Signs have been emerging that the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program trying to help small businesses through coronavirus has been reaching those who applied for it.
The first round ran out of its $349 billion in just two weeks in April, with many small business owners complaining they were left behind.
A recent CNBC survey showed only half of the small businesses surveyed applied for a PPP loan, and of those, one third reported getting the money.
Old Saybrook restaurant co-owner Alex Foulkes said he did not get PPP funding in round one, but round two was a different story.
“We heard pretty quickly I’d say within a couple of days that we were approved...they give you basically a 10 day period. They say from when you’re approved it’s going to be in your account within 10 days and it was probably in like eight days.”
Numbers for the second round of the PPP so far presented a stark change, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which oversees the program.
Through May 8, almost 35,000 PPP loans were approved in Connecticut.
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That compares to over 18,000 for the entire first round of the PPP.
State Rep. Tom Delnicki, a ranking member of the legislature’s banking committee, said roughly a third of the $310 billion from round two is still available, and estimates it could be for a while.
Delnicki said, “A hundred days left. Think about that a second compared to the first time around.”
As for who’s doing PPP lending, about half came from large banks and credit unions, a third from smaller ones, the rest from medium-sized ones.
Beyond getting the PPP loans, Connecticut small businesses have also been struggling with how to ensure they are forgivable. To do that, 75% of the money is supposed to go to payroll.
“There’s still a lot of problems with the package, especially for restaurants. Pretty labor heavy benchmarks that you have to hit. And that’s a hard thing to do right now," Foulkes said.
The SBA has now given some limited guidance on how to figure out how much of the PPP loans are forgivable with a worksheet issued late last week.
