As California enacts regional stay-at-home orders to help prevent spread of COVID-19, concerns persist for businesses about making it through the pandemic without financial help, which Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to address with a $500 million grant initiative and tax relief.
“The strategy was to soften the blow,” John Kabateck, California state director with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) told the Northern California Record. “No question the relief is designed to soften the blow of the stay-at-home orders. For small businesses eagerly grasping at any straws to help them stay alive, it is a Band-Aid on large gaping wound.”
The relief also includes another $12.5 million allocated to the California Rebuilding Fund.
“These are all welcome programs and dollars but it’s by no means enough,” Kabateck said. “We need far more attention for desperate and dying businesses. Congress needs to act now to produce more federal funding streams so that these businesses are not being forced to close their doors because they can’t make payments. There needs to be a pathway to recovery.”
The Regional Stay Home Order, which applies when intensive care unit (ICU) capacity drops below 15%, is currently in effect in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley for at least three weeks.
“I’m clear-eyed that this is hard on all of us — especially our small businesses who are struggling to get by,” Newsom said in a news release. “That’s why we leaned in to help our small business owners with new grants and tax relief to help us get through this month.”
Still, industry leaders are pressing for more targeted considerations.
“We are concerned that today’s announcement does not incorporate the progress that businesses have made across all sectors at this critical time,” Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable said in a statement.
“While we recognize the governor’s decisions to keep retail businesses open, his decisions to fully close broad sectors such as personal services and outdoor dining without providing transparency on the data, including from the state’s $18.7 million contact tracing program, leaves the public and businesses with more questions than answers. Accordingly, these sectors should be provided the same flexibility, even at lower occupancy levels, in order to keep employers and their employees working to provide a lifeline for their families during this holiday season and beyond.”
Pressing pause on enforcing laws like AB5 and the CCPA [California Consumer Privacy Act] is essential, Kabateck said, as is further dialogue with stakeholders and experts in manufacturing, agriculture, retail, and other trades.
“We don’t need to shut down Main Street altogether; our leaders should be talking to specific industries so they can better understand how to keep their doors open,” Kabateck said. “There’s still time to repair and fix this devastation to mom and pop businesses – but they need to talk to each sector and industry about how they can best maintain consumer traffic and a safe and healthy workplace while we bend this curve.”