As California sees a decline in COVID-19 cases, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a $7.6 billion COVID-19 relief package on February 23.
The relief package includes a $600 stimulus check for low income Californians and assists businesses with billions of dollars in aid.
Small businesses of California were granted more than $2 billion in aid while restaurants and hair salons will be waived from $25.6 million of fees.
A small business that feels like the aid isn’t necessary is Long Beach independent record store, Dex Records, located off 7th St and Mira Mar Ave. Store owner, Justin “Dex” Dexter, feels like the recent success of his business has been better than before operating during the pandemic.
“The business has been better than the pre-pandemic so I’m fortunate. A lot of people are stuck at home so [record shopping] gives them something to do.” said Dex.
According to AP News, businesses with annual revenues between $1,000 and $2.5 million are eligible for the money.
Dex continued, “I only have one other employee here, so I don’t even know if I would’ve gotten the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan. Fortunately I’ve been able to avoid taking any aid like that.”
The PPP is an “SBA-backed loan that helps businesses keep their workforce employed during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.”
According to Fred Beebe, a business administrations and economics professor at Long Beach City College, the aid provided for smaller businesses is essential for getting the state back up and running.
Professor Beebe said, “While most of the GDP of California comes from big corporations, we have way more smaller businesses.”
The 2020 small business profile report for California reports that small businesses consist of 99.8% of all businesses in the state.
“We can see that businesses have closed down and everybody knows somebody who lost their job at a bar or restaurant, so that type of aid is critically important.” the professor added.
Critical of how governor Newsom has handled the state during the pandemic, LBCC general business professor, Nick Carbonaro, compares the management of California to other states in regards to the country getting back on its feet.
The professor said, “How much more do we stay locked down? At this point I just feel like the California government is trying to get out money so they can stay close due to their constituencies that support governor Newsom.”
A 33 minute YouTube video of Newsom speaking more about the package can be found here.