NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka spoke to David Cruz this week in an NJTV report detailing the frustrations of small businesses not being able to access the first round of funding available through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
Even with President Trump signing a law for another $310 billion in PPP funding for small business on Friday, Siekerka said the program was limited in its scope.
“The intent was to keep people off the unemployment rolls,” she said. “The problem is at the end of eight weeks their doors aren’t going to be open yet and where’s the money going to be to operationalize the re-opening?”
Siekerka pointed to the hypothetical cases of a restaurant to make her point.
“They’ve got to get their inventory back up and they have no revenue to buy that inventory,” she said. “How about what we’re going to have to put into place to provide for social distancing. There’s going to be capital expenses, so there’s no money out there to address those operational needs that are really going to be how we stimulate the economy.”
To view the full report, click here.
