State takes 3-pronged approach to helping small businesses during COVID-19 shutdown

Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday announced three short-term steps to help small businesses damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first is $5 million in state grants that will provide up to $10,000 for businesses with under 10 employees.

“We’ve targeted small businesses as the people who are having the most difficulty weathering financial storms, and we look forward to these small businesses continuing,” Inslee said at a press briefing.

The governor announced that the state Department of Commerce is providing a business resilience assistance program that will work with several local groups, including the Tacoma Urban League and the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Those groups will handle a variety of tasks, including translation services to help businesses get access to financial help.

“We’re particularly glad about this because we saw a lot of Asian-American restaurants hit hard because people mistakenly thought that ethnicity played some role in this,” said Inslee. “It was just simply wrong. I’m glad we’re helping these businesses, particularly restaurants, if there’s a way to keep going.”

Inslee also said the state wants to help businesses access federal assistance programs.

Small businesses, nonprofit groups, independent contractors and self-employed individuals may be eligible for a “forgivable” loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the governor said.

If the borrowed funds are used for payroll and pay expenses including rent or mortgage interest, businesses won’t have to repay the loan and won’t owe income tax on the forgiven amount.

Beginning last Friday, banks in Washington began to accept applications for the SBA loans.

Inslee said the program is in high demand and it’s caused some frustration nationally in how it’s being administered, but he urged Washington businesses to keep applying so the state “is not leaving federal relief dollars on the table.

“These are relatively small things, given the mountain we’ve got to climb, but they are things we can do quickly,” he said.

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 1:53 PM.