WASHINGTON – Arizona business owners said a federal program to support theaters and concert venues closed by COVID-19 was “a disaster” and took until this month to get the first grants from a fund approved last year grant.
Only one Arizona company has received a grant from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a $ 16 billion fund managed by the Small Business Administration.
And Arizona is not alone: by Wednesday, the SBA had approved only 90 of the 14,020 applications it received under the fund and distributed $ 127.9 million, money business owners said they had “five months ago were urgently needed “.
“We’re all trying to rebuild, and if that money doesn’t flow, business won’t come back,” said Bonnie Schock, executive director of the Fox Tucson Theater.
The program was plagued with problems from the start. Critics said when the SBA began accepting applications on April 8, the online portal crashed and it took the agency another two weeks to start accepting applications again.
When it began reviewing applications on May 4th, the SBA set a goal of getting all “first priority” applications – from companies that lost 90% or more of their sales in the past year – by June 9th examine approved less than 1% of applications, had thousands pending and another 9,269 pending inspection.
“They didn’t meet a single deadline they set,” said Stephen Chilton, owner of the Rebel Lounge in Phoenix and vice president of the National Independent Venues Association.
His organization joined six others who wrote to SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman on Thursday demanding that the agency “immediately fully fund all … eligible entities and immediately resolve inter-agency issues that are becoming an obstacle to funding SVOG applicants.” have proven who suffer deeply ”.
“The SBA, whose sole purpose is to help small businesses, shows a lack of urgency and ability to carry out this much-needed emergency program,” said Jennifer Grogan, a NIVA member. “The delay in the SBA is actually undermining companies.”
Chilton said that meanwhile, Arizona venue operators have had to take drastic measures to stay afloat.
“The reason all the venues haven’t closed is because they do things they normally wouldn’t do to stay in business, like sell cars and take out mortgages,” he said.
An SBA spokesman said Friday that the program was hampered from the start by regulations requiring applicants “to include between 30 and 100 documents in their applications to ensure they meet the guidelines of the statute”. All of this data needs to be verified by staff who she said “work around the clock” to process applications.
The agency has also revamped the staff working the program to speed responses – described in a report on Wednesday that painted a bleak picture.
Of the 90 eligible applicants, 65 were performing arts organizations or live events operators, 19 were cinema operators, four were talent representatives, and two were theater producers. The awards went to companies in 32 states, with the majority going to California, where 16 applicants received a total of more than $ 20 million.
The program calls for $ 2 billion to be reserved for companies with 50 or fewer employees. Around half of the total amount awarded so far went to small businesses, which made up 79 of the 90 winners.
The SBA did not disclose the names of the scholarship winners, only numbers. The sole winner in Arizona received just over $ 2.5 million, almost double the national average of $ 1.42 million.
Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, said in a letter to Guzman Wednesday that he was “in disbelief that few applications were awarded for nearly six months” after the program was approved.
“Today a venue operator in my district wrote to me, ‘We have crossed our line. We can’t hold out any longer,’ adding that only one venue in Arizona has received aid,” Stanton wrote. “Please tell me, what should my constituents who are about to close their shops forever do?”
Schock said that unlike other businesses hit hard by the pandemic, theaters and concert halls have not had the option to deliver take-away or open with limited capacity. Live entertainment companies have been “100% closed for 15 months”.
She said the Fox Tucson Theater is a historic nonprofit that has managed to stay afloat thanks to generous donors that helped fund barebones running costs of approximately $ 50,000 per month. But other venues don’t have that luxury, Schock said, because they don’t have the capital to pay for their monthly expenses.
Schock said the SBA’s delay in releasing funds was confusing for an industry that was “completely crippled” and “vital to our communities.”
“This money should save our businesses, and here we are six months later with no dollars flowing out,” she said. “We have to have a solution and we have to have it now or we will lose these companies that are vital to our communities.”
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
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