Raimondo Unveils Small Business Relief Plan - Intends to Tap $76 Million in Federal Funds

Raimondo Unveils Small Business Relief Plan - Intends to Tap $76 Million in Federal Funds

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo on Wednesday finally unveiled a small business grant program. Small business leaders have been asking the Raimondo administration to provide support since March.

Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said that dollars will not be able to be disbursed to small businesses for six weeks at the earliest -- two weeks to finish the application system and four weeks to provide funding.

Only $76 million in the federal CARES Act funds will be used to support small businesses. $20 million in state funds will be used, via an existing state program and not new dollars.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

Funding Less Than Requested by McKee

The Raimondo funding program falls far short of the proposed offer by Lt. Governor Dan McKee, which totaled $125 million — tapping $125 million of the CARES Act funds.

McKee's program is also more flexible than the Raimondo program. READ MCKEE PROGRAM HERE.

McKee did not respond to questions about Raimondo's proposal on Wednesday.

Raimondo said $50 million of the funds are to assist businesses with reopening tools like plexiglass — and fixed costs including rent and utilities.

Of those funds, 20% will be set aside for minority-owned businesses. The grants will be limited to $15,000 per business.

The application is expected to be available within the next couple of weeks. “The team is working as fast as possible to get it out fast as soon as possible. The details will be online later today,” said Raimondo.

The businesses targeted in the $50 million are “restaurants, caterers, businesses that have 20 or fewer employees — you’re going to have to show us you’ve seen a serious drop in your revenue," said Raimondo.

“This is the first step. In the coming weeks we’ll make $26M in additional dollars available [for] nonprofit grants, tech assistance to businesses and repositioning programs to help small businesses,” said Raimondo.

“If we go through the first round of the $50 million, we can replenish it — we can adjust it,” she added.

“I’m also pleased to announce that an additional $20 million to small businesses from the Small Business Development Fund authorized by the General Assembly in the last session — and we’re working with the federal delegation for $5 million for specifically tourism businesses,” said Raimondo.