Banks to accept next round of PPP loan applications next week
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 3 months AGO
MOSES LAKE — A senior manager with Banner Bank in Moses Lake said most small business owners will be able submit applications for the latest round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans as soon as next week.
“We hope to start taking applications next week,” said Melissa Klitzke, relationship manager with Banner Bank. “Everyone is patiently waiting.”
Klitzke, speaking during a webinar, jointly hosted by the Grant County Economic Development Council and the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, said it’s her sense business owners are not as anxious about this third round of PPP loans as they were the first two rounds in 2020.
“We’re told it will not run out of money,” she said.
As part of the $900 billion Economic Aid Act passed in late December, Congress appropriated $284.5 billion for a third round of PPP loans. Business owners with 500 or fewer employees are eligible for first-time loans that will cover 2.5 times average monthly payroll — 3.5 times for businesses in the hospitality business, such as hotels, bars and restaurants — if they can demonstrate at least a 25% decline in revenue in 2020 from 2019.
Smaller community financial institutions — defined by the U.S. government as having $1 billion or less in assets — will get first crack at accepting PPP applications today, Jan. 15, while bigger banks will start accepting applications on Jan. 19, according to a press release from the Washington State Department of Commerce.
The loan, which is made by the U.S. Small Business Administration through private banks, will be forgiven if at least 60% is used on payroll, with the other 40% allowed to cover other essential businesses expenses like rent, mortgage payments and utilities.
However, business owners who applied for and received a PPP loan last year will be eligible to apply for a second loan so long as they have spent all of the first loan, Klitzke said. Companies seeking a second PPP loan can only have a maximum of 300 employees.
The deadline for the third round of PPP applications is March 31.
According to Cody Parish, a certified public accountant with Minneapolis-based CliftonLarsenAllen, businesses that accepted PPP loans can now also use employee retention tax credits when they file their federal taxes to offset the cost of keeping employees on payrolls during pandemic-related closures and loss of business. However, PPP and tax credits cannot be used to cover the same costs during the same time period, Parish added.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...