Michigan small businesses and agricultural companies that have been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak have a new federally backed relief program to tap into.
The board of the Michigan Strategic Fund on Tuesday morning authorized a total of $15 million for agricultural businesses, and another $100 million for the Michigan Small Business Restart Program.
The funds were appropriated by the state Legislature and come from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided the state and various local units of government with nearly $3.9 billion.
The Michigan Agricultural Safety Grant Program will distribute $10 million in grants to agricultural processors around the state and $5 million to farms statewide. The grants will be administered by East Lansing-based agricultural financing firm Greenstone Farm Credit Services before being referred to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC), which administers the Strategic Fund, the state’s main pool of economic development dollars.
“These funds will provide grants of up to $1,000 per employee to fund COVID-19 mitigation costs, including but not limited to testing costs, personal protection equipment, facility needs, increased sanitation costs, employee training, and upgraded safety procedures for farm-provided housing,” according to a memo from the state outlining the program.
The agricultural relief program will cover costs over the time period of June 1 to Sept. 15 and applications will open on July 15.
The processing grants will range from $10,000 to $200,000 while the farm grants will range from $10,000 to $50,000.
The small business relief grants, meanwhile, will be distributed to local economic development organizations (EDOs) representing Michigan’s 83 counties.
At least 30 percent of the loans will be allocated to women, minority or veteran-owned businesses.
“Each EDO will receive a base amount of $3.5 million for grants for small businesses within the coverage area and the remaining funding will be allocated between the Local EDOs by the MSF,” according to a state briefing memo. “Under the Program, the Local EDOs, or its designee, will provide up to $20,000 in grants to eligible small businesses that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 and need working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility expenses or other similar expenses.”
While much of the state’s economy has been slowly reopening in recent weeks and a recovery of sorts is just underway, MEDC President and CEO Mark Burton said he expects no shortage of demand for the grants, especially with surging cases in other parts of the country and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer saying that the reopening could be dialed back.
“There’s a need that we continue to see in all corners of the state, largely because we continue to … have capacity limitations for instance on restaurants,” Burton told Crain’s during a conference call on Tuesday morning. “There are still other closures and there’s obviously a fear that we won’t be reopening as quickly as we thought given some of the activity that we’re seeing across the country. I think there’s a high demand for these grants.”
