If layoffs happened, Doerger Roberts said it’s likely only some of those employees would have been brought back. Vinylmax ranks in the top 10 private employers in Hamilton with 235 employees.
“When someone is laid off, there are so many things that happen,” she said. “It’s not just about their pay, but you lose their experience and their trust. They’re very difficult to monetize, the experience and the trust.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, told the Journal-News earlier this week if another COVID-19 relief bill similar to the CARES Act is passed, a continuation of the PPP loans through the Small Business Administration needs to be included. Money for the first round of PPP loans ran out on Aug. 8, he said. A second round of funding “should be even more targeted to be sure businesses who are using it really need it,” he said.
“You need to have something out for these small businesses,” Portman said. “There are still a lot of (businesses) in Hamilton, around the country that are having a tough time. Some of them have closed their doors, and we want to make sure they don’t close their doors permanently.”
More than 5.2 million PPP loans for more than $525 billion were approved, according to the SBA. More than 3,800 Butler County businesses were approved for PPP loans, with 86 percent receiving a loan of $150,000 or less. Only loan ranges were provided for businesses that received loans greater than $150,000, not specific amounts.
One of the criticisms of the PPP funds is the bulk of small businesses with fewer than 20 employees didn’t receive the majority of the money, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“The vast majority of business owners who need and want to be able to access PPP are not the typical SBA small-business borrowers,” said Katie Vlietstra, vice president for the National Association for the Self-Employed, to the Los Angeles Times.
PPP loans, which can be forgiven by the SBA if employee retention criteria are met, require the specialized SBA 7(a) loan form through an authorized lender, according to the SBA.
That’s where a problematic issue with the PPP loan program rests, said Rick Pearce, the president and CEO of The Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton.
“There are a lot of small businesses out there that did not have a relationship with a local financial institution to help them fill out the PPP paperwork and therefore did not receive any funding,” he said.
He said improvements to the PPP loan program should not only include assistance with filling out the specialized form, but also checks and balances to ensure no business who received a first-round of funds gets a second forgivable loan, and be targeted to those small businesses with a few dozen employees.
“The PPP funds will help our region’s small businesses be solvent through these hard times until the economy gets totally moving forward,” Pearce said.
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