The Economic Task Force Facts and FAQ’s third virtual session was hosted on Tuesday. Members of the task force expressed that, thus far, they have been successful in their objectives, with the first being that they wanted a single source to give the resources that will help through this crisis.
Resources continue to grow daily. The second objective listed for the session was to assess and make policy recommendations to Governor Gary Herbert. Finally, the third objective was to create an economic response plan that was titled “Utah Leads Together.”
With all of this in mind, the task force met Monday to focus on what would be discussed next. A great need is that businesses, especially small, have to get technical assistance to help them through the process to obtain loans. After this pronouncement, Spencer Eccles of the University of Utah (U of U) spoke with Gov. Herbert and together they addressed what is happening and the need for information.
Eccles contemplated how to bring this information from the university to the state. Framework was established and on Friday, they are kicking off a Navigating COVID-19 virtual session that will begin at 11 a.m. and will go to 1 p.m. It will be somewhat interactive. Senator Mitt Romney will be involved as well and they will have one of the key faculty members at the U of U, where the session will be housed.
As aforementioned, the session will begin Friday and will follow the week after with more industry-specific training. Ultimately, it will help develop a tool kit to help navigate business necessities. The chamber was thanked for continued support.
This session can be viewed by visiting eccles.utah.edu. Those that wish to be a part of it may also visit the website beforehand to register.
Next, Val Hale with the Governors Office of Economic Development (GoEd) announced a new program called the Utah Lead’s Together Small Business Bridge Loan Fund. They took some money in the GoEd that was there for economic development and re-purposed it into a loan fund.
The first phase will be eight million and it is believed that two to three million more may be received in the future. The program was launched at 8 a.m. that same morning and they were at 1,100 applications as of the time of the meeting.
The program is a zero-interest loan over five years, and it is $5,000 to $20,000 or three years of operating expenses. The first payment is not due for one year. They are seeing applicants all around the state and are available for businesses with fewer than 50 employees. 25% will be allocated for rural businesses.
The application will close on Friday at noon. As of the time of the meeting, limitations were not discussed in length, though they are looking at businesses that have full-time employees.
To conclude the session, stay-home orders and the need for self-isolation were reiterated. Salons and restaurants being closed were also the point of topic briefly. All of the information from this session, previous sessions and more are available at coronavirus.utah.gov.