Florence Morning News
September 11, 2020
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Henry McMaster’s plan to spend the second phase of South Carolina’s Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act funding has the support of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.
Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the chamber, said he commended McMaster in a statement issued Friday morning.
“The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce commends Governor Henry McMaster for recognizing that thousand of our state’s very small businesses, including sole-proprietors, were not able to receive the Paycheck Protection Program loans to help them survive the Covid-19 recession,” Knapp said. “Over 63,000 PPP loans were made in South Carolina but there are over 400,000 small businesses in the state.”
He said McMaster’s recommendation to use $30 million of the funding to provide grants to businesses that didn’t receive loans will help more businesses to survive until the economy fully recovers from the COVID-19 shutdowns.
McMaster issued his recommendation Wednesday in a letter to Senate President Harvey S. Peeler Jr. and House Speaker James H. “Jay” Lucas.
He also recommended that the state spend $450 million to replenish the Unemployment Trust Fund and $93 million to reimburse the state department of health and environmental control and the Medical University of South Carolina for their COVID-19 efforts.
The governor also recommended $50 million to be reimbursed for public school districts and charter school for COVID-19 related costs incurred by reopening, and $100 million to be reimbursed to state agencies with verifiable COVID-19 related expenses.