TUCSON— Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva, Tom O’Halleran, and Ann Kirkpatrick sent a letter to Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza urging SBA to release data for small businesses that have received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program for Pima County. With the data, local officials will be able to ascertain the extent of COVID-19’s impact on area small businesses. The lawmakers wrote,

“For the county to help its small businesses that applied to the PPP, they need to know the number of applications that were accepted and funded and the number of businesses that were declined under the program.  The information will be used by the County’s Office of Economic Development for staff to give additional assistance to those businesses that were declined under the program.  

“If this data is available at the state level, it should also be made available at the County level.  We believe that you would agree that helping our small businesses survive this unprecedented time warrants transparency of information at all levels of government and we request your assistance in identifying this critical information.”

Click here to read the letter.

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