Last week, Governor Lamont and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner(DECD) David Lehman held a conference call with over 2,000 business owners addressing the many challenges businesses are facing during this unprecedented pandemic. Below are some key notes taken from the call that may be of help to you.
- Connecticut Department of Labor has a shared work program that will pick up anywhere from 10 percent to 60 percent of wage costs in exchange for employers giving workers part-time hours rather than laying them of. For more information visit https://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/progsupt/bussrvce/shared_work/
- On Sunday March 15th, the Governor submitted a request for a declaration for disaster relief from the federal Small Business Administration. This enables businesses to apply for loans up to 2 million by the SBA they can do this directly on the sba.gov website
- Two weeks of paid sick leave, where the government is ultimately going to pick up the tab of that, as well as up to 12 weeks of paid family medical leave. Payed federal sick leave and family leave was initially passed by the House on Friday night and then ultimately the Senate on March 18th. This is a significant piece of legislation that it really is focused on, on the individual and the employee, but it is for the benefit for employers with less than 500 employees. IRS will be providing a 100% tax credit to businesses to pay for this.
- Connecticut could begin offering small business recovery loans through the “Small Business Bridge Loan Program” as early as next week. Bridge loans would be low interest, short-term loans designed to help small businesses who need cash to cope with issues caused by COVID-19 public health crisis. These loans are intended to provide up to $75,000 per company for a term of 18 months. More to come on this.
- The state Department of Banking is getting the cooperation of banks to defer payments due from borrowers on outstanding loans, noting that the banks are far better capitalized today than during the mortgage lending bubble on the eve of the 2008 financial panic. We will see if they step up to help/
DECD Small Business Hotline 860-500-2333 or cvoid.gic.ct.gov