Pritzker goes BIG with grants to small business

First $46M goes to 2,500 businesses hurt by pandemic lockdown, social unrest

Gov. Pritzker announces the first $46 million being distributed through the state’s Business Interruption Grant program, designed to provide pandemic relief to small businesses. (Illinois.gov)

By Ted Cox

The governor went BIG Wednesday with grants to small businesses hurt in the pandemic, announcing the first $46 million distributed to more than 2,500 firms across the state — targeting those hardest hit and overlooked by other COVID-19 relief programs.

“This is a very, very trying time. It’s a trying time for small businesses even in normal times,” Gov. Pritzker said at a news conference at the Thompson Center in Chicago touting the first cash infusions under the state’s Business Interruption Grant program.

According to the governor, $46 million is going to 2,655 businesses in more than 400 towns across Illinois, reaching 78 of the state’s 102 counties. Pritzker emphasized that the program was targeting those businesses shut down completely during the pandemic or those that suffered from looting and other ensuing unrest. He said the grants are aimed at those slighted by earlier COVID-19 relief packages, such as the federal Paycheck Protection Program, and those with annual revenues below $3 million. Child-care providers were also prioritized as critical to getting other businesses and workers going.

“The federal PPP program seems to have overlooked too many entrepreneurs and small shops,” Pritzker said.

The Governor’s Office issued a release calling it “the largest state-run economic support program in response to the economic hardship caused by coronavirus,” with businesses receiving grants of between $10,000 and $20,000.

“There is nothing that can change the trajectory of a business like the infusion of revenue,” said Karen Freeman-Wilson, chief executive officer of the Chicago Urban League, one of the local grassroots groups across the state streamlining the process and advising entrepreneurs on how to apply. She pointed out the grants attack the “wealth gap,” in many minority businesses not having the resources to weather a crisis like the economic slowdown resulting from efforts to stem the coronavirus pandemic, while also addressing the “civil unrest that led to further destruction in those businesses.”

Michael Negron, acting director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity overseeing the grants, called social equity “a central focus of the program,” with half of the first round of grants going to minority-owned businesses.

Pritzker said it was meant to soothe “the economic pain that COVID-19 has visited upon us,” and he drew parallels with the pandemic attacking “the most vulnerable elements of our economy,” just as it has attacked the most vulnerable people.

“We know that there are thousands more that need help,” Negron said, adding that the next round of grants would target firms in the performing arts, such as music venues and movie theaters, which have been crying out for federal relief aid.

“It’s important for us to move as quickly as we can, but also responsibly,” Pritzker said, adding that the program was designed with measures meant to avoid the snafus that have plagued federal relief programs like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which has been beset by fraud nationwide.

“Ultimately, revitalizing our economy must start with getting the pandemic under control,” Negron said, and the other part of Wednesday’s news conference concerned the persistent rise in COVID-19 cases across the state.

“Ultimately, revitalizing our economy must start with getting the pandemic under control.”

DCEO Acting Director Michael Negron (Illinois.gov)

Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced 1,645 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, putting the state in range of topping 200,000 this week, at 198,593 total cases. She added that 16 new deaths brought the statewide toll to 7,672.

“My concern is growing each day about the direction our numbers are going in,” Ezike said.

Pritzker said the 11 regions of the state designated under the Restore Illinois plan to reopen the economy are “trending in different directions, the majority of which are negative.” Pritzker said that only eastern Illinois and the far northwest suburbs of Chicago are seeing slight drops in infections. West-central Illinois and the far south and far north suburbs of Chicago are seeing increases, with the rest of state largely stable week to week, but at levels higher than the declines seen in May and June. He warned he would be forced to “roll things back on a regional basis” if increases worsen, adding, “We don’t want to go back to where we’re shutting things down.”

Ezike and Pritzker both repeated the call for residents to wear a mask, wash hands, and watch social distancing, with the governor praising the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules for endorsing his system of fines to be imposed in scofflaw businesses that don’t enforce the need to wear a mask this week. “I want everybody to take personal responsibility, for businesses to take responsibility,” he said. “We can lick this thing if people just follow these basic rules.”