Main Street Business Revitalization Initiative allotted $550M through federal CARES Act

Senate Democrats announced last week a call to use $550 million of funding provided to Pennsylvania through the federal CARES Act for their Main Street Business Initiative – a grant program aimed at helping businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commonwealth has received $4 billion from the federal government that must be spent or allocated by Dec. 31, 2020. The Senate Democrats have created proposed plans for those funds under PA CARES.

“This pandemic has exposed the fragile ecosystem and slim margins that small businesses and their workers function within every single day,” Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D-43) said. “As Pennsylvania begins to recover both economically and physically from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must make sure that our business owners have the resources they need. We must seek a just recovery from this pandemic.”

Costa was joined in urging the directed funds by state Sens. Vince Hughes (D-7), John Blake (D-22), Jim Brewster (D-45), and Pam Iovino (D-37). For the Main Street Business Initiative, the legislators are calling for $425 million to go to traditional main street businesses, and a separate $125 million to be allocated to historically disadvantaged businesses.

“These Main Street businesses did not cause this pandemic, but they are feeling its worst financial effects,” Hughes said. “Our plan gets these small businesses the financial assistance they deserve. Money has been sitting in Pennsylvania’s account for six weeks, which is money intended, by the direction of the federal government, to assist small businesses, and that money needs to go out immediately.”

The initiative will be run by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which are committed to helping communities thrive economically through their connections to the communities they serve by providing flexible loans, debt relief, and business technical assistance to support the recovery and sustainability of Pennsylvania businesses. This allows main street businesses, many of which unprepared to tap into the resource network offered by previous business assistance programs, to have access to job protection and initiatives through financial institutions they are comfortable with.

Eligible businesses will include barbers, salons, restaurants, bars and taverns, retailers and boutiques, coffee shops, neighborhood hardware stores, garden shops, realtors, and childcare facilities, among others.

Blake said the funding is necessary for small business owners to pay health care premiums, insurance policy premiums, rent, loan payments, and real estate tax payments in addition to the costs that will be incurred to ensure the safety of employees and customers as businesses reopen.

“Small businesses represent nearly half of the private sector workforce in Pennsylvania – 2.5 million jobs. They are the job creators in our communities, yet they were glaringly overlooked by federal business relief programs,” Iovino said. “While small business owners are making difficult decisions about how long they can hang on, they need to know that a lifeline will be available to them. We do not want to see any of these businesses fail, and the $550 million Main Street Business Revitalization Initiative is exactly the kind of lifeline that these economic drivers need.”