Supporting Struggling Small Businesses
The pandemic and Covid-19 mitigations began inflicting immense damage to many small businesses in March of 2020. Thousands of small businesses initially applied for Illinois Business Interruption Grants. While these grants helped some small businesses, approximately 80% of eligible small businesses which applied were not awarded a grant.
Subsequently, Illinois received over 8 billion dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds. However, only $250 million were allocated for Back to Business grant program. These funds will likely be exhausted before many struggling and eligible businesses receive grants.
Illinois still has billions of federal funds and should replenish the Back to Business grant program with an additional $300 million. Our policymakers should not pick winners and loses when there is adequate funding to support the struggling small businesses.
House Bill HB5489 will allocate an additional $300 million for the Back to Business grant program. Please ask your legislators to support this legislation so that struggling small businesses can receive the support they need to recover from a pandemic, and associated mitigations, which they could not control.
PRESS RELEASE: BIG Legislation for Small Businesses
Illinois Small Business Advocates Call For Funding and an Improved Business Interruption Grant Program Illinois small businesses are fighting to recover from the pandemic. However, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity reports that out of the 40,000 businesses that applied for a Business Interruption Grant, only about 9,000 received funding. Business owners hanging on…
Black And African American Owned Businesses Should Receive Their Fair Share Of State Contracts
Black And African American Owned Businesses Should Receive Their Fair Share Of State Contracts Illinois has failed many Black and African American owned small businesses because they have been unable to procure their fair share of state contracts or receive a fair share of the revenue associated with state contracts. Indeed, the failure of Black…
BIG Legislation for Small Businesses
READ H.B 1860 HERE READ S.B 1982 HERE BIG LEGISLATION FOR SMALL BUSINESSES President Biden has signed The American Rescue Plan Act (H.R 1319) into law. Accordingly, the State of Illinois is expected to receive $7.549 billion in funds to foster recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. A robust coalition of small business advocates are asking that…
