Bill > S2983

Introduced Session

The bill directs the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to establish a temporary "Suburban and Rural Small Business Lease - Emergency Assistance Grant Program" to assist eligible suburban and rural small businesses with rent payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill appropriates $6 million from the State's share of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to finance the program. To the greatest extent possible, the DCA would model this program after the "Small Business Lease - Emergency Assistance Grant Program," administered by the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority (NJRA). Several requirements for the "Suburban and Rural Small Business Lease - Emergency Assistance Grant Program," to be established by the bill, are requirements modeled off the existing program administered by the NJRA. On July 23, 2020, Governor Murphy announced $6 million in CARES Act funding to be allocated to the "Small Business Lease - Emergency Assistance Grant Program" to assist small businesses with rent payments to property owners during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, only small businesses located in 64 urban municipalities were eligible for grants under that program. This bill would make small businesses in those municipalities ineligible under the new program and would permit small businesses in all remaining municipalities, primarily suburban and rural areas of the State, the same opportunity for essential small business relief from the CARES Act. Under the bill, the DCA would be required to: (1) accept applications for program assistance from suburban and rural small businesses no later than 30 days after the bill's enactment; and (2) disburse assistance on a first come, first served basis, not to exceed $10,000 per grant to eligible suburban and rural small businesses no later than 60 days after the bill's enactment.

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Samuel Thompson (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee (on 10/08/2020)

Official Document