Tillis Backed Paycheck Protection Program Will Continue To Provide Relief For North Carolinians
April 22nd, 2020
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Senate yesterday finally passed legislation to allocate additional funding to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The measure was approved after Senator Tillis spent the last two weeks calling on his Democrat colleagues to stop blocking the critical funding extension so that North Carolina’s small businesses could continue to have access to the relief that they desperately need. The PPP has already provided major assistance to North Carolinians, as it has funded over 39,250 approved loans totaling $8.05 billion in the state so far.
The articles below highlight just a few of the many North Carolina small businesses across the state that have benefited from the PPP. The businesses featured are: Bitty & Beau’s, a Wilmington coffee shop that employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that Tillis personally visited in October of 2018, 1618 restaurants in Greensboro, RLF Communications in Greensboro, and the Green Monkey bar and gift shop in Raleigh.
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Fox News: North Carolina coffee shop receives business-saving loan through stimulus program
- Loans from the more than $2 trillion economic relief package saved Bitty & Beau’s Coffee Shops, owner Amy Wright said Wednesday.
Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” with host Sandra Smith, Wright explained that the connection with their local bank — Live Oak Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina — and their support was what made the difference.
“So, we operate five brick-and-mortar coffee shops that are all run by people with intellectual and development disabilities. And, Live Oak Bank…has been a huge supporter of our missions since we opened our doors,” Wright stated.
“And, when they heard we had laid off all 120 of our employees with disabilities, they stepped in and they said, ‘We want to help you through this process. When the PPP loans (Paycheck Protection Program loans) become available, we are here to help you,” she continued.
“Very accessible, very seamless for us and just made bringing our employees back to work so that they could earn their paycheck again possible,” Wright remarked.
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And, our employees — I’m excited to bring back to work, back on the payroll, so that they can help with writing handwritten notes that are included with each order that we ship,” she noted.
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“Most of our employees have never had a job before. So, when we had to temporarily lay them off it was a very scary time. And so, I’m just very excited to share with them that they’re going to be continuing to earn a paycheck and contributing to our business,” she concluded.
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WFMY-Greensboro: Greensboro small business owners get relief with paycheck protection loan
- …Almost right after Governor Roy Cooper ordered all restaurants to stop allowing sit down customers Wilson applied for paycheck protection. The government-backed loan provides small business owners with payroll relief for a little more than two months, “Luckily we were able to get everything in before funds ran out,” said Wilson.
The Paycheck Protection Program injected $350 billion into the economy in hopes employers would not lay off as many workers. The program appears to be a success as the funding ran out not long after the program was introduced.
More than 1.6 million small businesses took advantage of the program and more than 5,000 lenders participated. One of the banks to assist small business owners is Triad Business Bank, “Our employees have taken this extremely personally, they realize (on the) other side of loans is payroll for individuals or families,” said Triad Bank CEO Ramsey Hamadi.
The recently opened bank has processed more than 175 claims and has already secured funding for more than two dozen businesses, “We understand there are families depending upon this basic income,” said Hamadi.
One of the small businesses getting a boost from the loan is RLF Communications. The public relations and marketing company have lost a lot of business since the stay at home order went into effect, “We will use the paycheck protection to pay our employees in April and May when our business has been impacted because of the shutdown,” said CEO Monty Hagler.
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WTVD-Raleigh: ‘We’re ecstatic’: Raleigh small business can pay rent, employees thanks to federal funds from PPP
- One Raleigh small business owner believes he found the secret to quickly securing a federal loan as part of the Paycheck Protection Program.
Rusty Sutton pulled up the email that changed everything while acknowledging he’s one of the lucky ones.
“We’re ecstatic,” he said.
The Green Monkey owner was recently approved for the Payroll Protection Program, and the email confirmed that thousands of dollars were transferred into his bank account.
“We’re just excited we can put our people back to work and we’re in business for two more months at least,” said Sutton. One of the employees had been working through the crisis and sacrificing a paycheck.
“We’re going to pay her all back for that,” said Sutton.
Not only can he get people back on the books, he can also pay a bill that’s been looming over his head—his rent.
“Said ‘We’ll have the rent for you this week, we got our loan,'” Sutton said he told his landlord.
According to officials, as long as Sutton keeps on his employees on the payroll until the end of June, the loan will be forgiven.