A key part of the economic stimulus package to help small businesses recover from the devastation of the COVID-19 shutdowns went live last Friday. WNIN’s Steve Burger followed a flurry of activity over the weekend to get money into the hands of business owners and their employees as soon as possible.
It’s 5:30 on Saturday evening at Kipplee’s, in Evansville. The staff is hopping, answering phones, filling orders and hustling them from the kitchen to the take out window for a line of vehicles stretching across the parking lot almost to Boeke Road.
Just as busy over the weekend were a lot of people working overtime to keep places like Kipplee’s open for business. On Friday, the Small Business Administration began accepting applications for the Paycheck Protection Program funded by the federal stimulus package to help get the country back on its feet during the coronavirus pandemic.
Kipplee’s owner Matt Klees was one of the first in line for the loans.
He recalled the chaos of the opening day of applications last Friday. “The requirements were still changing as the day went on. It was a definite learning experience for everybody, but we got the paperwork in on Friday. Now, we just kinda’ have to sit back and wait and see if they have other requirements they need for us, or what the next step is. But we’re excited about it.”
Kim Howard, regional director of the Southwest Indiana Business Development Center, chuckled as she put it another way.
“Boy, the whole week was just surreal.”
Howard and her staff of three part-time business advisors, who normally work face to face with small businesses, found themselves working remotely, trying to give advice on the Paycheck Protection Program and SBA emergency disaster loans, even as the paycheck program was changing.
By Sunday morning, Howard had a definitive answer for one of the main questions they were getting on Friday from business owners. Can they take advantage of both the paycheck protection program and the SBA economic injury disaster loans? The answer is yes.
In a Zoom conference meeting, Howard said, “You can’t use the money for the same thing. But you can get both loans. And that’s where it’s important to sit down with the bank, coordinate that, because you want to make sure- this is the federal government- crossing all the “t’s”, dotting all the “i’s”".
The Paycheck Protection Program- the one that went live Friday- is for any business with fewer than five hundred employees. It’s a loan from a bank or credit union. If the employer keeps all their workers on the payroll for at last eight weeks, the portion of the loan used for payroll, rent, utilities or interest on a mortgage is forgiven and doesn’t have to be paid back.
But the funds are limited. $350 billion was set aside in the recently-passed CARES Act for the paycheck protection program. By the end of June, or when that money is gone, unless Congress passes another stimulus bill, that particular loan forgiveness program goes with it.
Howard said, “I think there is a sense of urgency from the small business owners to get in there, get the cash that they need- they don’t have a lot of time.”
Across town, I caught up with Evansville Teacher’s Federal Credit Union’s Vice President of Commercial Lending Andy Martin on Sunday afternoon. He’d just gotten back home after two days processing P-P-P applications with his commercial lending team and a group of people pulled in to help from other departments. Martin agreed with Howard on whether everyone will get relief with the program.
Martin said, “I really do think there’ll be more demand than the funds that are out there. Today, it’s later in the afternoon on Sunday. I don’t know the amount that’s been used. But I imagine as more and more of the institutions get comfortable, that money will start to go.”
Martin added, “How people calculate it is they look at their payroll. So, they take a twelve month period of time and they average that. And then they multiply that figures times two and a half times, and that gives them the amount that they are available to get.”
Martin said over the weekend, they’ve gotten past the uncertainty of last Friday, but still have a lot of applications to process. However, with the beginning of a new week Monday, the system is working better for them now. He says they’re not ready to start disbursing the funds just yet, but he’s hopeful they’ll be closer by the end of the week.
He said, “I feel that you’re really helping the community and our role is to get as many of these applications as we can for the market that we serve. This will impact them in a positive way, the money that we’re able to apply and get approved for.”
Back at Kipplee’s, while the takeout business is doing well, the dining room and bar are dark and empty. Under Governor Eric Holcomb’s stay at home order, they’re going to remain that way until at least April 20th. Kipplee’s owner Matt Klees is grateful for everyone else who worked the weekend to get the Paycheck Protection Program up and running for local businesses.
“The way I see it is, I couldn’t think of a better way to keep businesses from failing, keep people employed. Personally, I just bought this business nine months ago, and if the government didn’t step in and help, we could have been in an amount of debt that we could never come out of. So, it’s been a godsend that really changed my family’s life and even if we barely break even, it will be an absolute blessing.”
