Can this Big Business-Biden romance last?
It s … complicated.
Increases in the federal minimum wage, higher corporate taxes, and stricter environmental regulations are among issues that could dampen any affection between them.
But leaders and lobbyists for 10 of the nation s top trade and business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Petroleum Institute said that they had had encouraging early conversations with President Joe Biden and administration officials.
All signaled enthusiasm for at least some of the items on Biden s business agenda and described common interest in COVID-19 relief, infrastructure investment, and immigration reform.
when he got a loan in May from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
Getting the $45,000 wasn’t easy, Cristofaro said. The website crashed 30 times as he tried to fill out the application. Then, the first round of funding ran out; federal data show much of it was scooped up by large corporations.
In the meantime, business disappeared, including a $69,000 job from a major client.
“I’m about to tell my employees, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to stop working,’” said Cristofaro, 56, who has run Actionable Research Inc. in Aliso Viejo since 2002. “That PPP funding perfectly covered the crater caused by the coronavirus.”
By Published: January 25, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) Market researcher Dave Cristofaro was down to his last $1,500 and on the verge of laying off his final four full-time employees down from seven before the pandemic when he got a loan in May from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Getting the $45,000 wasn t easy, Cristofaro said. The website crashed 30 times as he tried to fill out the application. Then, the first round of funding ran out; federal data show much of it was scooped up by large corporations.
Lenders: Most borrowers haven’t yet submitted loan-forgiveness requests More than $786 million went to 6,755 businesses in Spokane County through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to detailed data released earlier this month by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The disclosure comes after several lawsuits sought to gain more detailed information about how much money went to which businesses. In November, a federal judge ordered the Small Business Administration to release detailed information about the program, including names of recipients and precise loan amounts, by Dec. 1. The largest loan in Spokane County went to Spokane Valley-based general contractor N.A. Degerstrom Inc., which received $8.9 million in April. The average loan to a Spokane County business was about $116,000.