Plans for emergency small business, nonprofit grants come before borough, Wasilla, Palmer leaders this week

Plans for small business and nonprofit emergency grant programs are on city council agendas this in both Wasilla and Palmer Monday and Tuesday, and before the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly, also on Tuesday.

All three municipal governments plan $10,000 maximum grants with simplified application procedures and qualifications to get money out quickly.

“We’ve learned lessons from problems in the state’s small business grant program and we want to avoid those,” said new Palmer city manager John Moosey, who was until recently the borough manager.

“We’ll have a very simple application, essentially checking-the-box,” and certifying that the information is correct.

Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle said his city’s proposal is to reserve $7 million of Wasilla’s $18.6 million state COVID-19 grant for the grants. Small businesses with 20 or fewer employees would be eligible.

Wasilla’s application, like Palmer’s, will be very simple. It will be easy for the city to verify the income and loss information because Wasilla has its business sales tax data at hand, Cottle said.

Unlike the problem-riddled state grant program both Wasilla and Palmer will not disqualify applicants who have received other COVID-19 assistance. A key problem that has emerged for the state is that even small amounts in a federal Payroll Protection Program loan or Small Business Administration emergency grant result in disqualification from a state grant which can be more a much larger amount.

Palmer has set aside $3.75 million of its state grant, which will total about $7 million, for the city program to aid small businesses and nonprofits, with most of the money set aside for small businesses for now, Moosey said.

Three million dollars is allocated for small businesses with grants of $2,500, $5000, $7,500 and $10,000 depending on the firm’s annual revenues. Applications will be taken from July 20 to August 14 with weekly disbursements of grants during that period.

One million dollars is also set aside for a program to help Palmer citizens with utility payments, but the details of that are still being developed, Moosey said. What’s remaining in the $7.56 million state grant is being held for other COVID-19 impacts.

Stephanie Nowers, Mat-Su Borough assembly member for Palmer, said the borough program, like those of Wasilla and Palmer, will not disqualify applicants who receive aid from other programs.

“We have 8,000 small businesses and nonprofits in Mat-Su who have 50 or fewer employees, and most of which have been in business for years,” Nowers told a state legislative committee last Thursday. A survey of small businesses she did in May, in which there were 20 percent of those surveyed responding, said half are suffering a 50 percent decline in revenues.

Since summer is traditionally the big-revenue time of year, “these people could be facing a bleak winter,” Nowers told legislators in a meeting of the House Labor and Commerce Committee. The proposal before the assembly is to set aside $14 million for the program. If it is approved the goal would be to get checks out in August, she said.

Small businesses and nonprofits around the state are being severely affected by the cancellation of the summer cruise ship season and sharp downturn in tourism, which supports many small firms. The crash in oil prices and layoffs of North Slope workers, many who live in Mat-Su, and the closure of businesses ordered because of the COVID-19 virus, have contributed to problems.

The state’s $295 million grant program for small businesses and nonprofits has been slow in starting up with many applicants disqualified who received small amounts of aid in federal PPP loans or SBA grants.

As of July 9, about $9.26 million in grants have been funded by the state from $54.48 million in applications, which leaves about $240 million still available. State officials are working on ways to streamline the program.