Sahar Chmais
The Main Street Advisory Board voted in support of the U.S. House of Representatives Bill 7197, granting $120 billion of funds to food and beverage purveyors.
“The Main Street Advisory Board proudly supports the restaurant and food and drink industries in our vibrant city,” Mathew Putzi, Main Street Advisory Board member, said. “As partners with them in the development of our city, and as neighbors who understand the strain of these unprecedented times, we have adopted a resolution in support of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.”
The Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed To Survive Act of 2020, or the RESTAURANTS Act of 2020, will allocate funds to services such as restaurants and bars, but it will differ from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). There will be more leniency on what the funds can be used for, but there will still be some restrictions. The other major difference is that applicants do not pay the money back.
This bill originated in Oregon in June, but the Mains Street Advisory Board began looking at supporting the bill about one month ago. Although this bill is receiving local backing to move the bill forward, it is up to individual businesses to sign up to receive the grant.
“Downtown has a lot of restaurants, so we are constantly looking for ways to assist our businesses in the pandemic,” said Maggie Gillespie, Main Street program manager. “One of our board members has been following this since the beginning. The rest of our board agreed; whatever we can do for our restaurants and bars, we should do it.”
Businesses who received PPP or EIDL funds will likely get less money from the RESTAURANTS Act, Gillespie said. The process on how to receive funds is still unclear.
While the bill passed the House, it has been stalled due to elections, Gillespie said. For those who want to see the bill become a reality, it is best to contact local representatives, Gillespie added.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to have a community to support our local businesses,” Gillespie said about the Buda community. “But it goes further than locally; we should do whatever we can to support [restaurants and bars] on the state and federal level.”
