These small Idaho employers received virus-aid money. See who’s on the list
An employee of Boise Basin Electric in Meridian recently came down with COVID-19 and could not work. Owner Alan Lusk tapped into money he set aside from a government loan meant to help businesses weather the pandemic.
“It helps him absorb being off work and not having an income,” Lusk said by phone. “It helps me in the same way to be able to help him.”
Boise Basin Electric, whose 17 workers wire new houses, received $146,200 from the Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP, which Congress approved in March as part of its $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
Lusk’s company is one of nearly 28,000 Idaho businesses and other employers whose payments from PPP were disclosed Tuesday by the federal government in response to a lawsuit by several news organizations. The records show that Idaho recipients included small firms like Lusk’s, nonprofits such as Ronald McDonald Charities of Idaho, and advocacy groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
Local business recipients included familiar names such as Boise Professional Baseball, the owner of the Boise Hawks minor league team, which got $148,700; Eberlestock USA, a Boise backpack and outdoors supplier, which got $144,569; and Scot Ludwig and Associates, a development company owned by the former Boise City Council member, which got $137,300.
Statewide, 31,056 businesses obtained $2.6 billion in PPP loans. Of those, the 27,674 businesses that received less than $150,000 accounted for $890 million, one-third of the total.
The loans are forgiven if the companies show that most of the money was spent on payroll. PPP was an emergency program aimed at keeping people paid at taxpayer expense as revenue for many employers collapsed.
Boise had more recipients than any other city, with nearly 5,700 loans. More than 2,150 Meridian companies received loans. Idaho Falls was third, with more than 2,000, followed by Nampa and Coeur d’Alene, with nearly 1,500 each, and Twin Falls, with more than 1,100.
Last summer, the Small Business Administration, which oversaw the loans, released data on companies that received more than $150,000 in PPP loans. The companies included 12 in Idaho that took in between $5 million and $10 million each.
But the SBA refused to identify businesses that received less than $150,000. They made up 87% of the program’s recipients. The SBA argued that disclosure would reveal confidential business information.
The Washington Post, the Associated Press and nine other media organizations sued to get the information. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., ordered it released, saying the public interest in seeing how the program was administered outweighed any privacy concerns.
“While the withheld data does concern loans previously allocated, the public maintains an urgent and immediate interest in assessing the results of SBA’s initial effort at administering a massive small-business relief package and extracting lessons where possible — both to inform a critical, ongoing federal debate and to remedy failures in the loan-disbursement process moving forward,” Boasberg wrote.
Ronald McDonald Charities: ‘It allowed us to take care of ... families’
Ronald McDonald Charities of Idaho, whose Ronald McDonald House in Boise provides housing for families with children being treated for serious illnesses, received $137,900.
“It would have been very, very challenging for us without the money,” Mindy Plumlee, the group’s executive director, said by phone. “It allowed us to take care of our employees so we could then, in turn, take care of the families that needed to stay with us.”
Ronald McDonald Charities employs 12 full-time and 12 part-time workers at the Boise home at 139 E. Warm Springs Ave. and at a quiet family room inside the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
Because of the risk of infection, the Ronald McDonald House has suspended use of volunteers. Normally, they cook meals, bake cookies and other snacks, perform yard work and keep the inside of the house tidy.
As a result, the staff has had to take on more responsibilities in serving an average of 17 to 19 families that stay at the house, Plumlee said.
PPP rules required that recipients use at least 60% of the loans for payroll. The rest could be used for rent or mortgage payments or other business expenses.
“We used all of our money for payroll,” Plumlee said.
Two weeks ago, Ronald McDonald Charities learned that the SBA had forgiven its loan.
“We did everything we were supposed to and we kept our fingers crossed,” Plumlee said. “It was really good news to get that official notification from the SBA and to know we were not going to have to find $138,000 to pay back.”
Grace Moving and Storage: Money kept 10 workers employed
Grace Moving and Storage, at 5329 W. Kendall St. in Boise, received $145,850 in PPP loans. The money allowed the company to keep its 10 workers employed.
Owner Brennon Burke said he’s hopeful he won’t have to pay the money back.
“We’re not really sure on forgiveness back,” he said by phone. “We haven’t been charged any interest on it yet, so that’s good.”
Shelley Roberts, CEO of the Idaho Rural Water Association, didn’t initially apply for a loan. Her Boise nonprofit that provides training and technical assistance to water and wastewater facilities in Idaho with populations under 10,000.
Roberts believed the pandemic would end before summer, and she felt confident the association’s contracts would provide adequate income to keep her 13 workers employed.
A few days before the filing deadline, though, she learned that some of the PPP funding would likely go unclaimed. She decided to apply. The association obtained a $146,737 loan.
“I thought, ‘Well heck, if they’re going to go unused, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring,’ and we got approved for a loan,” Roberts said.
Roberts said she’s confident the loan will be forgiven.
“In the worst-case scenario, if we are able to retain our staff and pay back the money over five years at 1% interest, that isn’t a terrible option, either,” she said.
Idaho Freedom Foundation: ‘The government left us little choice’
The Idaho Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit libertarian policy group in Boise, accepted $129,883 to support six employees.
The group typically opposes government handouts and encourages deregulation. Asked in a message why the group took the taxpayer money, spokesperson Dustin Hurst directed a Statesman reporter to a post the foundation made on Facebook in response to the Statesman’s request. The post said the Statesman was seeking to create a “fake controversy” and “smear IFF’s good name.”
“The government shut down Idaho’s economy, Idaho businesses and therefore the donors who we depend on to generously support our work,” said the foundation’s statement, attributed to its president, Wayne Hoffman. “Meanwhile, we also knew that pro-socialist groups would have no problem whatsoever accepting all the money they could from the government. We decided it only made sense to do the same. That’s not our preference, of course, but the actions of the government left us little choice.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 6:50 PM.
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