Vermont Governor Phil Scott focused on revisions to the state’s Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program for businesses impacted by July flooding at his weekly briefing today.
The assistance program, referred to as BEGAP, is a $20 million fund to provide grants to businesses and nonprofits that experienced physical damages from the flooding. With about 600 applications being processed, officials have determined there is a $120 million gap in need.
Vermont Department of Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein said to try to close the gap they have made some changes in the program.
“Previously the program issued grants of 20 percent of net damages but up to a cap of $20,000. If entities suffered more than a million dollars worth of damage they had an opportunity to go higher than $20,000 but it was based on how many employees they had. Today we’re announcing that we want to raise the grant percentage to 30 percent of net damages and we are removing the $20,000 cap. For entities with damages over one million dollars we are removing the employee number and keeping the cap at the lesser of $500,000 and 20 percent of uncovered damages.”
Governor Scott says the initial cap was intentional.
“We had to put a cap on it because we didn’t know how far the money would go. We didn’t know the extent of the unmet need. Now that we know that there’s that $120 million of unmet need this $20 million isn’t going to satisfy all of that. But lifting the cap, this $20,000 cap, lifting that and then being able to provide for 30 percent of their damages will go a long ways towards that. So this is going to be essential I believe.”
Onion River Outdoors owner Jen Roberts described how she, employees and volunteers tried to move inventory to a higher space as waters rose during July’s floods.
“Two months on Montpelier is still drying out and still rebuilding. Only a few shops have been able to reopen so far and ours has not been one of them. The hurdles have been enormous. The BEGAP funds that our state government provided were for some businesses the only aid they would receive. The initial allotment started our path to recovery. Lifting the cap is going to help Onion River and many other businesses reopen and recover sooner than we could have without this help. When I heard about the additional funding my relief brought tears to my eyes. With this additional BEGAP assistance Onion River and other small businesses will reopen sooner, re-employ our staff and get them off of unemployment sooner and help our downtowns recover their basic services for the good of our whole community.”
State officials also announced plans to send a survey to everyone who has reported damage to heating systems due to flooding. The information will be used to help create a program to help impacted homeowners in time for cold weather.
