Congress is cooking up another relief bill for small business, but it could quickly expand beyond just small business to balloon in size, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. The $1.9 trillion bill passed last March included $50 billion for small businesses, including $28.6 billion in grants for restaurants, but this money has been depleted. Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Mississippi’s Roger Wicker are cobbling together another relief bill for restaurants. “The restaurant money is a fairness issue. Some restaurants got it and others did not,” Mr. Cardin said. Twenty-eight mayors recently sent a letter imploring Congress to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund from the March spending bill. They say 86% of independent restaurants and bars that didn’t receive grants “risk permanently closing,” and 177,000 applicants have been denied relief. The editorial sympathizes with restaurants, which are also having to deal with rising prices and worker shortages. Some have faced a drop-off in business during Covid surges as customers stay home. Yet the commentary asserts that restaurants in certain states seem to be struggling much more in part because of population flight during the pandemic. Data from the website OpenTable shows restaurant reservations were up 19% in Florida, 14% in South Carolina and 9% in Arizona on Jan. 3 compared to the same date in 2019. Reservations were down 78% in Maryland, 52% in New York and 45% in Illinois. Treasury has allowed states and localities to use the $350 billion in budget aid from the March bill to help struggling households, small businesses and industries. States and localities are swimming in revenue, so they can assist their own restaurants, though some like New York have preferred to pay off public unions and grow government programs instead. Congress could also repurpose money that states and localities haven’t spent to replenish the restaurant fund or hospitals, but there’s no need to appropriate new funds, the editorial argues. It has already spent nearly $6 trillion on Covid relief. Read more.(Subscription required.)
*The views expressed in this commentary are from the author/publication cited, are meant for informative purposes only, and are not an official position of ABI.
