California Governor Gavin Newsom released a series of new resources Thursday to help small businesses and workers who have been economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The state will allocate $50 million to the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank for loan guarantees to small businesses who do not qualify for federal funds, including low wealth and undocumented immigrant communities. Small businesses can also defer payment of sales and use taxes of up to $50,000 for up to 12 months.
In addition, there will be $17.8 million in new state initiatives available to support California workers impacted by coronavirus, $7.8 million will be directed toward the Los Angeles region and $10 million will be made available statewide.
The governor also announced the launch of OnwardCa.org, an online platform that connects displaced California workers with 70,000 job opportunities in critical industries.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is having cascading effects for millions of California families and small businesses,” said Newsom in a statement. “Through no fault of their own, more than a million Californians have lost a job and countless more are seeing their businesses fail. California will emerge from this crisis stronger than before, and until then, the state will work overtime with the federal government and private sector to get families the help they need.”