Illinois Policymakers Should Support Small Businesses
The pandemic and COVID-19 mitigations began inflicting immense damage to small businesses in March 2020. Thousands of small businesses initially applied for Illinois Business Interruption Grants. While these grants helped some small businesses, approximately 80% of applicants were not awarded a grant.
Illinois then received over $8 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds. However, only $250 million was allocated to the new grant program for struggling small businesses. These funds will likely be exhausted before many eligible businesses receive grants. With billions of ARPA funds remaining, policymakers should allocate an additional $300 million for grants to struggling small businesses.
Illinois politicians should finish what they started. They should replenish the Back to Business grant program and promptly get funds to struggling small businesses, some of whom have waited almost two years for a grant to help offset the damage caused by the pandemic and mitigations established to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Please fill out the call to action below and ask your legislators to support struggling small businesses. Thank you for supporting the small business community!
What 2021 Could Mean for Small Businesses
January 20, 2021 By Elliot Richardson Small Business Advisory Council SBAC President Elliot Richardson’s column discusses the Business and Economic Outlook Forum hosted by the Daily Herald Business Ledger. The piece highlights the need for legislation that provides financial resources for small businesses to retrain and hire Illinoisans who have lost their jobs or businesses…
2020 to 2021 The Changing Landscape for Employment, Insurance and Lending
While mental health issues in the workplace have been a concern for some time, this past year, COVID-19 has shown the challenges employees are facing have spiked dramatically. Hear from Jason Tremblay on how this will impact both employers and their employees in the video. Stephen Ball from Fifth Third discusses automatic forgiveness for PPP…
Univision entrevista a Neli Vasquez-Rowland
Muchas gracias a univision para su reportaje sobre nuestra campaña conjunta con a Safe Haven Foundation para mantener a las pequenas empresas aflote y para prestar asistencia a las personas mas necesitadas durante este periodo tan dificil.
