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WASHINGTON – SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza issued the following statement: “... Small businesses are vital economic engines in every community and state,...

Construction site in New Jersey "We have some job sites that have over 1,000 people working there daily, and up...

National Women's Business Council With COVID-19 abruptly and drastically changing the landscape of our economy and disrupting local ecosystems, small...

By Emma Hitzke The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the modern enterprise has dominated many boardroom conversations, with many companies now implementing, or considering...

WASHINGTON/ PRNewswire/ — In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, has launched the Coronavirus Small...

By Haley Rischar Smith Flooring Inc., Chester, Pennsylvania, was named the 2019 Diverse Business of the Year award winner by the Associated General Contractors of America...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers are eyeing emergency loans to get New York’s cash-strapped state government the billions it needs to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, which is ravaging budget projections with massive new costs and lost revenue. The proposal was outlined in a budget memo that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office sent to his lawmakers, which was obtained by The Post on Tuesday. Heastie’s memo said that the federal government’s decision to delay income tax filings until July means the Empire State won’t get billions in revenue — $12 billion, state budget officials later acknowledged — it was banking on during the first three months of its 2021 budget. “Added to this uncertainty are downward revisions in sales tax, user fees and other non-tax receipts linked to depressed economic activity. The financial markets are in distress,” Heastie’s memo adds. To deal with the “unprecedented challenges” the Albany plan proposes “issuance of short-term bond anticipation notes to provide temporary liquidity, backed by PIT [Personal Income Tax] receipts,” the proposal said. In other words, the state government could run out of money because of plummeting tax revenues and increased spending to address the COVID-19 public health emergency. Cuomo issued an executive order that has closed retail businesses and ordered residents to work from home to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 25,000 New Yorkers. Heastie’s memo also outlines a series of ways that state leaders are scrambling to raise cash to pay the bills as the coronavirus pandemic rages, including authorizing the state Dormitory Authority to seek “a temporary line of credit.” The authority performs much of the state borrowing for an array of education and social service programs and institutions, including City University and State University of New York systems. Cuomo’s also asking lawmakers to approve a $4 billion fund to deal with “public health emergencies” like COVID-19 and to “drawdown anticipated Federal aid,” worth an estimated $10 billion. Additionally, the governor’s budget office wants “expanded access to dedicated fund balances” — raiding surpluses in accounts for specific agencies and programs — as well as authority “to delay or reduce local assistance payments under certain conditions.” Any plan would require the approval of the Democratic-run Senate and Assembly as well as the governor. The last item in Heastie memo, listed under “new issues”, acknowledges that Cuomo and legislative leaders are looking at making changes to the new controversial bail law that eliminated pre-trial detention for most “non-violent” felony and misdemeanor crimes. “The Executive and the Senate are seeking to make changes to the bail and discovery reforms enacted last year,” the memo says. Also on the table is a bill pushed by Cuomo that would ban repeat sex offenders and perverts from riding the subway. The measure has gotten stuck in the state Assembly for years but has passed the state Senate. Pols are also prioritizing a state seal change, seeking to add the words “E Pluribus Unum.” They’re also looking to legalize gestational surrogacy, allowing couples that are homosexual or cannot have children on their own to hire and pay surrogates to carry babies to full term; authorize e-bikes and e-scooters usage statewide, and legalize and regulate the sale of adult-use marijuana through a new Office of Cannabis Management. Lawmakers are expected to return to Albany Thursday or Friday to discuss the package. Cuomo budget spokesman Freeman Klopott said the economic wreckage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could deprive the state of between $9 billion and $15 billion in expected revenue “There is no doubt that the combination of spending to stop the spread of COVID-19 and the economic decline the virus is causing are pinching state finances, a situation compounded by the Federal decision to delay tax filing and up to $12 billion in New York State revenue. In response, we are working with the Legislature to include flexibility in the upcoming FY 2021 Budget so that we have the tools to respond to the ongoing public health crisis and declining revenue, which we now estimate will be between $9 billion and $15 billion below projections,” Klopott said. “The State simply doesn’t have the resources of the Federal government and we are working with our Federal partners to get the support we will need going forward,” he added. Share this:

President Trump said Tuesday the federal government plans to send 400 ventilators to New York City, with more equipment on the way. “The World market for face masks and ventilators is Crazy. We are helping the states to get equipment, but it is not easy. Just got 400 Ventilators for @NYCMayor Bill de Blasio,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “Work beginning on 4 hospitals in New York! Millions of different type items coming!” The shipment represents a fraction of the 15,000 ventilators Mayor Bill de Blasio called for last week as the city and state become the epicenter of coronavirus in the United States. De Blasio repeatedly has sounded the alarm on the shortage of ventilators in New York City hospitals, as many COVID-19 patients need the machines to help them breathe. CORONAVIRUS VENTILATOR DEMAND  De Blasio has also sought millions of N-95 masks and more Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for medical professionals. "If we don’t get ventilators this week, we are going to lose lives we could have saved — I can’t be blunter than that,” de Blasio said on CNN Monday. New York now has more than 23,000 positive cases of coronavirus in the state, with roughly half of that in New York City. De Blasio, over the weekend, said he had asked for Trump to use the Defense Production Act to acquire ventilators for patients suffering from the illness. On Tuesday, the president said the act was "in full force," but that he did not need to use it: "The Defense Production Act is in full force, but haven’t had to use it because no one has said NO! Millions of masks coming as back up to States." The Defense Production Act, which was first enacted in 1950 as a response to the Korean War and has since been re-invoked more than 50 times, is meant to streamline the production of medical supplies to help the country battle the coronavirus pandemic and require businesses to sign contracts or fulfill orders deemed necessary for national defense. Under the act, companies are required to accept and prioritize contracts from the government and to prioritize “materials, services and facilities to promote the national defense or to maximize domestic energy supplies.” While this provision has historically been used to ramp up military production, amid the COVID-19 pandemic the act will be used for medical supplies. Meanwhile, Trump also referred to the temporary hospitals in New York City. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced over the weekend four sites in the state that will serve as additional space for hospitals overflowing due to the coronavirus outbreak. CUOMO SAYS TEMPORARY HOSPITALS IN NEW YORK TO INCLUDE JAVITS CENTER  The four initial sites recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers are the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, locations at SUNY Stony Brook in Long Island, SUNY Old Westbury and the Westchester Convention Center. "We have a plan of action to help stop the spread of this virus, including expanding hospital capacity and identifying new hospital beds, and after meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers and hearing their recommendations, we stand ready for the building of temporary hospitals at four facilities in New York State,” Cuomo said Saturday. The sites were identified by an inspection team led by the Army Corps of Engineers and included state officials from New York’s Office of General Services, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, the New York Department of Health and the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs. The team visited more than a dozen sites to review their capability to serve as temporary hospitals, Cuomo’s office said. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic earlier this month. As of Tuesday morning, the U.S. had more than 46,000 positive cases across the country. Nearly 600 people have died. Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report. 

By David B. Robbins, Lorraine M. Campos, Jacinta Alves & Laura J. Mitchell Baker As signaled as a possibility in its March 9, 2020 guidance in Memorandum M-20-11, the Office...

By Jackie Willis‍ On Friday, Christian Siriano, the 34-year-old designer offered his sewing services after hearing that medical workers were short on masks amid the...

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