SC’s small businesses can’t be left behind as we begin our recovery from COVID-19

Our state’s small businesses are hurting.

According to a survey by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, more than 40% of businesses have had to lay off or furlough employees due to the coronavirus — and approximately 30% of businesses were either denied federal aid or are still awaiting it.

These small businesses make up the heart and soul of South Carolina’s economy. And our success is tied to their success: the more than 400,000 small businesses in South Carolina employ around 45% of our state’s workforce.

Driven by hard-working entrepreneurs and community leaders, our bait shops, barbershops, local restaurants, construction firms and nonprofits need support during this crisis. Yet many in Washington seem more interested in bailing out massive, profitable companies that already had access to large loans and investors.

While the Paycheck Protection Program was established by Congress with the good intention of helping small businesses weather this storm, it has been riddled with loopholes that have allowed approximately 400 publicly traded companies to access $1.3 billion in loans. But Sen. Lindsey Graham has failed to hold anyone accountable for this misuse of taxpayer dollars.

How can a small business owner in Bamberg County compete for loans against well-financed global companies?

We can’t leave small business owners to fend for themselves.

We need to close the loopholes that allowed large corporations to abuse the Paycheck Protection Program. And while I commend President Donald Trump and his administration for closing some of these loopholes, many of them still remain in place.

We also need to ensure that this capital finds its way to rural and minority-owned businesses.

Currently 30% of American businesses are owned by people of color, and they provide more than 7 million jobs. The CARES Act specifically instructed lenders to prioritize underserved communities; according to the SBA’s Inspector General, however, leaders of the agency failed to provide adequate guidance to lenders — and minority-owned businesses have suffered as a result.

Meanwhile, only $30 billion of the available $350 billion was apportioned to community banks with limited assets — the institutions that overwhelmingly serve rural businesses.

The Independent Restaurant Coalition and other groups representing small businesses have suggested other changes to the Paycheck Protection Program; one proposed change, for example, calls for increasing the length of time restaurant owners have to repay their loans from two years to 10 years.

And there are other things we should do now to help our small businesses thrive. They include:

▪ Ensuring adequate funding for state and local governments to provide public services for our small businesses.

▪ Reforming nutrition programs.

▪ Increasing broadband funding so that every Palmetto State business can easily connect with customers and suppliers.

COVID-19 has upended our economy. And it has changed our way of life, perhaps permanently and possibly in ways we have yet to fully understand.

But in order for our state, our country and our economy to recover on sound financial footing, we must lift up our 30 million small businesses — and also the nearly 60 million people who work in them. We can’t have a full recovery without them.

Jaime Harrison is a Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.

This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 10:40 AM.