The City of Fredericksburg received $2,533,279 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020. This Act provides funding for a number of different programs to address the COVID-19 pandemic. A primary component of the CARES Act is $150 billion in assistance to state, local, territorial and tribal governments for the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through the establishment of the Coronavirus Relief Fund.
The CARES Act provides that payments from the Fund can be used to cover costs including “expenses associated with the provision of economic support in connection with the COVID-19 public health emergency … such as expenditures related to the provision of grants to small businesses to reimburse the costs of business interruption caused by required closures.”
Fredericksburg City Council has expressed support for using a portion of the City’s CARES Act funds for a Small Business Assistance Program that will culminate in three random public drawings to determine grant recipients. All businesses interested in a grant need to submit the below application. Businesses that meet the eligibility criteria (see below) will be divided into three separate buckets for the three drawings based on their annual gross revenue (businesses should use 2019 revenue). These three below categories are consistent with how the City divides businesses when calculating business license taxes.
- Businesses with annual gross revenue of less than $100,000
- Businesses with annual gross revenue between $100,000 and $350,000
- Businesses with annual gross revenue of more than $350,000, but not more than $2.5 million
The City Council and Business Assistance Committee will determine the total amount of funding to allocate to the grant program after the application period ends. Grant amounts for individual businesses within each of the three categories will be in equal amounts, regardless of how much total money is allocated for the program.
Program Criteria
To be eligible for one of the three grant random drawings, businesses are expected to meet each of the following criteria. Those that don’t meet one or more criteria are still eligible to apply.
- Have one or more physical locations in the City of Fredericksburg (22401), including the principal place of business. Home-based businesses qualify.
- Be current on all City tax obligations prior to March 1, 2020, and be fully permitted.
- Have been in business in the City of Fredericksburg with all appropriate permits and licenses since at least July 1, 2019.
- Annual gross revenue cannot exceed $2.5 million.
- Have documented costs of business interruption caused by COVID-19 required closures (not already funded in the City of Fredericksburg’s first round of small business grants). Grant amounts will not exceed documented costs of business interruption caused by COVID-19 required closures.
- Be a for-profit business.
- Complete an application form, certify that all answers are true and accurate, and agree to the application’s terms and conditions.
If approved, applicants may be required to submit additional information for verification. All information submitted by application or in addition is subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Application (Submission will close on Monday, July 6 at 5 p.m., no exceptions.)
