COLOMBIA – South Carolina has postponed the sending of promised state subsidies to struggling small businesses and nonprofits, who can wait an extra week or so to see if they have won a small lifeline to survive COVID-19.
And the winners are unlikely to receive the money, expected this month, until January.
State officials attributed the delay to the volume of requests and the necessary verification.
Notifications to candidates chosen to receive a $ 65 million installment of coronavirus aid that the Legislature approved in September, and how much they will receive, will begin to leave at the end of the week and end on December 30, according to the Department of State administration, which is overseeing the process.
This is weeks later than expected, which may seem like a lifetime for business owners unable to pay their bills in the midst of a continuing pandemic, said Frank Knapp, president of the state’s Small Business Chamber of Commerce.
“I got calls and emails asking, ‘When is this going to happen?’ They are anxious out there, “he said.” Waiting until January will only make more small businesses close their doors. “
Winners were due to be notified by December 15, according to a schedule announced in October, when Governor Henry McMaster traveled the state asking businesses and nonprofits to apply – and quickly, considering the tight two-year application period. weeks.
A November 4 press release announcing that 11,217 had signed up by the deadline gave a quicker response, saying that the notifications would come out in early December and that the money would be in hand by mid-December.
Instead, the state Department of Administration published an update on Tuesday, postponing the schedule, which will potentially meet the federal deadline in minutes. The money is provided through a law passed by Congress in March, which requires the money to be designated by December 30, or it will revert to federal coffers.
The sheer volume of need, coupled with steps taken to verify that the requests were legitimate, delayed the process, said Brian Gaines, program director for the state agency.
“We received far more applications than any of us anticipated or expected,” he told The Post and Courier on Wednesday, when the text of the notification letters was still being finalized.
Lawmakers created the grants in September, setting aside $ 40 million for small businesses and $ 25 million for nonprofits, under an agreement that spent the rest of $ 1.9 billion in federal COVID-19 aid for Carolina southern.
The Legislature limited prizes to $ 25,000 for companies and $ 50,000 for nonprofits.
Combining the two programs, candidates sought 4½ times the total available.
More than 9,600 small businesses signed up, jointly seeking $ 213.3 million. And nearly 1,600 nonprofits have signed up, requesting a total of $ 76 million.
This means that $ 224 million in claims had to be rejected.
Legislatively created panels were tasked with deciding who receives aid and how much.
The small business panel, made up of officials from state trade, revenue and minority affairs agencies, met on Tuesday when the update was released.
At the first meeting, December 2, a month after the registration deadline, they created a weighting system based on the legislative’s priority goals. Each company received a point for the following: being owned by minorities; have 15 or less employees; not receive any other COVID-19 government aid; and be forced to close, partially or totally, by McMaster’s COVID-19 orders in the spring.
The nonprofit panel, made up of people from nine state agencies, created a 15-point priority scale at its first meeting on November 18 and at its last meeting on December 10.
“It seems to me that it was not a priority,” said Knapp. “Shame on them.”
Administration Department spokeswoman Kelly Coakley said the agency acted as quickly as possible, ensuring that the money reaches where it is most needed.
“We understand the urgency and the need and what these people are facing,” she said.
A lot of work was needed before the panel evaluations could begin, explained Gaines.
This included verifying that the company or non-profit organization really existed, had no outstanding tax encumbrances, and met the Legislative requirement to be in operation since at least September 2019.
This review led to the disqualification of more than a quarter of small business orders, according to meeting minutes provided to The Post and Courier.
“It was a lot of legwork,” said Gaines. “The last thing we wanted to see is that we granted a concession to a company that is not legitimate.”
It is not clear how many nonprofit organizations were considered ineligible, as the minutes of the December 10 meeting were not available.
The head of a nonprofit education organization in South Carolina described an ever-changing application process that required her to carry more than 200 supporting documents.
The lack of communication in the six-and-a-half weeks since then is incredibly frustrating, said Casey Pash, president of Junior Achievement of Greater South Carolina, who typically places volunteers in K-12 schools to educate students about potential careers and teach them business skills and how to budget your finances.
“I didn’t hear anything from them at all,” she said, adding that it was a big headache even for an organization like hers that signs up for regular grants.
Pash said he does not expect to receive a grant, knowing that priority has been given to non-profit organizations that provide food, shelter, help paying bills and other direct assistance to residents. But she felt it was important to at least subscribe, if only to inform lawmakers about the extent of services impacted by the pandemic.
The range of nearly 1,600 who applied “shows that we have nonprofit organizations in our state that do good things and help in times of need,” she said, noting that her group has gone on to help with virtual learning. “Hopefully, elected officials can look at this as a way to see what else is being done.”