Business/Event
    Business/Event

    MRA’s COVID-19 Updates

    Governor Hogan Announces Beginning of Stage Two of Maryland’s COVID-19 Recovery, Safe and Gradual Reopening of Workplaces and Businesses
    Governor Hogan announced that Maryland will begin to move into Stage Two of the ‘Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery,’ with a safe and gradual reopening of workplaces and businesses, along with additional personal services. This comes after the state’s positivity rate dropped to single digits, and total current hospitalizations fell to their lowest level in more than seven weeks.

    As with Stage One, Stage Two will be implemented with a flexible, community-based approach that empowers individual jurisdictions to make decisions regarding the timing of reopenings. All 24 of the state’s jurisdictions have now entered Stage One. State Two will begin at 5:00pm on Friday, June 5. More information is available here.

    MD Business Joint Request to MD Delegation to Sign the Barr/Hill Letter
    The Phillips/Roy Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (H.R. 7010) passed the House of Representatives nearly unanimously (417-1) last Friday. The Maryland Retailers Association signed onto a joint letter urging the Maryland Congressional Delegation to sign on to the Barr/Hill letter to Leader McConnell/Senate leadership urging them to include the PPP Forgiveness Application “EZ Form” and a de minimis threshold of $350,000 in the Phillips/Roy legislation. The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (H. R. 7010) would, among other provisions,  extend the maturity period for unforgiven PPP loans made after the date of enactment to five years and extend the forgiveness period for all PPP loans through the end of 2020. The bill would also reduce the minimum amount that businesses must devote to maintaining payroll from 75% to 60%.

    Joint Letter from Maryland Small Businesses and Banks – PPP Loan Forgiveness
    MRA also signed on to a joint letter to the US Secretary of the Treasury and the Administrator of the US Small Business Administration to request that the U. S. Treasury and the Small Business Administration (SBA) create a streamlined forgiveness process for smaller PPP borrowers. The letter is available here.