the same time, Oken has seen companies begin to “bake” stimulus funding into their strategic thinking. “Infrastructure is one [area] where there are far more people paying attention to it than in the past.”

Rather than serve as the sole motivator behind business deals, stimulus funding is more of an “extra shot” or “cherry on top” said Mike Eitler, a partner with the Tampa offices of Tatum LLC, an executive services, consulting and search firm.

A few companies in the right place at the right time will receive stimulus funding more directly, said Suzie Boland, president of RFB Communications Group (and a current Vice Chair of the CEO Council Board also). One of her clients, a company that prepares high schools students for college and careers, has access to Title I funding and other possible funding through the stimulus package.

“They happen to be in one of the sweet spots,” Boland said. “I call them the kind of software version of shovel-ready.”

Tampa Bay business community is well off compared to other regions, said Bryan Spaulding, president-elect of ACG Tampa Bay and owner of securities broker dealer Stock Sale Compliance LLC and the Spaulding Group, a real estate regulated company. “We are several million people living like billions wish than they could.”

Combined with culture, companionship and progressive economics, the region will continue to be a draw, said Spaulding.