SBA loans dip despite vow to boost cash.(Small Business Administration)

Robert Blaney doesn't see the inside of his home much these days.

Blaney, Arizona district director for the U.S. Small Business Administration, spends his evenings and weekends scouring the Arizona countryside for SBA loan candidates - and they are an increasingly elusive bunch.

In October, Blaney vowed to reverse an 11 percent decrease in loans by targeting new markets.

But with statewide SBA lending activity taking an even greater dip in the first half of 1999 - falling 12 percent from the same period of 1998 - he is having a difficult time fulfilling that promise.

During the first six months of 1999, 434 SBA loans were approved in Arizona …