LEBANON — The money will be helpful.
Upper Valley businesses and residents alike said they are looking forward to the influx of cash provided under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed into law last week, including $1,400 direct payments for the vast majority of American adults and dependents.
Some are going to put those checks to work locally, and soon.
“I’m going to spend it on buying local art,” Sonja Olson, a printmaker from Woodstock, said as she emerged from Kohl’s in West Lebanon on a chilly Saturday morning. “I spent all of the previous $600 check on buying art at Long River Gallery in White River Junction. I want to support our artists.”
Others are in no rush to spend their third stimulus checks.
“We’ll get the basic $1,400,” said Gary Cross, 74, a retired Perkinsville school principal and teacher who with his wife, Donna, was entering Kohl’s for their first visit to the department store in a year “just to look around.”
“We’re going to save it for a while,” he said. “I just spent the last of the first check on gas.”
Hailed by Democratic lawmakers as the most significant economic aid package ever enacted by Congress, the federal spending package is designed to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to schools, public health, rental assistance, small businesses, state and local governments, unemployment programs, and other aid initiatives.
And a chunk of that money will flow right into the Twin States.
Within the coming weeks and months, an estimated $1.5 billion is coming to state and local governments in New Hampshire and $1.35 billion to those in Vermont, according to U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt).
The relief package also adds on another $1.25 billion in funding to the $15 billion Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program, signed into law in December and distributed through the Small Business Administration, which is targeted to help concert halls, theaters and the like that have been closed during the pandemic.
That money will be a business saver, according to Joe Clifford, executive director of Lebanon Opera House. The Opera House has been closed for a year and unable to generate any money through ticket sales, he explained.
Clifford said under the grant program guidelines he can apply for up to 45% of the Opera House’s 2019 gross income, which comes to about $775,000. Although he doesn’t know if the Opera House will get 100% of the rescue money it applies for, he’s glad he at least has the chance.
“I’m literally excited there is a fund set up for a place like us,” he said. “It builds a runway for us … quite honestly we’d be in a world of hurt without that support.”
Clifford said he is already planning for the Opera House reopening with a “multi-day outdoor event” in August, 17 months after the venue closed in March 2020.
“We were the first to close and will be the last to reopen,” he said.
Other businesses getting a boost include small and midsize restaurants, which have $28.6 billion earmarked for distribution, also through the Small Business Administration.
But not all businesses will see the same direct benefit from the record-setting spending package. Health clubs and gyms were not included in the legislation — an industry that has suffered severe setbacks during the pandemic. Although those businesses are eligible for a “second draw” of PPP help, no additional funds were set aside like they were for arts venues or restaurants, and that has some business owners feeling left out and worried for the future.
“There are several businesses who still need relief programs,” Tracy Hutchins, executive director of the Upper Valley Business Alliance, said via email, pointing to fitness, health and yoga clubs that “are still finding that people do not want to exercise in a public space.”
Social distancing protocols present special hurdles for certain types of businesses, she said.
“Physical therapists are finding that their clients are slow to come back for regular sessions,” Hutchins said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.
