Jose Mier reports from Sun Valley, CA
As I drive the streets of Sun Valley, I’m struck by the new emptiness of our community. Even if employees as some businesses are working from home, the effect is causing a disappearance of the hustle and bustle of daily life that we were used to only a few short weeks ago.
For those businesses like restaurants, our communal shutdown means the prospect of bankruptcy. That’s something many thought they would never have to face, especially since the economy had been booming in the years and days prior to the country being gripped by this pandemic.
Some good news in all this is the passage of the CARES Act. The law provides some much-needed temporary relief for businesses to help keep employees on the payroll.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce website has an article detailing how the CARES Act will help small business and some of the relief items contained in it. It’s precisely small businesses that are suffering the brunt of the shutdown; larger firms have enough capital in many instances to ride out a prolonged shutdown. Some of the items addressed in the CARES Act are things the US Chamber has insisted on in response to the impact of the coronavirus. This includes things like pausing payroll tax payments, loans to small business to help weather the crisis and keep employees on the payroll.
The influx of cash for small business will allow them to keep their doors open for some period of time rather than have to close or worse, disappear from the economic landscape.
More information can be found on the US Chamber site including coronavirus updates and resources for small business. I urge all our Sun Valley businesses to take a look and see how the CARES Act can potentially help ride out this crisis.