The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has saved over thousands of jobs in one North Jersey congressional district.
During a recent video conference call for North Jersey businesses to provide new updates on Congressional action to extend the PPP, Rep. Josh Gottheimer revealed the program has helped retain more than 183,000 jobs in New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District thus far, according to new data released from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
“Since the very start of this pandemic, one of my top priorities—along with ensuring we were working to keep residents safe and healthy, getting the (personal protection equipment) and ventilators we needed, helping protect our seniors and veterans in state-run homes, and getting dollars to every county in North Jersey to help us through—has been to help ensure our businesses throughout Warren, Sussex, Bergen, and Passaic counties and their workers could survive this,” said Gottheimer (NJ-5).
Deadline Expanded
Gottheimer said new legislation will extend the PPP application window through early August, increase flexibility in forgiveness and in how the funds can be used, and how to apply for PPP and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans.
“I’m proud that Congress has passed critical legislation to not only expand and extend the (PPP) but to also boost flexibility and extend forgiveness for these loans,” stated Gottheimer.
In New Jersey, businesses have received more than 147,000 PPP loans, totaling more than $17.2 billion.
Ratio Limits Raised
The Gottheimer-backed bipartisan PPP Flexibility Act, recently signed into law, creates more flexibility for small businesses by:
- Extending the forgiveness period for expenses from 8 weeks to 24 weeks and extending the employee rehire date from June 30th to December 31st, meaning businesses will have more time to utilize the funds available to them;
- Increasing the ratio limitation on the use of loans for non-payroll expenses such as rent, mortgage, and utilities from 25% up to 40%;
- Eliminating the two-year loan repayment restrictions for future borrowers by extending loan terms from two years to five years; and
- Ensuring full access to payroll tax deferment for PPP recipients, ensuring that businesses will have access to both sources of economic relief as intended.
Funding Available
At the start of July, the PPP had approximately $129 billion in funding remaining.
Gottheimer noted there are currently negotiations taking place in Congress to further improve the program, including the expansion of PPP so that businesses can apply for a second round of the forgivable loans, now that increased flexibility is in place.
