State’s Rebound program awards more than 3,000 grants

More than 3,000 Idaho businesses had received funding from the Idaho Rebound Grant program, as of May 26, the most recent date for which data are available by press time.

Up to 30,000 Idaho small businesses are eligible for grants of up to $10,000 each. The grants are being paid for out of the $1.25 billion Idaho received from the federal government as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Gov. Brad Little announced the program on April 30.

Companies were eligible for the program if they hadn’t already received funding from federal programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program offered by the Small Business Administration.

Program details

There have been 4,387 applications and 3,358 grants awarded, according to Marissa Morrison Hyer, press secretary for Gov. Brad Little, in an email message.

According to statistics available on the Transparent Idaho website operated by the state, about two-thirds of the applicants requested the full $10,000 amount, though not all did. A number requested less than $1,000, and one requested just $1.

Eligible entities with one to 19 employees could apply starting at noon MDT on May 11 through noon MDT on May 15, while eligible entities with one to 50 employees were able to apply starting at noon MDT on May 18 through noon MDT on May 22. Consequently, many of the companies thus far have been very small.

More than three-quarters of the companies receiving funding said they had from 1 to 5 employees. Even the largest company thus far that has received funding reported just 46 employees.

Not surprisingly, the largest number of grants went to companies based in Boise, Idaho’s largest city, but a wide variety of other Idaho cities were also represented, ranging from Aberdeen to Winchester. Similarly, the largest number of grants went to companies based in Ada County, the state’s most populous county, but many other counties were also represented, ranging from Adams County to Washington County.

Many requests for grants were for rent and utilities, but other common requests included personal protective equipment, “equipment” in general and inventory.

Categories of industries requesting the grants ranged from “accommodation and food services” to “agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting,” “arts and entertainment,” “construction,” “educational,” “finance and insurance” and, in what might seem surprising, “health care,” although recall that many elective procedures ranging from surgery to dental care were shut down due to, in some cases, a lack of personal protective equipment.

PPP goes on

As far as the SBA programs, as of 5 p.m. on May 23, the most recent data available, the federal program had approved 4,424,756 loans totaling more than $511 billion. Loans came from a total of 5,511 lenders with an average loan size of $115,533.

In Round One of the PPP, which ran through April 16, the SBA guaranteed 1,661,367 loans. In Round Two of the PPP, which opened April 27, the SBA guaranteed an additional 2,211,791 loans through May 1 and 2,571,167 loans through May 8.

In total, the SBA guaranteed 4,341,145 Paycheck Protection Program loans through May 16 and 4,426,118 loans through May 23. The reason the final number is smaller than the total number is that some borrowers paid back their loans early. In some cases, this was because the SBA issued later guidance saying that publicly traded companies were not eligible for the program, after criticism that large companies were taking advantage of a program intended for small- to medium-sized businesses.

Idaho companies received 28,448 loans for a total amount of more than $2.5 billion. In comparison, Oregon received 56,638 loans for a total of $6.7 billion, Washington received 91,702 loans for a total of $12 billion, Nevada received 37,712 loans for a total of $4 billion and Utah received 47,683 loans for a total of more than $5 billion.

As of that date, about $160 billion remains in the program available for loans.