Urban Growler was teetering toward closure when the state check for $25,000 arrived, helping the St. Paul brewery pull through the bleakest winter months.
"It was a big deal, because we were receiving no aid from the federal government," Deb Loch, master brewer at Urban Growler, said of the assistance. "Our sales are terrible, we're down between 60 and 70% from December through February. This is brutal. Those winter months, we just have to survive."
Minnesota is in the midst of distributing dollars from a $242 million aid package for businesses and nonprofits affected by lost sales and state restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. But county officials, who have less than two weeks remaining to give out the largest chunk of the money — $114.8 million — say requests from businesses and nonprofits far outweigh what they have been able to provide.
Near the Canadian border, golf courses and gas stations are hoping to make the cut Thursday when Kittson County chooses from 49 applicants for state grants. County Administrator Dillon Hayes said people asked for a total of $750,000, but they only have about a third of that to give out.
In Stevens County in western Minnesota, 44 businesses applied for help. Twenty-two got money. Washington County culled 430 grant recipients from 613 applicants, giving smaller-than-anticipated sums to stretch the dollars.
The Legislature approved the relief package in mid-December, when the state was in the middle of a nearly two-month shutdown for bars, restaurants and entertainment venues. At that point, there had been a drought in federal aid. Two weeks later, Congress passed a $900 billion bill that included another round of Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses. And now the U.S. Senate is preparing to move forward with a version of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief proposal, which would include billions in business grants and loans.
Whether another round of state aid is needed depends on the virus, the rollout of vaccines and what the federal government approves, said Steve Grove, commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). He said massive aid programs should be the territory of the federal government.
"We knew that we would never have a program at the state level that was sufficient to meet the needs, or even close to the needs, of our businesses," Grove said. "But at the same time we knew we needed to do every possible thing we could. In a crisis, you search every couch cushion for every penny."