COVID-19 Relief for Small and Minority-Owned Businesses and Arts Organizations (SB 20B-001)
In This Section
COVID-19 Relief for Small and Minority-Owned Businesses and Arts Organizations (SB 20B-001) provides direct relief to:
- Small businesses ($37 million)
- Arts and cultural organizations ($7.5 million)
- Minority-owned businesses ($4 million).
It also provides state assistance to support a one-year suspension of health inspection and liquor licensing fees. All small businesses with annual receipts of less than $2.5 million in calendar year 2019 are eligible for relief through the program.
Counties that are under severe capacity restrictions as determined by a public health order and that are in compliance with the order must develop a process to accept applications from small businesses for relief funding. DOLA is required to allocate funding to counties based on the population of the eligible local governments. Both DOLA and participating local governments can be compensated for administrative costs associated with overseeing the program.
The legislation has been amended to allow the participation of small businesses located in municipalities that are in compliance with state public health requirements even if the county where the municipality is located is not eligible to participate. In addition, the legislation sets forth a process for municipalities to work with counties to get assistance to small businesses out as quickly as possible.
A number of municipalities have suggested that additional language is needed to ensure municipally-owned and operated performing arts and cultural centers are eligible for funding. CML has raised this concern several times with each of the house and senate bill sponsors. We have been assured that these municipalities are indeed eligible.
For additional information on SB 20B-001, contact Morgan Cullen.