Agenda - 04-07-20; 8-a - Minutes

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4 1 Maximum loan of$20,000 per small business, according to the following terms: o 2 Businesses will be required to provide tax returns. The maximum loan and grant 3 combination available to a small business will be limited to three months of fixed 4 operating expenses. 5 o Loans will be repaid over a five (5) year term. No payments will be due during 6 the first six months of loan origination. 7 o No interest will be changed on loans. 8 o Small business will agree to an auto-draft process for loan payments. 9 10 Travis Myren said he sent around some additional information this afternoon for the 11 recommendation, which is highlighted below 12 13 FINANCIAL IMPACT: The Emergency Small Business Funding Program is funded using funds 14 originally authorized in the Article 46 Sales Tax Fund for the Small Business Loan Program. 15 Approximately $300,000 is available in this account. These funds will be used for the express 16 purpose of making small business loans and grants to eligible businesses. 17 18 Commissioner McKee asked if this will be differentiated as a first come first serve basis. 19 Travis Myren said there will be an application period, and each individual loan and each 20 grant will be limited. He said the evaluation committee will review the applications, and there is 21 currently a $300,000 budget. 22 Commissioner McKee said he was speaking first come first serve for the applications 23 since money is not split out between loans and grants. 24 Travis Myren said they will leave that to the discretion of the evaluation committee to 25 decide where the largest need is. 26 Commissioner Price referred to the tax returns requirement, and asked if there is a 27 specific number of years that will be reviewed. 28 Travis Myren said one prior year tax return. 29 Commissioner Dorosin said the $300,000 is already available for this use, and asked if 30 there is any discussion of increasing this amount. He asked if the funds were to be increased, 31 from where would they come. 32 Commissioner Dorosin said he also wanted to mention that the Board received a letter 33 from the Town of Carrboro Mayor Lavelle requesting their prorated share of the article 46 tax 34 for their small business loan program. He asked if this were to be done, from where would the 35 monies come. 36 Travis Myren said part of the revolving loan program is that they have the $300,000 37 available and if more is needed, staff can come back to the Board with a request 38 Travis Myren said in terms of Carrboro's request, if they did it on a per capita basis, then 39 Carrboro would get $45,000, and he would suggest doing the same for the other jurisdictions 40 on a per capita basis. He said staff could instruct the evaluation committee to make sure there 41 is geographical equity. 42 Commissioner Dorosin asked if there is a plan to get the word out about this program, 43 and are the proposals being evaluated on required documentation, as opposed to if the 44 business serves a vital need in this critical time. 45 Chair Rich said this is only for "for-profits" businesses. 46 Travis Myren said the Chambers are eager to send this out to their membership, and the 47 Chapel Hill Chamber emailed the Board today and encouraged it to proceed with this. 48 Commissioner McKee said he noted that when this tax was originally set up, there was 49 no intent to allocate this to the governmental entities by percentages. He said he is concerned 50 about the communication from Carrboro, since they do not have a dedicated portion.