Governor lists first round of state COVID relief

Gov. Steve Bullock announced Tuesday the first round of grants from the $1.25 billion the federal government provided to Montana through the CARES Act to help the state deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I want to be clear, this is just an initial round of funding based on the immediate needs identified by Montanans and small businesses," Bullock said. "There will certainly be additional funding announced in the future, and we’ll closely monitor the demand for this first round of emergency grants to adjust as needed to ensure that Montanans are getting relief."

Bullock thanked Montana residents for using care and precautions to flatten the curve of new cases of COVID-19, but warned that the phased re-opening is not going back to business as usual — people need to continue to use care, washing their hands, avoiding large groups, staying home if they don't need to go out and so on.

Bullock said the initial phase of the state disbursing the federal funds includes nine grant programs, and additional funding or different programs will be set as the program proceeds and the state watches demand and usage.

Bullock said people can start applying for the first round of $123 million of CARES Act funds in the nine programs at 8 a.m. Thursday at a single online portal, http://covidrelief.mt.gov .

Bullock urged people to prepare what they will need when they go online to apply. Details of the grants are available at the portal, and he said, some examples of what is needed are, for businesses, business tax identification number, proof of business registration and brief descriptions of how the grant would be used and how COVID-19 has impacted the business.

He said homeowners and renters will need banking information and verification of job or income loss and so on.

Bullock said the departments administering the grants will be reviewing applications as soon as they start coming in.

Deputy Budget Director Amy Sassono said they hope to start getting payments out within 10 to 15 business days, “As soon as possible.”

Department of Commerce Director Tara Rice said the program’s intent is to make it easy and fast for businesses to get help.

“One of the biggest priorities with this program is to get the dollars out as quickly as we can to support businesses and not make it more complex than it needs to be,” she said. So Many businesses in the state right now are struggling to keep it together and to make ends meet and its really designed to be simple and something they can access of speed.”

Rice said that to try to target the businesses most in need the new grants will prioritize businesses that have not yet accessed other sources of funding such as the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. Businesses that have accessed help like those Small Business Administration programs will not be ineligible, but businesses that have not will have a higher priority.

Bullock said one program in the grants announced will focus on small businesses with fewer than 50 employees that have been impacted by the pandemic and government restrictions imposed to reduce exposure to the virus. Businesses can apply for up to $10,000 in working capital in the first round of grants.

Another program will provide up to $25,000 to for-profit and nonprofit companies with fewer than 150 employees working to develop products in response to the pandemic, such as helping them scale up, improve capabilities and increase distribution of products developed in response to the pandemic.

A third program will provide grants up to $10,000 to food and agricultural businesses to help them increase community resilience such as through expanding local food systems, creating or finding new markets and helping businesses adapt to decrease food and agricultural waste.

An emergency housing grant program also will be started to help people having problems paying rent, making security deposits or mortgage payments due to the impacts of the pandemic, Bullock said. Depending on the situation the program could pay up to $2,000 a month in assistance.

Another program is set to fund helping local and tribal health departments and urban tribal health centers respond to COVID-19 in their communities, he said.

And, Bullock said, because the state is still asking older Montanans to stay home as much as possible and still is restricting visitation to nursing homes, a program will provide funds to help provide technology so older residents can stay connected to their friends and families.

Another part of the grant program will provide funds to help people with disabilities access technology to allow telework.

To help ensure Montanans have access to nutritious food another program will provide grants to food banks and pantries to "increase food security for Montanans hit hard by COVID-19," Bullock said, and another program will provide grants for nonprofit organizations to continue to provide services.

"These nine programs announced today will join the state's suite of existing support services and direct federal appropriations to ensure that we can begin both the short- and long-term path toward economic recovery," Bullock said.

The federal funding was added to the CARES Act that was signed into law March 27 in negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats after the Democrats refused to bring the original version of the bill, which did not include funding for state and local governments, to the floor of the Senate for debate and a vote.

After negotiations, the bill included $150 billion for state, local and tribal governments to use to deal with the crisis, of which Montana’s share was $1.25 billion, the minimum amount to be awarded under the provisions of the funding.

Bullock said no timeline is in place for the next round of grants. He said Montana is still waiting on federal guidance on how the March funding can be used, and the state is waiting to see what other relief packages might look like to avoid duplicating federal efforts.

He said how much of the grants in this round are used will help determine if additional money needs to flow into the nine new programs.

He said the state thinks it will be able to handle the traffic when the portal goes live Thursday, and members from various departments are ready to come help if traffic is overwhelming.

He said glitches due to volume always can occur, but, “We’re doing all we can on that side.”

Details on the grants are available online at http://covidrelief.mt.gov .

That site also lists other assistance available.

Public comment on the use of the funds and Coronavirus Relief Fund Advisory Council report are also on the state COVID-19 site at http://www.covid19.mt.gov .