Telephone Town Hall With Senator Paul Bailey

Backroads and Backstories with Paul Bailey

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Governor Bill Lee announced that restaurants can begin opening on April 27 with 50% capacity, and then on April 29, retail businesses will be able to begin opening.
• TN unemployment benefits are being processed for sole proprietors and 1099 workers.
• The state is working on guidelines to give to salons, barber shops, tattoo parlors, etc. so they can safely reopen.
• The federal government deferred student loan payments until September.
• If someone is making more, even working part-time, than they’re set up to draw for unemployment, then they wouldn't be eligible for the benefits.
• Businesses should continue to follow CDC guidelines including having employees wash their hands and sanitize all surfaces.
• Graduation for White County schools is postponed and might be held at a later date in the summer.
• The schools are working with the Tennessee Department of Education and local LEAs to set up a plan to help catch students up when school starts back.
• School sports activities might not open back up until the middle of July.
• The reopening of elective surgeries across the state is going to depend upon what part of the state that you live in, and the PPE equipment that's available to those various surgery centers.
• Use the Upper Cumberland Development District as a resource to ensure that you're not being scammed by loan programs that aren’t federally funded and mandated.
• “A lot of Tennesseans are hurting out there. We hear you. We know that you're in need. We're working just as hard and as fast as we can.” -Senator Paul Bailey

Links:

• Upper Cumberland Development: http://ucdd.org/
• Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency: https://www.uchra.com/
• SBA: https://www.sba.gov/
• Tennessee Small Business Development Center: https://www.tsbdc.org/
• TSBDC Twitter: https://twitter.com/tsbdc
• TSBDC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tsbdc
• TSBDC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tsbdc/
• Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance: https://www.tn.gov/commerce.html
• White House: whitehouse.gov
• CDC: cdc.org
• Tenn Higher Education Commission: https://www.tn.gov/thec.html
• Tenn Dept. of Education: https://www.tn.gov/education.html

Paul Bailey’s email: mailto:[e-mail]

Transcript

Announcer: On this special episode of Backroads and Backstories, we invite you to listen to a recording of a recent telephone town hall hosted by Senator Paul Bailey. During the town hall, Senator Bailey, along with special guests: Commissioner Jeff McCord and Assistant Commissioner Rusty Felts of the TN Department of Labor & Workforce Development; Mark Farley, Executive Director of the Upper Cumberland Development District; Tyler Asher: Director of Small Business Development Center; And Kurt Dronebarger, Director White County Schools, discuss important current issues for the Upper Cumberland, including unemployment, help for small businesses, and public education. The town hall was moderated by Ryan Burrell of Spry Strategies.

Host Ryan: We got a poll question tonight friends, and we just simply want to know whether you are more concerned with the economic impact of COVID-19 or the health impact of COVID-19. But first, we got a question from Donnie in Putnam County. And Donnie's got a question we all have on our hearts. And that's the governor had said to reopen the state, and just what is the latest information concerning that, guys?

Senator Bailey: Well, thank you, again, this is Senator Bailey, Ryan for that question. So, the governor announced late this afternoon that restaurants can begin opening on April the 27th with 50 percent capacity, and then on April 29, retail businesses will be able to begin opening their businesses. Tomorrow he will be announcing further guidelines relative to other businesses and how they will be able to open safely.

Host Ryan: Excellent. Just want to throw out another question from Tina in Monterey. And Tina wants to know how long it's going to take to get the latest SBA loans from the federal government.

Senator Bailey: I'm going to throw that question over to Tyler Asher. Tyler, if you don't mind, you can jump in and answer that question.

Dir. Asher: Thank you. Senator Bailey, I’d be happy to answer that. We are fully expecting—the House did pass the bill this afternoon—they fully expect the president to sign off on it tomorrow. We were told to be expecting funding the first part of next week, that they would start allowing the Payroll Protection Loans to start being processed again. And then, of course, the Economic Injury Disaster Loans would begin to get processed again.

Host Ryan: Okay, we've got another question from Danny, and Danny would like to know where the best local state resources are concerning all of the topics tonight, SBA loans and Paycheck Protection Program.

Senator Bailey: Mark, you or Tyler could jump in again and answer that question.

Exec. Dir. Farley: I'm going to jump in first and then I'll turn it over to Tyler. Obviously, there is a lot of programs being pushed down from the federal level that'll be flowing through state government. Some of those have already hit and come on board. But we still expect many, many more programs to be established over the next coming weeks. So, obviously, your regional agencies, the Upper Cumberland Development District, the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency will have access to a lot of that information. We may or may not actually administer those, but we can certainly point you in the direction of where the newest and latest programs are at. As far as SBA, you're probably going to see just a continuation of the two main programs. Tyler, do you have anything to add on that?

Dir. Asher: You will find a lot of information on the SBA's main webpage, also the Tennessee Small Business Development Center webpage or any of their social media outlets. And then, if you have really specialized questions, feel free to reach out to me directly and we will get you an answer.

Host Ryan: Okay, great, we’ve got—

Senator Bailey: [00:03:22 crosstalk]

Host Ryan: —questions lining up here. Sorry, Senator?

Senator Bailey: No, I'm just saying I just want to make sure that everyone unde...