A panel of Vermont lawmakers voted Tuesday to send $11.5 million in CARES Act money to the state’s small business grant program.
After months of intense focus on the plight of the hospitality industry, the Joint Fiscal Committee is trying to steer some more money toward the state’s small retail stores and to other businesses.
Anticipating another round of federal money in the New Year, state officials are also looking for ways to do a better job of targeting Covid-19 relief money in general so that it reaches the businesses that need it the most.
“Some of it is just being driven by looking at the list of businesses that have received these funds,” said Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia. “It’s not to say they didn’t lose money; they did.”
But the money needs to be deployed more strategically, Kitchel said. That is something legislative leaders and the Legislature’s economist, Tom Kavet, have said frequently in recent weeks.
Kitchel said at the Joint Fiscal meeting Tuesday that she met recently with the Vermont Bankers Association, where bankers reaffirmed the plight of the state’s small retail stores. “I think we’re coming in with at least a common understanding and desire to — as we have gotten more experienced — to do a better job of targeting and providing the relief where it is needed the most and warranted the most.”
In October, the state adjusted its business grants program to direct more money to hospitality businesses, which have suffered the greatest losses over the course of the pandemic because they were required to close the longest. Even though they’re now allowed to operate at full capacity, they’re seeing few visitors from out of state because of Vermont’s quarantine requirements.
The measure approved Tuesday involves the reallocation of CARES Act money that the state is seeking to assign to programs by the end of the year. The $11.5 million will be targeted to non-hospitality businesses.
The panel also on Tuesday approved $400,000 to extend the Restaurants and Farmers Feeding the Hungry Program, now known as the Vermont Everyone Eats program, through Dec. 30. It had been due to run out in mid-December.
And it authorized the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets to move $250,000 to the Working Lands grants program.
A number of state programs, including unemployment insurance for about 75% of the existing claimants, are due to run out at the end of the month. Lawmakers and state officials are hoping that Congress will pass a stimulus bill soon to provide a lifeline to Vermonters who stand to start feeling the loss in the first week of January.
“Hopefully we will find a little more money, and survive that first week, and maybe Congress will do something good and give us all a Christmas present,” said Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington and the chair of the Joint Fiscal Committee. “I’m really worried about people in that first week in January.”
