State announces another $46M in small biz grants
Demand for funds has exceeded supply
Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday announced $46 million in new grants for small businesses funded through the federal CARES Act.
An estimated 9,300 small businesses will receive $5,000 grants through the state’s “We’re All In” program, according to the governor’s office.
The program is administered by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue in partnership with Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
Wisconsin businesses are eligible for the grants if they have less than $1 million a year in revenue, have more than 75% of their workforce and assets in the state and were operating before Jan. 1, 2020.
The grants are funded through the Coronavirus Relief Fund in the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act signed into law in March 2020.
Wisconsin received almost $2.3 billion through the fund.
More than $240 million in “We’re All In” grants were awarded to Wisconsin small businesses in three phases throughout the first year of the pandemic:
Phase 1 distributed $2,500 grants, totaling $65 million, to more
“The Department of Revenue will be processing these grants as quickly as possible to get needed aid to businesses quickly. We have seen the difference these types of grants can make for small businesses.”
Peter Barca secretary of the Department of Revenue
than 26,000 businesses with revenue of less than $1 million a year.
Phase 2 distributed $5,000 grants, totaling $130 million, to more than 26,000 businesses in industries hardest hit by the pandemic.
Phase 3 distributed $20,000 grants, totaling $40 million, to more than 2,000 restaurants and food, beverage and entertainment businesses with revenue between $1 million and $7 million a year.
Demand for the “We’re All In” program exceeded available funding in some phases, the state said.
The $46 million in new grants announced Tuesday will be distributed to small businesses that applied for but did not receive grants through the program last year.
“The Department of Revenue will be processing these grants as quickly as possible to get needed aid to businesses quickly,” Peter Barca, secretary of the Department of Revenue, said in a statement. “We have seen the difference these types of grants can make for small businesses.”