Florida businesses get $12.5 billion to date from federal loan program
April 15, 2020 - Some 52,021 Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling $12.5 billion have been approved for small businesses throughout Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday afternoon. "That's an unprecedented sum ... I think that will be a really important lifeline for Florida's small businesses who have been hit hard by this downturn." The PPP is a $349 billion small business lending program that was included in the $2 trillion stimulus package designed to blunt the economic fallout from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic; several local banks and small businesses have participated. A state lending program, the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program, awarded more than $49 million to 1,000 businesses through Saturday, the Department of Economic Opportunity said in a news release. DEO said it received more than 38,000 applications for the one-year interest-free loans after applications opened in mid-March. When asked if the state would extend the bridge loan program, DeSantis said the state was looking at some options with the Small Business Administration. He also said he expected a second round of the federal PPP loans, "then we'll see what we can do," DeSantis said.