State rolling out small business loans up to $75,000

The state will immediately roll out a no-interest loan program of up to $75,000 for small businesses hit by the coronavirus crisis, David Lehman, Gov. Ned Lamont’s economics chief, said Wednesday.

The program is small by the standards of the tsunami washing out commerce in the state, the nation and the world. In the first round it will total $20 million to $25 million, enough to finance about 600 businesses with a quick cash infusion in the range of $40,000 each.

In a state economy worth $280 billion a year, with about 90,000 companies — many of them sole proprietorships — that’s not meant to save the state on its own. Rather, Lehman said, it’s a fast-turnaround bridge until small businesses can borrow through much larger federal programs, or through banks and other private lenders - all of which have huge new infusions totaling trillions of dollars.

“The state is not going to be the small biz lender to the entire state. We’re trying to do something meaningful and flexible and we’re trying to lead by example,” Lehman said. “The banking system is where the money is going to come from.”

Lehman said his Department of Economic and Community Development surveys show 90 percent of Connecticut businesses have taken a hit to revenue, but 50 percent are still working at or near full capacity, with a lot of supply chains, in manufacturing, for example, still intact.

The Connecticut recovery bridge loan program is about the same size in dollars as a similar plan launched by Massachusetts, which has a much larger economy. Previously, Lamont and Lehman announced a loan forbearance program, under which 800 existing borrowers in the Small Business Express program received three-month reprieves for payments - a benefit worth a...

from News https://www.ctpost.com/news/coronavirus/article/State-rolling-out-small-business-loans-up-to-15156547.php