The Arkansas Economic Development Commission has approved about 10,500 applications for Arkansas Ready for Business program grants totaling more than $115 million thus far, state Department of Commerce officials said Tuesday.
The Arkansas Ready for Business program, financed with federal funds, will provide grants of up to $100,000 to companies for expenses associated with ensuring the health and safety of employees and patrons.
The federal funds are part of the $1.25 billion that Arkansas received under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
The steering committee, appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to recommend the best uses of these federal coronavirus relief funds, Tuesday endorsed a request for $3.5 million from Department of Transformation and Shared Services Secretary Amy Fecher to procure personal protective equipment for executive-branch employees and visitors to their offices.
On the Ready for Business program, Commerce Secretary Mike Preston told the steering committee that the Arkansas Economic Development Commission received 12,234 total applications for the grants, and 201 of them were either withdrawn or ineligible.
"We have approved, so far, 10,537 of those," said Preston, who serves as the commission's executive director.
Commerce Department spokesman Alisha Curtis said in a separate written statement that those grants totaled more than $115 million.
Preston said about 8,000 applications were approved for immediate payment, and these applicants either have received the money or will receive it this week.
"There is an additional 2,500 that are missing some type of information, a W-9 or a voided check, but, subject to that coming in, are approved," he said.
"We have just under 1,500 not yet approved and that's because of a delinquent tax notice with [the state Department of Finance and Administration]," Preston said, and "then about 500 that are still under our review."
Late Tuesday afternoon, Curtis released a list of the grant recipients.
On May 15, the Arkansas Legislative Council directed Preston to pay up to $147.7 million in grants through the program, instead of a lower amount that the Economic Development Commission planned to.
At that time, Preston told the council that the plan was to fund requests up to $124.5 million in order to hit a target agreed upon with lawmakers. That target was to provide at least 75% of the available money to businesses with up to 50 employees.
The steering committee on Tuesday endorsed Preston's request for another $23.1 million for the Ready for Business program, increasing the committee's total request to $147.7 million, in sync with the appropriation amount approved by the Legislative Council.
"The program has moved very quickly," Preston told the steering committee, on which he serves. "It's getting to those businesses that we wanted it and intended for it to help all across Arkansas.
"I am very proud of the team and the work that they have done, most of them working long hours, including over this holiday weekend, to get these processed and approved," Preston said, "and we want to make sure that we are reflecting the will of the Legislature in terms of the appropriation and this request would match it."
Preston drew criticism from some lawmakers over a state website that accepted applications for the program for about an hour April 29, before Preston initially obtained legislative approval for an appropriation. Legislative leaders later approved an appropriation, and applications were accepted for two more days.
Then, on May 15, Preston again drew criticism from some lawmakers for deciding to split the grant payments in two. The Legislative Council directed Preston to make single payments to businesses with up to 50 employees.
Fecher, who is also on the steering committee, told the committee that $3.5 million, if approved would be used to procure a bulk supply of personal protective equipment to prepare executive-branch agencies "as we move into Phase Two." The state is undergoing Phase One of easing restrictions on some businesses and activities.
"This would be for the 23,000-plus employees and visitors to any of the agencies as we move forward in Phase Two and everyone returns to work," she said.
Hutchinson hasn't said when he expects the state to move into Phase Two.
Fecher's request includes up to $1.5 million for sanitizers and cleaning products; up to $800,000 for gloves; about $500,000 for cloth masks; up to $375,000 for surgical masks; about $100,000 for face shields; and about $100,000 for no-touch thermometers, according to her written request.
"This order, we believe, will take us through the end of the year, which is the time we can use the funding for the CARES Act and they are all pre-approved items, according to the CARES Act," she said.
Ann Purvis, chief of staff for the Department of Transformation and Shared Services, said, "out of the 23,000-plus state employees, we have approximately 18,000 that are critical on-site employees. Another 5,000 to 6,000 are remote workers, she said.
"As we call what we call remote workers back into the workforce, we also need to be prepared to open our doors to all of our different clients out around the state," Purvis said.
Meanwhile, Larry Walther, secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration and a steering committee member, said about $809 million of the $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds haven't been allocated by the committee yet.
In response to a question by another steering committee member, Sen. David Wallace, R-Leachville, about creating a reserve fund, Walther said he believes that a reserve fund needs to be created and the steering committee could make that recommendation.
"I think we need to allocate some aside for the cities and counties," Walther said. "We probably ought to allocate some aside for broadband and some aside for contingencies as we move into the second half of this year."
He said he doesn't have a specific recommendation for funding levels.
Wallace said he wants the committee to discuss creating a reserve fund at its next meeting and recommend the fund's size.
"I think we are doing a good job of watching out where the money is going, but if we are not careful, I think we have more good projects than we have money, so we need to have a reserve," he said.
Elizabeth Smith, secretary of the Department of Inspector General and the steering committee's chairwoman, said the committee needs to hear from the state Department of Health about its anticipated needs.
"I think keeping the virus at bay, keeping the illnesses down ... is one of the main things in order for us to be able to have our economy ... return," she said.
Metro on 05/27/2020