Ohio House Economic & Workforce Development Committee — Senate Bill 109 (April 21, 2021)

Summary

Letter dated April 21, 2021, from Christopher J. Ferruso, Ohio Legislative Director, to Representative Jay Edwards, Chair of the Ohio House Economic & Workforce Development Committee. It supports Senate Bill 109 on behalf of the 21,000 members; the bill is described as providing financial relief to new businesses and entertainment venues, with additional grants for the Small Business Relief Grant Program. It states that the bill provides an additional $150 million of grants to businesses that tried to access the initial program but were unable to because of depleted funds. It also supports a New Business Grant Relief program with $10 million in grants for businesses that opened after January 1, 2020.

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Full text

April 21, 2021

Representative Jay Edwards
Chair, Ohio House Economic & Workforce Development Committee
77 South High Street, 12th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215

Dear Chairman Edwards:

I am writing on behalf of the 21,000 members in support of Senate Bill 109. Thank
you for the opportunity to provide comments on this important bill. We are
grateful to Senators Manning and Rulli for their sponsorship of this important
legislation aimed at providing financial relief to new businesses, entertainment
venues, and providing additional grants for the Small Business Relief Grant
Program . We offered similar proponent testimony on companion legislation
House Bill 168. We applaud this committee for their favorable support.

By way of background, a typical NFIB member in Ohio employs 20 or fewer and
does less than $2 million in annual receipts. Our members come from all industry
types and each of the 88 counties. Our members range in size from sole
proprietors to large operations employing hundreds.

At the onset of the COVID pandemic, our team was fielding hundreds of inquiries
from members seeking clarification on what steps they needed to take to keep their
businesses in operation and their employees working. Unfortunately, many of our
members were unable to remain open or if they were open, it was in either limited
capacity and/or facing a substantial drop in customers and thus revenue. The swift,
sudden onset of restrictions and attempting to comply with those restrictions
quickly turned to concern about ongoing viability. It became clear for a lot of our
members that absent financial relief, they may be forced to lay off a significant
portion of their workforce or in the worst-case scenario, permanently close their
doors.

I believe we can all agree the COVID pandemic had and continues to have a
significant financial impact on so many small businesses. I want to share some
results of a survey we conducted of our members late last year on the impacts of
the pandemic as I believe it will help set the stage for why Senate Bill 109 is so
welcome.

      •   77% of our members took some sort of government loan (PPP, EIDL, etc.)
      •   88% of those that took a loan had used it up by late Q3 of 2020
      •   70% said they would take advantage of a state program, like the Small
          Business Relief Grant Program
      •   50% of our members indicated a need of $25,000 or greater
      •   The greatest need was for wages and compensation, closely followed by
          utility costs
      •   30% of our members were required to close because of executive orders
      •   94% of our members were opened within 3 months
      •   55% percent of our members experienced a year-over-year revenue loss of
          at least 20%
      •   15% of our members experienced year-over-year revenue loss greater than
          50%

We know significant resources came in the form of loans from the federal
government. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a lifeline for businesses
throughout Ohio and the country. Round one of PPP delivered over $18.5 billion to
nearly 150,000 Ohio businesses, an average loan size of roughly $123,000.1 As of
February 28, 2021, round two of PPP in Ohio has brought an additional $4.85 billion
to over 64,000 businesses, an average loan size just under $76,000.2 As our
members indicated, and as demonstrated by the large number of businesses that
availed themselves of round two of PPP, the need for financial relief remains great.

The state of Ohio also allocated resources late last year through the Small Business
Relief Grant program as proposed by Governor DeWine’s administration and
approved through the quick action of the Controlling Board, putting $125 million
into the hands of many small business owners. Senate Bill 109 builds upon this


1
    https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/PPP_Report%20-%202020-08-10-508.pdf
2
    https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/PPP_Report_Public_210228-508.pdf
program by providing an additional $150 million of grants to those businesses that
attempted to access the initial program but were unable to because of depleted
funds.

In addition to the Small Business Grant program, we are supportive of the New
Business Grant Relief program. This program will provide $10 million in grants for
businesses that opened their doors after January 1, 2020. These new businesses
generally did not qualify for other grant/loan programs as most required a
demonstration of year-over-year revenue decline. Obviously, these new
enterprises could not fulfill this requirement.

Finally, a separate grant program for entertainment venues is welcome. We have
members in this industry that were hard hit as a result of the pandemic. On behalf
of these members and all businesses in this space, we appreciate the special
recognition.

We appreciate the recognition that small businesses are still struggling financially.
Providing grants will assist in the economic recovery for so many. We urge this
committee to move expeditiously on this bill. Thank you for the opportunity to
provide our support.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Christopher J. Ferruso
Ohio Legislative Director


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