PORTLAND, Maine — Maine small businesses collected more than $2.22 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans, Senator Susan Collins' Office announced Thursday. The Republican Senator from Maine says 16,196 employers were approved through the program, which Collins co-authored.
Collins said last week she was afraid the $350 billion government-backed forgivable loan program would run out, and Thursday morning the application process was shutdown.
For resources assisting Maine's small business community, it's been a busy month.
"We processed 468 small business loans over a period of 12 days for about $68.5 million," said Jeanne Hulit the president and CEO of Maine Community Bank. "There are a lot of small businesses that were pulling their documentation together to get their application submitted. We spoke to a few clients this morning that called to say, 'I'm bringing my documents in and I'm ready to make that application,' and we had to say, 'Sorry the funds are already used up.'"
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Hulit was the former acting director for the Small Business Administration under President Barrack Obama. She believes these programs demonstrated a need for the support and suggests business owners still prepare for the possibility these programs get refinanced.
"We are encouraging people to pull their documents together, they are still going to need their tax forms. They're still going to need an application, but we have to see when Congress passes, if they pass, another round of funding if any of the rules will have changed," said Hulit.
Maine's Small Business Development Center is a free resource funded by the SBA that offers advisors to small businesses.
"We help about 1,500 clients in a year, so to do 600 clients crammed in there over a three week period was definitely busy for all of our advisors across the state," said Mark Delisle the state director of Maine SBDC. "If you applied for those two programs your applications you are in so continue to work with on the paycheck protection programs to find out the status of that when it's going to close what the guidelines will be."
Delisle says staff is working with clients to control the bleeding right now, and in some cases started the conversation about one day reopening.
"We are not going to have complete reopening for quite some time, that's going to be a challenge," said Delisle. "A lot of these businesses don't have a cash flow and if they can't fully reopen or they can't fill the restaurant. Can a restaurant really sustain itself for months only having half the number of tables if they need to be six feet apart? I don't know, we are going to really have to work hard with these clients to see what their cost structure is and how they can hold on."
Senator Collins is now calling for $250 billion more in funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.
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