Tulare County Small Business COVID Relief Fund

On July 15th the Tulare County Board of Supervisors approved up to 7.5 million dollars to support small businesses with grants of $5,000 for reimbursement of eligible COVID-19 operating expenses and to cover future expenses related to implementing COVID-19 health and safety measures. With an unemployment rate of 17.2 percent for May 2020, there is no doubt that Tulare County businesses have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and they are looking for help.

As a result of the CARES Act passed in April of this year, the County of Tulare has received funding to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic. The Tulare County Small Business COVID Relief Fund was designed to allow impacted businesses to simply and quickly submit an application and accompanying verification documents through on online portal found at www.tularecountyrelief.com. The website also includes information about eligibility requirements, FAQs, informational webinars, tutorials, and a chat feature, which allows business owners to quickly get answers to their questions about the grant funding.

The Workforce Investment Board of Tulare County (WIB) has been tapped to administer the Tulare County Small Business COVID Relief Fund. County officials estimate that up to 1,500 businesses in Tulare County could benefit from this funding.

“We are happy to be able to provide this resource to businesses within our community,” said Pete Vander Poel, Chairman of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors. “The businesses that are going to benefit from this funding are businesses who have not been served by any of the other relief programs that have come in response to this disaster.”

Eligible businesses, with 20 or fewer full-time equivalent employees, including for-profit and non-profit businesses, independent contractors, and self-employed an apply. The grant funding may be used to cover business expenses incurred between March 19, 2020 and September 30, 2020 such as rent, utilities, cleaning and disinfectant supplies, Personal Protective Equipment, social distancing reconfiguration, and costs associated with limiting cash-handling.

Businesses interested in applying for the grant funding can go to www.tularecountyrelief.com. The application will go live on August 3rd and the deadline to apply is August 16th.

For a full list of eligibility criteria see the list below:

• The business must have 20 or fewer FTE employees

• No more than 1 grant application an be submitted by an individual/business entity

• The business must have a physical address located within Tulare County

• The business was negatively impacted (loss of revenue) due to COVID-19

• The business was established prior to March 2020

• The business does not have any delinquent property taxes

• The business did not receive assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program or the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan