But, more than anything, the remarks made during the State of the Union address left many questioning just how the money will trickle down to community banks.

No details have been offered up on the proposal yet and Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council, said in a statement that they would be released in the coming days.

In the meantime local bankers like Rick Whitsell, president and CEO of Fresno First Bank, are cautiously optimistic.

“Frankly out of the entire speech that was the only piece that got my attention,” he said. “I was encouraged by that part, I just don’t know what it means.”

Thus far all that’s known is that Obama plans to attempt to spur job growth by getting billions of dollars out of the highly unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bank bailout and into the hands of small businesses.

For Daniel Doyle, president and CEO of Central Valley Community Bank, Obama was “still using sound bites and what he thinks people want to hear.”

He said that from an industry standpoint most banks have the money and are able to lend, but businesses are either not borrowing because they aren’t confident enough to take on more debt or they are not credit-worthy.

“What we hear from our business customers is they’re trying to reduce debt not increase debt because there is so much uncertainty out there,” Doyle said. “They don’t have enough confidence that they are willing to start hiring people or expand until they start to see some positive action ... and that Congress won’t change the rules as they go down the road.”

Funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have already been making their way to small business owners through various loan and guarantee programs by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Both Whitsell and Doyle agreed that administering the additional funds through already established programs like the SBA’s may be the best route.

“It gives a much higher probability of the taxpayer’s money being returned than it does in going to other kinds of programs where there isn’t any kind of accountability,” Whitsell said.

However, Doyle said he thinks the problem with the whole concept is that most banks have the capital to lend but ultimately cannot lend to those having challenges with their businesses because federal regulators will not allow them to do so.

“We’re excited and we want to help businesses but quite honestly because they are having challenges they don’t qualify and there’s no way we can get around that,” he said. “Federal regulators don’t want us back in the same mess that we got into — so that’s the dilemma and that’s why we’ll have to see what this program will do.”