***WEBINAR ALERT***
To see our last webinar "The CARES and Response Acts and Disaster Lending from an Accountant and Lenders Perspective", click HERE.
·The Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce presents two COVID-19 focused webinars this Friday, April 10. The first, titled “Latest Guidance from a Legal and HR Perspective” will be at 8-9:30AM. You can register HERE. Thank you to Fortress Financial Advisory, LLC for sponsoring this webinar.
·The second, titled "Cybersecurity Awareness During COVID-19" will be at 11-12:30AM. You can registerHERE. Thank you to IES for sponsoring this webinar.
·UPDATE: Changes have been made by ESD to the guidance for essential/nonessential businesses. The changes are highlighted in yellow and the full text can be found HERE.
·Starting tomorrow, Friday, April 10th, SBA Lenders will officially start accepting applications for Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loans from independent contractors and sole proprietors. It can be used for the sum of payments of any compensation to or income of a sole proprietor or independent contractor that is a wage, commission, income, net earnings from self-employment, or similar compensation and that is in an amount that is not more than $100,000 in one year, as pro-rated for the covered period. The PPP application can be found HERE.
·PPP Loans are processed by most local banks but check with yours to find out more about their process. The SBA is changing the rules on the fly. Please know our local banks are doing what they can to help. If you need a local lender, please refer to our Hudson Valley SBA Lender listHERE.
·A second options for self-employed individuals to consider applying for unemployment through the New York State Department of Labor. A guide to advise you on how to make such an application can be found HERE.
·Please be aware that the DOL’s website will be “out of service” later today from 5-7PM, as the state seeks to upgrade its capacity to handle the overwhelming number of Unemployment Insurance applications. This upgrade will include the creation of a call back function.
·Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in an interview this morning on CNBC that he believes the US will be able to reopen the economy in May. This was said shortly after he announced the Federal Reserve was releasing $2.3 trillion more in financing for businesses and governments.
·In the governor's press conference today (Thursday), Governor Cuomo said he will not speculate on when he would be able to relax the state's restrictions. That decision would not be made until the data shows it is safe to do so.
·The governor also discussed his plans to put a pause on the 2% pay increase for public employees working for the state. This pause would be for 90 days, which will save $50 million, but does not effect local government and school employee contracts.
·According to Congressman Delgado, part of the CARES Act included "$9.5 billion in direct disaster assistance payments to aid our local producers during this public health crisis."To read his full statement, click HERE.
We have re-released our survey that asks organizations what their needs are, and the impacts of COVID-19 on their operations. If you have taken this survey before please take it again so we can track the changes the past few weeks have had on the Hudson Valley. This information will not be released to the public, and will only be used to help elected officials and government agencies craft legislation or policies to address the needs identified. Please take a couple minutes to fill out the survey HERE.