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March 23, 2020

Restaurants ask Gov. Lamont for aid package

Photo | Contributed A Bertucci’s restaurant.
By Greg Bordonaro

With state restaurants headed into their second week of forced closure to stem the spread of coronavirus, the industry is making a plea to state government to help it get through the crisis.

The Connecticut Restaurant Association has unveiled a legislative aid package it says is needed to prevent the industry from collapsing, following Gov. Ned Lamont’s order March 16, that all restaurants and bars must halt dine-in service until further notice, to prevent large gatherings that could spread the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Unemployment claims have skyrocketed over the last week with Connecticut’s Department of Labor reporting 72,000 applications between March 13 and March 19, including 16,000 on Friday alone. 

It’s likely many of those claims have come from restaurant workers, of which there are about 160,000 in the state, according to the association. Eateries can still offer take-out services but many restaurants have chosen to shut down completely. 

The Connecticut Restaurant Association is urging the adoption of the following measures/programs:

  • Immediate and significant capital injections: Grants, lines of credit, or zero‐interest loans from the state “will determine whether most restaurants can survive this storm,” it said.
  • Forgive sales tax payments for at least three months. “Connecticut restaurants are absorbing drastic cost increases for the good of the public health, and forgiving sales tax payments is one way to recognize that sacrifice,” it said.
  • Fund a state‐backed business interruption insurance program.
  • Address unemployment compensation issues.  “As the number of filings increases daily, the State needs to be prepared now for insolvency and look for avenues to address the problem other than burdening employers down the line,” the association said.

The Lamont administration is expected to roll out a small-business recovery loan fund as early as this week to help small to mid-sized companies bridge short-term cash-flow interruptions caused by the economic upheaval precipitated by the coronavirus.

The loan fund, according to Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman, will provide small low- or no-interest loans to be repaid over 12- or 18-month periods “until [companies’] revenues are flowing again,” he told some 2,000 businesses on a conference call last week.

“We understand that there’s a need to supplement and provide more capital to business quickly and inexpensively,” Lehman said.
Maximum dollar limits for the bridge loans were still to be calculated, he said, but the purpose of the loans was to help companies cover cash shortfalls over periods of up to 90 days.

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