SALT LAKE CITY — Utah customers and business owners alike should feel the impacts of tens of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money deployed for COVID-19 relief by state lawmakers in Thursday’s special legislative session.
Early in the pandemic, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development beat federal agencies to the punch in providing forgivable loans to small-business owners. Now, the agency is tasked with overseeing a trio of plans aiming to mitigate ongoing economic impacts with commercial rent assistance, job retraining and a grant program that could help hospitality and tourism-reliant industries to lure customers back into the fold.
Governor’s Office of Economic Development Deputy Director Ben Hart said lawmakers want to see the money and associated programming made available as soon as possible through mechanisms that also ensure appropriate vetting and accountability.
“Our main push right now is to help every Utah business that’s been impacted by the coronavirus,” Hart said. “This is about moving quickly ... and being very careful to be as effective as possible and maintaining oversight of taxpayer dollars.”
Hart said the agency had a head start on developing some of the programs funded through last week’s special session, and launches are just “days or weeks” away versus months.
One of the efforts close to going live is a $9 million jobs retraining program that will be open to all Utah residents and aiming to provide free, short-term education pathways that provided in-demand job skills in areas including financial services, robotics and automation.
Hart said the instruction will be offered at participating state universities, community colleges and tech schools and will be looking to leverage private-public collaboration to match skills training with employment opportunities.
Lawmakers also updated rules governing access to $40 million in rent assistance funding for Utah businesses, changes Hart said should make it easier for business owners to access the help.
While the money, which also came from federal stimulus funds, was set aside in an April legislative session, the original application requirements proved too stringent to be helpful to most struggling Utah businesses. Hart said the new requirements should help streamline the program, which he said is open to any business in Utah, for profit and nonprofits alike, that have been financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
While much of the federal and state funding intended to mitigate impacts of COVID-19 has been focused on business owners, a new program launched by Utah lawmakers is hoping to incentivize the customer side of the economic picture.
State lawmakers earmarked $25 million in federal stimulus funding to help kickstart some of the state’s hardest hit industries like restaurant, accommodation/hospitality and tourism-focused businesses. These industries, Hart noted, “have just been financially beaten down since the onset of COVID-19 in the state.”
While envisioned early on as a potential voucher program, the new funding will instead be made available via a grant, leaving businesses the flexibility of creating their own programming to incentivize Utah residents to re-engage. Even though statewide restrictions on nonessential businesses began easing in mid-May, thousands of employees of the food service and hospitality industries remain on unemployment rolls as business has been slow to return. According to Utah State Tax Commission data, the state’s hotel/motel sector was down over 45% in March and nearly 87% in April, while Utah’s food and beverage service sector fell some 24% in March and over 37% in April.
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development will also administer a new $5 million program passed in the special session and designed to help businesses offset the costs of personal protection equipment as employees return to work. The funding behind this effort to help provide subsidies for things like masks, face shields, gloves and sanitizing supplies also came from federal stimulus dollars.
Hart said his office has been on the run since the onset of the pandemic in Utah and continues to play a forward role in overseeing the distribution of state and federal emergency funding to businesses and residents in need.
Back in April, a novel state program to get help to small businesses impacted by COVID-19 was able to disburse some $12 million in zero-interest loans to over 1,100 owners of Utah businesses with 50 or fewer employees. While initially backed with money from the state budget, the program was able qualify for stimulus backing, which will cover the entire $12 million in loans.
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June 22, 2020 at 05:41AM
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Lawmakers funneling millions in federal help to Utah businesses - Deseret News
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