Coral Springs Small Business Owner Shut Out Of Federal, State COVID-19 Loan Programs
CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) – Aldo Cataldo owns Aldo's Cleaners in Coral Springs. He's struggling.
"Just waking up every day and having the stress of not knowing what's gonna happen tomorrow, it's pretty tough," he said.
His dry cleaning business is considered an essential business so a little money does trickle in. But he estimates the shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has cost him 90 percent of his business.
"Ninety percent loss is not sustainable," he said.
It's also cost almost of all of his employees their jobs. He laid off 10 employees.
"Hardest decision I ever had to make," Cataldo said.
But Thursday Cataldo brimmed with optimism. He woke up hopeful Thursday that he would be among the recipients of funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, created under the CARES Act to help small businesses keep workers on the payroll.
"I got my loan in on day one," Cataldo said.
But he soon learned that timing meant little. On Thursday, the Small Business Administration program ran out of the nearly $350 billion it had to disperse and Cataldo received nothing.
"Seems to me like they took care of all the big guys and ran out of money and we were all left holding the bag," he said.
Cataldo requested $52,000 and planned to spend 75 percent of it on payroll, hiring back workers.
"They're valued employees," he said. "I want them back."
But now he doesn't know when that will happen.
The White House wants it to happen soon. On Thursday, the White House said in a tweet, "Congress must immediately increase funding for the paycheck protection program. A simple 1 page bill will get the job done. No liberal pet projects."
Democrats say they want to help small businesses and they want to make sure the money really gets to small businesses. Democrats also want a larger spending deal to send money to hospitals, healthcare workers and for increased testing.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sees politics at play and urged Democrats to focus first on expanding the Paycheck Protection Program.
"I agree we need to do more for those other things but why do we have to hold the most successful part of the CARES Act that's helping millions of people hostage?" Rubio said in a video posted on Twitter. "This is ridiculous."
Cataldo also applied for Florida's Emergency Bridge Loan Program but he didn't get that money either. Democratic State Representative Dan Daley said that only about 1,000 of 38,000 small businesses in Florida that applied will get funding through that program. The $50 million in that program was quickly exhausted. Daley said it was meant to be a bridge loan to the federal dollars but demand was overwhelming. Daley said the state needs to do more, either through a special session where legislators can allocate more funding to deal with fallout from the pandemic or through executive order by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"We always talk about how small business is the backbone of this state then we need to make sure we're there for those small businesses in a time of need," Daley said.
For Cataldo it's incredibly frustrating. He's not sure where to turn. He offered a direct message to lawmakers on the state and federal levels.
"We need more money," he said. "We need more money."
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