Stimulus Payments, Small Business Help Headed To MI: What To Know

Joey Oliver
Updated ·4 min read

After months of inaction, the U.S. House and Senate Monday passed a $900 billion coronavirus relief package that will be sending much-needed help to Americans struggling during the pandemic. While not nearly the size of the CARES Act passed in March, the new bill includes direct payments and help for small businesses, entertainment venues, public transport aid and expanded unemployment benefits.

The package now heads to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Here’s what is included in the package.

Direct Payments

Direct payments will be coming to Michigan residents. The bill includes $600 in direct payments for adults ($1200 for married couples filing jointly) who made less than $75,000 in the 2019 tax year ($112,500 for heads of household and $150,000 for married couples who filed jointly) and begins phasing out above those income levels. It also includes $600 for each qualifying child.

Calculate how much your family would receive in direct payments.

Unemployment Benefits

The package also extends expanded unemployment benefits that were set to expire. Those filing for unemployment will receive $300 in supplemented benefits starting Dec.26 through March 14. The money is half of the $600 per week unemployed people got under the previous relief package.

Below are some more unemployment provisions included in the bill:

  • Extends Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to March 14, 2021 and allows individuals receiving benefits as of March 14, 2021 to continue through April 5, 2021, as long as the individual has not reached the maximum number of weeks.

  • Increases the number of weeks of benefits an individual may claim from 39 to 50.

  • Provides for appeals to be at the state level.

  • Provides states authority to waive overpayments made without fault on the part of the individual or when such repayment would violate equity and good conscience.

  • Provides a transition rule for certain individuals transitioning between PUA and the Pandemic

  • Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.

  • Limits payment of retroactive PUA benefits to weeks of unemployment after December 1, 2020.

Small Business Help

Small businesses will also be able to receive help through the Paycheck Protection Program, which allocates $284 billion in funds.

Any business that wasn’t in operation on Feb.15 is not eligible for a loan and a business that receives a grant through the Shuttered Venue Operator program is not eligible for a PPP loan. That grant program allocates $15 billion for live venue operators, promoters, theatrical producers, live performing arts organizations and more.

The money available to small businesses under the so-called “PPP second draw” has a maximum amount of $2 million per loan and below are the eligibility criteria:

  • The business should not employ more than 300 employees

  • The business should have used or will use the full amount of the first PPP loan

  • Demonstrate at least a 25 percent reduction in gross receipts in the first, second, or third quarter of 2020 relative to the same 2019 quarter.

Businesses that borrow money through the program will be forgiven the loan to the amount equal to the sum of payroll costs, mortgage, rent, utilities, operating expenses, property damage costs, supplier costs and worker protection costs.

Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association President and CEO Justin Winslow called the assistance the "first pieces of good news in some time."

"We applaud our leaders in Congress who accomplished the same feat today by passing the second largest stimulus package in the history of the United States," Winslow said in a statement. "While the final compromise did not include every priority championed by the hospitality industry, no one in 2020 is in a position to make perfect the enemy of the good. Whether it is a more flexible expansion of PPP that allows for expense deductibility or the industry-specific eligibility and expanded utilization of funds, there is a lot of good in the final compromise that will save jobs and save many restaurants and hotels from closing their doors forever."

Other Provisions

Below are some other key provisions included in the bill:

  • The federal eviction moratorium is extended until Jan. 31, 2021

  • $25 billion in rental assistance

  • $8.75 billion for vaccine distribution

  • $14 billion for public transit agencies

Read more about the provisions included in the $900 billion package.

Kara Seymour contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Detroit Patch