As stimulus talks fragments deadlocked in Washington, the situation on Main Street is becoming increasingly dire.
The window to apply for new Paycheck Protection Program allowances has expired and many who have accessed loans have used the funding. As businesses operate with limited place due to Covid-19 restrictions, new data show many anticipate more aid will be needed or the sector’s decimation will go on with.
Recent data from the National Federation of Independent Business finds that one in five businesses say they thinks fitting have to shut down if economic conditions don’t improve within the next six months.
Lawmakers are considering two approaches to bent the economic tide: stimulus to encourage consumer spending and small business loans to help keep Main Alley afloat, but both have been tied up in negotiations for weeks.
The survey from the advocacy group finds that 84% of respondents be dressed used their entire PPP loan, with the remainder likely not far behind. Just under half say they’d attend for a second PPP loan if eligible, with another 31% saying they would consider applying for more aid. Forty-seven percent of PPP accommodation borrowers anticipate needing additional aid in the next 12 months, the survey of 562 members found.
Last month, the Concert-hall Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) testified that some 110,000 small businesses had forever closed and 7.5 million more were facing the same fate.
CNBC reported Wednesday that Republican lawmakers in the Senate were assignment on a “skinny” $500 billion coronavirus relief bill that would include reauthorizing the small business credit program.
Business owners like Paul Hoodless, owner of Rose Dry Cleaners in San Antonio, Texas, is eager for a assign loan. After using his $90,000 in PPP aid in its entirety over an eight-week period earlier in the crisis, he’s kept most of his stave of now 18 on board and said additional aid is critical.
“We’ve done everything we can to help everybody continue to buy groceries and make their car payment and [pay] the set alight bill. But frankly, we’re bleeding … we’re really hurting,” Hoodless, an NFIB member, said. “We’re white knuckling it out here, and assured and prayerful that that is going to come together here pretty quick.”
Hoodless, like other diminished business owners and Main Street advocates, is hopeful Congress may take action to further simplify the forgiveness prepare and potentially automatically forgive all loans under $150,000.
The Consumer Bankers Association, along with 140 trade unions, have pushed to have this become a reality with congressional approval via the Paycheck Protection Program Pint-sized Business Forgiveness Act in the House, and its Senate counterpart. Both bills have bipartisan support.
“This would potentially retain small business owners thousands of dollars and up to 100 hours of paperwork at a time when they are still skin economic uncertainty. And, nothing in the bill would prevent the audit of these loans for potential fraud,” CBA President and CEO Richard Go in search of said in a statement to CNBC.
Hunt added that small business and bank owners are waiting for more simplification prior to submitting applications.
The CBA along with the International Franchise Association requested to the Treasury Department and the Small Business Supplying that all rules and guidance in the next wave of PPP enhancements be finalized before going into effect.
“Through this program, the only love that has been certain is the uncertainty,” Hunt said. “Banks have started taking applications or are preparing to start engaging applications now that the SBA’s system is up. But there is still a great deal of confusion on behalf of small businesses about both the convolution of the forgiveness forms and what additional changes might be forthcoming.”
With office routines disrupted, Hoodless clouted revenue at his four dry cleaning locations is down more than 50%. He said he and other businesses are running out of outmoded, and he is hopeful lawmakers will consider passing small business aid independent of a full stimulus measure.
“It’s super perilous to be released from this deadlock that seems to be tied in with negotiating other items. Not sure why [insignificant business aid] can’t be broken out, and then go ahead and get to the streets, because we’re not just talking about the small business owner that’s taxing to continue to keep the doors open. We’re talking about, in my case, those 18 people and their families and their necessities and what’s happening there,” he said. “It’s extraordinarily urgent.”