Q&A
Discussion on federal funding and COVID-19 relief for small businesses
1:16:04
·
7 min
Council Member Feliz and SBS representatives discuss federal funding related to COVID-19 relief for small businesses. They cover the amount of funding received, how it was distributed, and the impact of its expiration on SBS programming.
- SBS administered several grant programs during the pandemic, distributing hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses
- The current preliminary plan includes $43.4 million in federal funding, but this is not COVID-related and is for workforce development programs
- The Small Business Opportunity Fund will be the last program using federal COVID relief funding
- SBS does not anticipate significant impacts on their programming due to the expiration of federal COVID funds
Oswald Feliz
1:16:04
Moving on to federal funding.
Kevin Kim
1:16:05
Yes.
Oswald Feliz
1:16:06
Coronavirus pandemic obviously affected our city in many different ways that specifically affected our small businesses.
1:16:16
They had a shutdown from 1 day to the next.
1:16:19
Suffered economically and in many other different ways.
1:16:22
And the federal government was helpful with funding to help the small businesses recover.
1:16:28
Can you talk about that funding?
1:16:29
How much did we receive?
1:16:31
What's the period for the funding?
1:16:33
Are we I'm here, are we gonna close to depleting the funds?
Kevin Kim
1:16:38
So during the pandemic, the federal funds came through the state and then to us, and then we administered a number of different big grant programs.
1:16:48
We had a $100,000,000 grant program, and then we had various other programs that also gave out 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars.
1:16:56
I I don't remember the exact amount.
1:16:58
It might have been 300, but it was one time federal funds to make sure that those business has stayed alive.
1:17:06
And when we were able to take some of the remaining funds and use it to create the New York City Small Business Opportunity Fund that I put into my testimony.
1:17:18
That investment, a small investment with great partners like Goldman Sachs And Mastercard for Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth allowed us to then leverage are are small city dollars into the largest public private partnership loan fund over a 1000 is exactly a 1046 businesses benefited and 80% were MWE, 69% are by pox self identified owners.
1:17:47
59% was in LMI Communities, but the money got distributed to every single city council district.
1:17:54
So we were truck, we were you we were very creative in using whatever funds we had to then multiply and leverage it.
1:18:03
And That model is something that now we're talking to a lot more folks about potential future public private partnerships on all levels.
1:18:12
I'll give you one other example where the Ron Molas Foundation, Ron and Carrie Molas Foundation, they partnered with us to do nitrogen entrepreneurship competition, and they've done this 2 years now where they've awarded $20,000 to 10nitrogen businesses in each of the 2 years.
1:18:30
And by doing that, small business services comes in without ever putting money in, but because of the relationships we have and because of all the free business versus we have we're able to educate the business owners and do some of the work that you referenced our New York City Business Express service team NYC, best for sure, when we do compliance advising, we help them navigate through government.
1:18:53
If somebody's opening a restaurant, we can help them understand how to get their licenses and permits much faster than if they were trying to navigate themselves.
1:19:01
So with the federal funds, those one time large investments while they might not be there, we found other creative ways, including the NYC Small Business Opportunity Fund, And also one other way we've done this is we've done a couple of federal partnerships with the NYC Funds Fund I had mentioned again, We made sure that the federal government would partner with New York City and that they would put in the money, but that we would provide all of the resources and access to our small businesses One last example, and I I wish council member, Krishna, I was still here, but we the the federal government wanted to do economic summit around Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific, all under businesses.
1:19:44
And they chose New York City as a place to come, and we partnered with them to make sure that all of the businesses, WWE, can get to that summit where all the federal resources were also explained to them very clearly.
1:19:56
So I think the partnership with the federal government is incredibly important.
1:20:00
And at new and at SBS, we're always looking for creative ways to work with them, which doesn't necessarily have cost us money out of our pocket.
Oswald Feliz
1:20:10
Thank you.
1:20:10
And the preliminary plan includes 43,400,000 in federal funding.
1:20:19
How much of this federal funding is COVID relief funding that's expiring at the end of the year?
Kevin Kim
1:20:24
None of that is COVID expiring.
1:20:26
That is all for we owe a dollars for the workforce development programs.
1:20:29
Since we run the 18, we manage the 18 work source one centers, and that money goes to help fund that.
Oswald Feliz
1:20:38
Yeah.
1:20:38
And what are programs that will continue to receive COVID fund?
1:20:41
And the current and the next fiscal year.
Kevin Kim
1:20:45
Yeah.
1:20:46
I'll I'll even let you into this.
Michael Forte
1:20:49
I believe that the last of it is when the commissioner referenced in the Opportunity Fund, that would be the last of that that federal, the the COVID, and the ARPA funding that that would be the end of it.
Oswald Feliz
1:21:02
Okay.
1:21:02
So the small business opportunity fund will be the last program related to federal funding.
Michael Forte
1:21:07
I believe so.
1:21:08
Yes.
Oswald Feliz
1:21:09
Okay.
1:21:10
Okay.
1:21:12
How will the expiration of the the federal COVID refunds affects programming for SBS?
Kevin Kim
1:21:20
I don't think it'll have impact on our programming because we have the sufficient head count as I mentioned.
1:21:26
We actually have more than since the started the administration.
1:21:29
So we have sufficient headcount.
1:21:31
We have this sufficient budget.
1:21:33
A lot of our focus has been on the outreach that I had explained and the real understanding of reaching out to more New Yorkers, getting into the communities with our Moby, the RV truck, Mobi has been to probably over a 100 neighborhoods in the past year alone, and that is many, many folding over what it had been doing previous to that.
1:21:56
So examples of just being out there with the sufficient resources and sufficient headcount on our side has really led to helping contribute to the economic recovery.
1:22:09
The mayor yesterday announced the record number of jobs again the second time.
1:22:14
We've broken this record in the past few months.
1:22:17
1 in every 6 businesses in existence today actually started since the Adams Administration.
1:22:25
I I personally attribute a lot of it to the mayor and deputy mayor Marietta Springs, the economic blueprint that they were able to set forth.
1:22:33
If you read the blueprint on the SBS side, We've implemented almost all of the recommendations there, and each one has had significant impact on the overall economy.
Oswald Feliz
1:22:44
Okay.
1:22:45
Have we secured other resources to that will replace these federal funds that we're no longer getting in?
Kevin Kim
1:22:54
I don't think the so the pandemic, there are 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars of grants that was a one time national event.
1:23:01
I don't see that coming back unless there's another event like that, but and hopefully there won't be.
1:23:08
I I really think that where it's important is that as the federal government continues to roll out new programs that were right there, partnering with them with as many of the rollout and accessing as much of that money because we do have over 200,000 small businesses in New York City.
1:23:28
And we should make sure that we get our fair share of any of those types of programs that come out of the state that come out of the the federal government.