DEED Call Notes 4/27/2020

APPLE VALLEY CHAMBER NOTE: Today is the day nearly 100,000 people in MN can return to work if they follow the guidelines and rules set out by the Governor’s Executive Order. Today is an interesting meeting and pay attention to the last Q & A at the end where DEED Commissioner Grove answers IF RETAIL CAN OPEN AT ALL. Also the answer if PPP is 1st come as of today or takes into account, if you applied before but did not receive PPP, are you first on the list now? (NO, must reapply). Can an owner who takes a draw instead of salary still use PPP etc. A great deal of today’s meeting was them giving interesting numbers such as who received loans of the 530,000 MN Small businesses.

• We are now “out the door” with Governors framework for easing restrictions towards getting back to work.
• Looking to “turn a dial” as a state over time, to get more businesses and facets of society back to work, based on a multitude of factors.
• We have been in development of that model, in consultation with you and business/labor, for first turn of that dial to get – we think – up to 100K more employees back to work today.
• Considering the economic impact of each decision, and how readily businesses can maintain social distancing.
• A lot of info at www.mn.gov/deed/safework. Guidance, FAQs for both business and workers, all hosted there. will be the central hub for how economy will evolve over time while keeping safety of Minnesotans top of mind.

• Continued monitoring seems like the best course of action.
• Wkg with banks and credit unions re liquidity to ensure they have resources available to meet the needs of borrowers.
• Credit union examination team shifted from in person exams to doing them remotely.
• Continuing conversations with state’s electric utilities. Decline in activity at mfg firms and large industrial firms has meant a significant drop in energy use as a result. And we haven’t picked up that energy use in our working from home. Electric companies have seen significant decline in volume, long term effects on their finances. Working with them to ensure they continue providing services.
• Temp licenses to insurance producers. On Friday, will see that activity pick up. And in next day or two we will extend the licensing deadline for a number of professionals whose licenses are due at EOM April. Continuing to adjust to requirements of COVID-19 pandemic by working with all stakeholders the Dept of Commerce is designed to work with.

• Not talked with OSHA Director yet today but they were available over the weekend to assist businesses who needed help developing their preparedness plans.
• To reemphasize, OSHA Consultants are available to help if you are working on a preparedness plan.
• Before the issuance of Thursday’s EO, we did have the draft template up for comment. We received a lot of good feedback on that template. We heard from many the suggestion to address best practices and CDC guidelines re customer interaction. Template does not address that, was focused on non-customer facing businesses. We are considering that and working on that as well, to reflect CDC and MDH guidelines for customer-facing companies moving forward. Will update website. We do have some of that in reference to grocery stores, but we will continue to work on for other sectors as well.

• Remind everyone that we’re continuing our efforts to review tax elements of CARES and FFCRA. A number of tax provisions in both packages.
• Preparing for our MN Legislature to look at them as well.
• For questions, go to COVID-19 page on our website.
• On this call a few weeks back re electronic signatures: have provided some guidance that now is listed there.
• https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/our-response-covid-19

• Terek is running a work group as part of the state’s Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) re social distancing.
• How to get social distancing right? A big part is researching how businesses do that.
• We have a work group focused on social distancing measures, exploring different ideas about how we can employ this while resuming our activities.
• This group is led by a number of commissioners and outside advisory help, community based organizations and businesses.
• Problem statement: how might we use social distancing and other public health practices to keep MN safe while we reengage?
• Strong, human centered approach. Conducted many interviews with organizations to understand how they are approaching social distancing measures within their organizations.
• To round that work out, released survey last Friday. Main goal: for us to identify trends that cross organizational strategies, to find commonality between practices that can be applied across sectors. Will anonymize results.
• To date, already received over 2000 responses and 10k comments.
• Intent is to organize the info we are gathering and share it back out. Public community asset, if you will.
• Also today releasing a digital tool to be used by organizations to assist in ideas for small measures to keep employees safe. And ID trends that are developing.
• You can access the survey here.

• Updates from legislation signed last Friday, updates on lending operations re Round 2, and new guidance docs issued since last Friday, and local efforts at SBA in MN.
• Busy weekend across the country re Round 2 of stimulus funding.
• For MN, we have 530K small businesses and NPs who employ nearly half our workforce.
• PPP: Congress passed and President signed on Friday. SBA will resume accepting PPP applications, live again at 9:30am CST today.
• So far, PPP has supported more than 1.6M small businesses.
• Nationally, MN ranks 3d. And 75% were under $150k.
• Info on www.sba.gov/paycheckprotection.
• Lending ops update as of Sunday: to manage demand and ensure access, SBA is
• Initially pace the # of loans processed.
• Institute a max $ amt of PPP lending authority per institution.
• Allow lenders to submit 1-time bulk submissions.
• A lot of FAQs and guidance since Fri, incl calculating max loan amts by business types. IFR #3 re eligibility, secondary market and participation sales.
• Ag producers, farmers, and ranchers are eligible for PPP loans.
• Ag cooperatives and other types of cooperatives may receive PPP loans.
• FTEs will determine loan forgiveness amount (as opposed to employee count)
• PPP lenders at www.sba.gov/mn listed. Targeting CDFIs at the moment.
• Daily trainings start again. Today and Tues, focusing on SBA Coronavirus relief options.
• Tuesday is training in Spanish.
• Wed-Fri is Money Smart Curriculum.
• Adding more staff to MN office in May.
• As an agency, hiring new temp employees to assist with relief efforts. Legal reviews, credit analysis, loan closings, customer service.

1. SBA: re reopening PPP funds, will request for funding be first come first served as of today, or will requests from the past that were not funded get first precedence? McDonald: will be based on received today. Re my comments above, encouraging lenders to submit apps and we’ve come up with streamlined processes to assist. Nothing has changed for the application itself. If not approved in first round, check with lender to determine process for Round 2.
2. Can business owners who take a regular draw instead of paycheck, use PPP? I take a draw and pay self-employment tax. McDonald: not really clear on that question. Take that offline.
3. Are workplace safety changes temporary or permanent? May require additional expenses for the business to employ. Grove: great question. Like so many, don’t yet know which are temp and which are permanent. Feels like social distancing will be around for a while. Do understand there are capital costs in terms of PPE, shields, reconfiguring floors… not sure how to answer that question. Other than it’s likely we will have to figure out new ways to work for some time. As to how the state will guide, it is important to get this right and we can learn from you. Don’t know the full answer at this time, need to keep discussing together.
4. Last week you shared data on how much MN received from PPP and EIDL. Where is the info broken out by county? McDonald: not available at this time. At first will be by Congressional District, should be available soon.
5. My EDA wants to focus its local assistance efforts on businesses completely shut down by EOs, not on those who can maintain a partial income stream. Does DEED have a list by community so we can reach out to them? Grove: I don’t think we have a list in that sense. We only have the categories. Not tracking the individual business names. Go to www.mn.gov/deed/critical to see the industries, updates, and exemptions.
6. We’re having difficulty serving MBEs, particularly those who haven’t historically worked with banks and, for example, small retail shops. What guidance can we offer them? McKinnon: first off, organizations that are our lenders for SBEL program also have a long history and a variety of programming for MBEs. Organizations like MEDA, Latino ED Center, are still active, open, and working with their clients and communities.
7. Many questions re latest EO that came out on Thursday. Does the newest “safe return to work” allow for contact-less pick up from a retail store? Second part, furniture stores we talked about on Thursday can be open for sale of beds, mattresses, lift chairs, open by appt. only A number of big box are open and stretching the rules. Can you clarify? Grove: EO 20-40, from last Thursday, applies only to non-customer facing businesses. The thinking is the predictability of a work setting is critical to ensure we can get social distancing right. It is the easiest first increment on that dial, if you will, in terms of our ability to reengage in commerce. No additional retail or customer facing businesses are opened by that order. If there’s a concern in the community re adherence, use State EOC Hotline to let Depts of Public Safety know so we can follow up.