California’s support for its small businesses positions them well for pandemic reopening

California’s small businesses are the lifeblood of our state. At 4.1 million strong, they employ nearly half of the state’s workforce and create two-thirds of net new jobs. As a decades-long small business advocate and former CEO of the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce, I saw firsthand how the pandemic devastated California’s small businesses, especially in the service industry. I know that for small business owners, employees aren’t just employees, they’re family.

California, under the leadership of Gov. Newsom, stepped up to provide the tools and resources that many small businesses needed to get through this pandemic. In December 2020, California launched a COVID-19 relief grant program worth $500 million, sending out grants of up to $25,000 to small businesses hit hardest by the pandemic. Then, in February 2021, the state expanded the program by $2 billion, funding four additional rounds of applications.

These are resources that businesses were able to use for keeping employees on the payroll and covering past due bills. Already, 55% of these grants have gone to BIPOC-owned businesses and 53% have gone to women-owned businesses.

But there’s more to be done, especially as the state prepares to safely reopen on June 15. Gov. Newsom, in his California Comeback Plan, proposed an additional $1.5 billion for small businesses, bringing the total to $4 billion – making it the largest small business grant program in the entire country.

California also recognizes that the federal Paycheck Protection Program played a critical role in helping small business owners keep their employees on through the pandemic. In following their lead, the state has allowed forgiven federal PPP loans to be excluded from taxable income, which will save our small businesses roughly $6.2 billion – the largest small business tax cut of any state in the nation.

It’s because of proactive, targeted initiatives like these that California continues to lead the nation in job creation, outpacing every other state in new jobs for the past three months in a row; in April alone, California created nearly 40% of all new jobs in the entire country.

I get emotional when I think of what this money might mean to a small business. It could be the difference between laying off a longtime employee or ensuring job security. It might mean the difference between having to shut down or being able to reopen and thrive for years to come.

Now, because of California’s diligent vaccine rollout and record-low rates of COVID-19 – the lowest in the nation – small businesses will be able to return to normal operations next week. While this is significant for a multitude of reasons, continue to encourage your family and friends to get vaccinated and keep frequenting local businesses. They supported us through the pandemic — now it’s our turn to support them.