McKee announces new round of grants for small businesses
Applications for funding set to open Thursday, will be available through the end of the month
PROVIDENCE — Gov. Daniel J. McKee and state Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor have come up with another round of grant funding for small businesses making their way through the COVID-19 pandemic, and qualifying businesses can begin applying for the assistance on Thursday.
McKee held a press conference announcing the new small business program outside Executive Cuts at 15 Peck Street on Monday to highlight the types of small businesses that could benefit from grants of $5,000 toward identified pandemic-related expenses.
The Small Business Relief Grant Program will distribute additional funding from federal COVID-19 assistance that the state received earlier in the pandemic and tapped for an initial round of grants under a more complicated application process.
This time around, eligible businesses will file a simplified application available on the Commerce Department’s website, commerceri.com/reliefgrant. The application will remain available through the end of the month.
McKee, whose family has run a home heating company in Cumberland for decades, focused on assisting small business owners when he was first elected lieutenant governor. He promised to continue that focus when he recently replaced Gov. Gina Raimondo, who departed for her new post as Secretary of Commerce for the Biden administration.
“I was on a call today with a small business in South Kingstown, who texted me, and I called them right back, and he was saying, ‘Just get me through September,’” McKee told the gathering outside the Executive Cuts barber shop.
“I’ve got to get through September,” McKee said, relaying the business owner’s plea to him.
“That family has already used their personal savings to get them to this point, plus he was very grateful for a $50,000 grant last time. So we have to make that happen,” McKee said of the new grant program.
“One of the ways is to get shots in the arm, so please, get shots in the arm, we are going to be able to open up this economy if we do that,” McKee said. “And then, we are going to give all these small businesses, not a fighting chance – we are going to give them the footing that they need to really prosper, so our communities can do the same for all the families that live in the state of Rhode Island.”
McKee said rebuilding the state’s economy during the pandemic will require rebuilding the small business economy.
“Rhode Island small businesses have worked hard to keep their doors open, their customers safe and their workers employed throughout this pandemic,” McKee said. “They need our support as we continue the fight against COVID-19 and ramp up vaccination efforts.”
“We will continue to identify ways to provide relief to the small businesses who need it most,” the Governor promised.
Pryor outlined the more simplified process for obtaining a flat grant of $5,000 and noted that businesses will need to specify any prior assistance that they have received as part of that process.
“You will need to show us that information, and if you showed a loss, you may not have received grants that exceeded that,” Pryor explained. “In other words, your grants need to show a gap, a need, and then our grant will fill that need if it is $5,000 or more.”
“It is deliberately straightforward in that way, and we hope that businesses find that it makes sense,” Pryor said.
Proprietors of retail operations, seasonal businesses and new businesses are all eligible for the grants, according to Pryor.
“We are having a very broad swath of the Rhode Island economy eligible,” Pryor said. “The vast majority of businesses are eligible.”
The applications should take up to three weeks to process, according to Pryor.
Lieutenant governor nominee Sabina Matos was among the state leaders attending the announcement.
“In the face of so many challenges over the past year, our small businesses have been resilient and innovative,” Matos, a former member of the Providence City Council, said. “These grants will hopefully provide a little relief to our small businesses while we work to get Rhode Islanders vaccinated and continue to incrementally open up our economy.
“I thank the governor for his leadership on this issue and look forward to partnering with him in getting the word out across the state about this financial resource,” Matos said.
Chris Parisi, a co-founder of the Rhode Island Small Business Coalition, praised McKee’s work with the small business community.
“This pandemic has hit small businesses extremely hard, as we all know,” Parisi said. “Many were hanging by a thread nine months ago when some of us stood here at Jennifer’s shop advocating for much-needed financial relief.”
“Small businesses needed a lifeline, and with the efforts of then-Rhode Island Lt. Gov. McKee and our small business coalition, they received a lifeline in the form of a $50 million grant program,” Parisi said.
“This economic crisis is not over. This pandemic is not over, and I see it firsthand as a small business owner myself at Trailblaze Marketing, with clients of all sizes, and leading the Rhode Island Small Business Coalition with members from all industries,” he said. “Although we see a light at the end of the tunnel, some businesses are not sure how many days they have left, and fortunately we are here to announce that we have a relief program specifically made for those businesses that need a fighting chance to survive.”
The efforts to simplify the application process should make it easier for small businesses to get the help they need, Parisi noted.
“You don’t have to be an algebra expert to calculate how much money you will receive, nor do you need an accountant to fill out multiple pages and multiple documents,” Parisi said.
The program’s authors sought to “keep it simple, make it equal and make sure we were helping out those smaller businesses that can barely afford rent and other essential bills,” Parisi said.
They also wanted to make sure businesses that just opened in 2020 would also be eligible. The program does that, too, he said.
The grant program is designed to help cover costs such as wages or salaries, operational expenses incurred to help the business remain open through the state of emergency or costs associated with the reopening of a business that was previously shut down due to the pandemic.
To assist with the application process, Rhode Island Commerce has made several technical assistance partners available. These organizations can help small businesses complete the application at no cost to the business. Assistance is available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, Khmer, Vietnamese and Laotian. More information can be found online at www.commerceri.com or by calling the Small Business Hotline at (401) 521-HELP.
On Main Street in Woonsocket on Monday, John T. Dupont, the co-owner of New York Lunch, said he had not yet heard about the new grant program, but would be interested in the assistance if the longtime city business was eligible.
“My business partner, Ed Mongeon, looked into applying for the last round, but didn’t get one,” Dupont, 60, noted of the previous grant distribution.
New York Lunch has been doing takeout throughout the crisis, and Dupont, who has worked there since he was a teenager, expects to be reopening for inside dining in the near future as the state’s protocols change.
“Business isn’t bad,” Dupont said. “We’re not breaking any records; we’re getting by.”
For the small business, that means there is plenty of work that needs to get done.
“Today I made Dynamites, and I made sauce for the weiners, I made everything,” Dupont said.