$50 million available for small businesses
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
Special to The News-Courier
AUSTIN—Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that $50 million in small business loans will be available to Texas businesses starting this week because of a partnership with Goldman Sachs and LiftFund.
“We want to make sure that these small businesses are not gonna have to shut down and more importantly, they’re not going to have to eliminate payrolls for the employees simply because business is required to either be closed or drastically limited as a result of our efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” Abbott said.
LiftFund CEO Janie Barrera said, “Goldman Sachs provides the liquidity that we need to make loans. We then lend it out to small businesses who may not have been able to go to their banks, because maybe they’re saturated or maybe they don’t have a banking relationship as a not for profit they can come to.”
Gov. Abbott didn’t fully divulge details on a new executive order, but did say the plan will slowly stimulate the economy by opening certain types of businesses first.
Abbott maintained that the state’s top priority is the health and safety of the public, implying that the openings will not be a free-for-all for people across the state.
“This is not going to be a rush the gates, everybody is able to suddenly reopen all at once. We have to understand that we must reopen in a way in which we are able to stimulate the economy while at the very same time ensuring that we contain the spread of COVID-19,” Abbott added.
“We will focus on restoring lives while protecting livelihoods. We can and we must do this, we can do both. Expand and restore the livelihoods that Texans want to have by helping them return to work. One thing about Texans is they so much enjoy working and I know they want to get back into the workforce. But we have to articulate also the strategies about ways we can do this safely.”
As for the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Abbott said Monday the latest numbers are showing “glimmers of hope with a whole bunch of red flags.”
