The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association has been communicating directly with manufacturers across Illinois as the situation changes and will continue posting resources online at the IMA’s dedicated page
www.ima-net.org/covid-19/
.
Governor JB Pritzker held his daily press conference today and introduced additional measures to help Illinois citizens; including, small businesses, the hospitality industry and downstate Illinois.
The Governor and Director of Public Health announced the following:
- There are 330 new cases of coronavirus in Illinois
- There are a total of 19 deaths related to coronavirus, including three today
- A total of 1,865 cases have been confirmed in 35 of 102 counties.
New or critical items of note that were discussed today by the Governor and local leaders:
- Illinois will delay the tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15, aligning it with the federal government. The Department of Revenue’s informational bulletin is here.
- The Department of Commerce (DCEO) and the Department of Professional and Financial Regulations have established a loan loss reserve of $20 million for state charted banks.
- DCEO is also asking all banks that offer advantage Illinois loans to modify the loans to offer a 3 month deferral or 6 months of interest only payments.
- The Governor has also called for mortgage forbearance and that the three national credit bureaus not punish individuals during this crisis.
- Starting on Friday, March 27, small businesses will be eligible for a share of $90 million in state emergency assistance through three new programs:
- All small businesses outside of Chicago with fewer than 50 employees and under $3 million dollars in revenue (2019) are eligible for a $60 million small business emergency loan fund. The fund allows up to $50,000 in low interest loans with 5 year repayment terms. Loan payments will not begin for 6 months.
- A new $20 million program focused on small businesses in suburban and downstate communities served by DCEO’s Office of Community Development focusing on low to moderate income populations can provide emergency grants up to $25,000.
- The hospitality industry will see a new hospitality emergency grant program of $14 million to help hotels, bars and restaurants to help with payroll, rent and job training for pickup and delivery.
- Applications for the above new programs are live and can be found at coronavirus.illinois.gov.
Additionally, the Governor highlighted the new $2 trillion federal rescue package that the Senate has agreed upon and will vote on today. The rescue package includes:
- $1,200 direct payment to every American worker earning less than $75,000 annually with a phase out up to $99,000 annually. This also includes $500 per child.
- This agreement is also slated to expand federal unemployment both in benefits and length in time.
- The plan also invests $150 billion in state and local governments and $100 billion in our national health care system.
The IMA will provide more information on the federal rescue package very soon.
Finally, Treasurer Mike Frerichs assured everyone that the state's investment portfolio of $14 billion is relatively unchanged from where it was a year ago as state law prohibits investing any portion of state portfolio in the stock market.
The IMA is leading a joint Task Force designed to increase the production of needed medical products and equipment. If you can create essential products, or be part of the supply chain,
please let us know
.
The IMA has released a new
Question & Answer section
on our website. This document contains some of the most frequently asked questions and we continue adding to it and more information becomes available.
