Local IDAs Can Provide Financial Assistance
BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) can now provide financial assistance to COVID-19 impacted small businesses and nonprofits within the county.
This past month, Govonor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law that gives IDAs the authority to provide grants and loans to businesses and nonprofits with 50 or fewer employees. The new bill will expire on Dec. 31, 2021 or when the state of emergency for coronavirus ends.
A grant of up to $10,000 per applicant is one option IDAs can provide. The grants can be used for the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) and, according to the law, “installing fixtures necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” such as safety shields. IDAs can also provide interest free loans up to $25,000 per applicant to pay for employee salaries, rent, utilities and other expenses. The loans have a one-year term after a grace period.
How each IDA loan program works, however, is based on local agency leaders. Rod Sutton, president of Saratoga County IDA, said the board would host a discussion this week about their program.
“Right now we are going to gather and review the legislation. We’re going to get our seven-member board to sit down and discuss the grant loan program,” Sutton said. “One of the biggest problems we have now is we can’t meet in public, so we are going to coordinate a Zoom or phone meeting. We expect to meet sooner rather than later to set up a program so we can go public with it and decide what the parameters will be for any applicant.”
Sutton said they would discuss the terms of how much they have to offer for each grant and loan. The board plans to project a three-year income expense that allows them to have a better idea on the monies available for the grant and loan.
“We’ll be sitting down with our chief financial officer and the full board to see how much money we can afford to allocate,” Sutton said.
When the legislation passed to make this program possible, Clifton Park IDA Chairman and Clifton Park County Supervisor Jonathan Schopf, with the unanimous support of the Board of the IDA, made the decision to provide direct grant support to our small business community, allocating $100,000 of its fund balance towards this grant program which will be available to businesses located within Clifton Park, according to their website. Grants will be available in tiers of $1,000, $3,000, $5,000, and $7,000.
Schopf said in the release: “Simple, easy to apply for financial relief for our small business community is a priority for the IDA. These grants are easy to apply for, 100% forgivable, come with no strings attached and will be locally distributed and administered to support our business community.”
To receive any funding from IDAs, businesses and nonprofits must be located within the County or Town of the IDA agency. Notification will be given to the community for any public meeting of the IDA.
The Saratoga County IDA is located at 50 West High Street in Ballston Spa and can be reached online at www.saratogacountyida.org/about-us/ or phone at 518-884-4705.