Here we are, Easter Sunday, in the middle, or worse, the beginning, of a horrible pandemic, and me a devout atheist. This is the time I choose to write my first diary.
I’ve been here a long time. Over the years I’ve stopped reading the local paper, spend very little time (where once I did) at Huffington Post, Salon and others - just too many ads to suit me. Eight years ago I took Kos up on that $100 offer to go ad free for life here and for that reason, and others, DKos is where I do the bulk of my reading pretty much every day of my life.
I own a small Allen Park, MI pizza joint called Major Tomato. We’ve been open for just over 5 years. It’s family-owned. The two young gentlemen at the far left and right above are my sons, Clark and Paul.
Although we have a nice dining area, our business has always been about 70% take-out and delivery so, thus far, we’re weathering the lock down thing about as well as can be expected. The local community has been very supportive and all evidence suggests folks are going out of their way to patronize our establishment and I couldn’t be more appreciative.
But enough of that. I’m here to talk about the Paycheck Protection Program. I was supposed to be able to apply on Friday, April 3rd. That didn’t happen because the PNC (my bank) portal I was using was at first, not ready, and then, the next day when it was there were bugs and I couldn’t get it to work for me.
By Monday, the programmers had things straightened out and I was able to get an application submitted. I received an email telling me it was processing, it would take time due to the volume of submissions, and oh, by the way, don’t call and ask about it because it won’t do you any good. I’m paraphrasing.
Right off the bat, there was something that struck me a little weird and I haven’t really heard mention of it anywhere. I could’ve sworn that the initial guidelines said you could receive 2.5 times your monthly payroll or $10,000, whichever was less. By the time I was actually able to submit, the amount you applied for was simply the former condition — payroll x 2.5. Was I wrong about that?
Anyway, sure, if I could get a forgivable loan that would cover most of my expenses for a couple months, that would be lovely. I mean, there’s no guarantee I can carry on indefinitely as is. Things could get worse and the governor could shut everything down, or far more horribly, if either one of my boys got sick, or really any of my employees, I would have to close. In other words, the loan actually puts me a little ahead of the game, for now, if we can stay open, and would save my ass for a couple months if I did have to close for whatever reason.
But Donald Trump is president. He lies about everything. He’s screwed up everything else. Why do I have my doubts that I’ll ever see a penny out of the PPP? Has anyone out there who runs a small business and has applied for one of these loans received it yet? I’d feel at least a tad more sanguine about it if I knew someone actually got the money.