GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good afternoon. Joining me here today are two members of our cabinet, Secretary of Commerce Kelly Schulz and Secretary of Housing and community development, Ken Holt. We’re here today to announce the bubbling of our economic recovery and relief efforts for Maryland small businesses.
But first I want to provide an update on Maryland’s continued health and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of our early and aggressive mitigation efforts and the vigilance of the people of Maryland, our key health metrics continue to remain low and stable. While there are spikes across the nation, Maryland is one of only eight states in America where new cases of COVID-19 are low and continuing to stay low. Our statewide positivity rate is one of the lowest in America, currently at 3.1%, a decline of nearly 89% since it peaked at 26.91% 188 days August on April 17th.
We are closely monitoring a slight uptick in hospitalizations, both acute and ICU beds, over the past 2 weeks. However, hospitalizations are still down 73% since they peaked 175 days ago at 1,711, and we’ve seen a nearly 80% decline in ICU levels since they peaked 165 days ago on May 10th.
Our first goal every day is to save the lives of Marylanders, and according to the CDC, Maryland currently has one of the lowest death rates in the country with a 0.7 new deaths per 100,000 people, and we are pleased that twice this month for the first time since the pandemic began, we have had days with zero new deaths statewide.
While Maryland is continuing to make progress in limiting the spread of the virus, the spiking numbers in other states, both in our region and across the nation, are concerning. And they are an important reminder that this crisis is far from over. The fact is that COVID-19 is spreading rapidly throughout the country, and this virus certainly does not recognize state borders. So while we’re currently doing better than 42 other states on our health metrics, we are also continuing to make every effort to keep Maryland safely open for business. The way we do that is by continuing with our cautious data-driven approach and by everyone continuing to follow the public health guidance.
I want to sincerely thank Marylanders for their vigilance throughout this pandemic in wearing masks, physical distancing, and by taking the other simple steps which are the reason that we are doing so well in comparison to others.
Our contact tracing operation continues to show that social gatherings remain the most likely source of transmissions. The number one activity of those who have tested positive continues to be family gatherings, followed by house parties. With the holidays fast approaching and with the virus spiking in 42 states, this data is an important reminder that the way to keep each other safe and to keep Maryland open for business is pretty simple: Avoid traveling to hotspots and continue following the public health guidelines by wearing masks or face coverings and practicing physical distancing.
A new Goucher College poll shows that 89% of all Marylanders agree that taking these simple actions is helping us to stop the spread of the virus. So masks and distancing remain our most effective mitigation strategies. We also want to recommend that Marylanders continue as much as possible to avoid large crowds, gatherings, and congregate settings. And as I mentioned, for months, our data continues to show that smaller gatherings and parties are the number one source of new cases. So we can’t let our guard down, and we should remain vigilant, even when we are in close contact with the people that we know and love. Outdoor activity continues to be much safer than indoor activity, and frequent hand washing remains a critically important tool.
Following these simple guidelines will keep us firmly on the road to recovery and help us slow the spread, prevent the surge, and keep Maryland open for business.
In addition to doing better on our health metrics than most of the nation, we are also experiencing a better economic recovery than the nation and most other states. Maryland was able to keep more than 70% of our entire economy open throughout the entire crisis. We safely opened 98% of our economy back in mid-June, and nearly two months ago we entered stage 3 of our recovery plan when all businesses were able to safely reopen in our state. We have now added and regained nearly 200,000 jobs since our recovery began. Last month our private sector grew at the 7th fastest rate in America. Our healthcare sector grew at the 6th fastest rate among all 50 states. And our manufacturing sector grew at the 3rd fastest rate in the nation.
There are, however, increasing indications that the national economic recovery is stalling. The failure of Washington to provide additional stimulus relief for our small businesses, struggling families, and to the states for economic recovery is having a devastating impact. We need both parties in Washington to stop playing politics, to end the gridlock, and to get this done for the American people.
Our small business community and our struggling Marylanders who depend on them for their jobs cannot afford to wait any longer. This is especially true for our restaurants, entertainment venues, and our small mom and pop shops along our Main Streets across the state, many of whom are struggling and are desperately in need of additional and immediate relief.
More than 81,000 Maryland businesses have already received $10 billion in PPP funding, and we have already put out $7.6 billion in unemployment assistance to more than 622,000 Marylanders.
In addition, we are also already provided $250 million in emergency economic relief, including more than 10,000 grants and loans to systematically businesses and nonprofits. Earlier this week we announced $13 million in additional relief for Maryland farmers, growers, producers, and watermen. We have already provided $10 million in funding to help small businesses retain their employees. And have provided $3 million more in assistance for our arts and nonprofit organizations.
All of this has made a big difference, but it’s still not enough. So today we are doubling this $250 million in relief by investing $250 million from the state’s rainy-day fund for a total relief package of $500 million through the Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative. This new $250 million investment will fund a combination of new relief programs, as well as the expansion of our existing successful relief programs in order to quickly provide additional relief to the small businesses and their employees who need our help the most. This economic recovery investment will include an additional $50 million for the Maryland small business COVID-19 relief grant fund, which provides direct, immediate grants to businesses and nonprofits that have lost revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This $50 million represents the third installment of this successful program which we launched in March and expanded in June to bring our total investment to $145 million. It will allow us to fully fund the entire backlog of all the business grant applications which have been already received and reviewed by the Maryland Department of Commerce. The Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative will also provide $50 million in new relief specifically for Maryland restaurants. This will go to things like purchasing equipment and services to expand outdoor dining for the fall and winter, through improvements such as tenting and heaters as well as funding for infrastructure and health improvements, including HVAC filtration systems and sanitation services. It will also fund things like technology upgrades to support the expansion of more carryout and delivery, as well as the purchase of PPE for restaurant staff, and it will even assist struggling businesses with paying their rent. We are providing this funding to local jurisdictions who will be able to distribute these available funds to qualifying restaurants as quickly as possible. All this money must be disbursed immediately and no later than December 31st of this year.
Yes also providing $20 million to assist other hard-hit businesses and local entertainment venues in our 33 Maryland Main Street organizations as well as the Baltimore City Main Street organizations, representing nearly 4,000 businesses across the state.
We will invest another $20 million, which will triple the investment in the COVID-19 layoff aversion fund. This successful program administered by the Maryland Department of Labor has already helped small businesses with an average of 20 employees to stay open and has saved nearly 9,000 Maryland jobs.
We are also doubling our previous commitment with an additional $5 million into the Maryland small business financing authority to provide even more small and minority business low interest loans. Our economic recovery initiative will also include $2 million in additional funding to support hometown tourism efforts that promote our restaurants, local attractions and shops, and an additional $3 million in funding will also go to assist nonprofits, county arts organizations, and local artists.
Finally, we are establishing a dedicated emergency rapid response fund of $100 million, which will be available to immediately deploy to the other areas of economic need as we move forward, as we assess our state economic situation on an ongoing basis, and as we wait for the federal government to reach a consensus on the next federal stimulus package.
I have directed our teams in each agency to ensure that this much needed funding gets out the door to our struggling citizens and small businesses as quickly as possible. We also intend to work closely with our local partners so that they can assist in expeditiously getting the money into the hands of those who need it most. This new $250 million Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative will be critical to the thousands of struggling restaurants, small businesses, and Main Streets across the state who are attempting to weather this crisis.
Equally important to their survival will be all 24 jurisdictions finally moving into stage 3 of the Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery plan. For months, our restaurants and small businesses and retail shops have had safe phased reopening plans, and our health metrics are well below required reopening levels. And yet we have a few local leaders who are still refusing to allow them to open and to operate under the state’s reopening guidelines.
Slowing the spread of this virus and saving lives continues to be our most important priority, and with our health metrics continuing to remain low and stable, local jurisdictions should be focused on our economic health and well-being as well. We are disappointed that many counties have not yet allocated the bulk of the assistance funding which has already been provided to them in order to help citizens and small businesses in their communities. The state paid out more than $362 million in CARES Act funding to 19 of our smaller counties, and to date only one-third of that funding has been spent or disbursed by the counties. The five largest counties received another $691 million directly from the federal government in CARES Act funding. This money is required to be spent by the end of the calendar year, and so we’re calling on all of the local jurisdictions to consider matching these new state investments by utilizing some of their remaining CARES Act funding and to help us quickly push it out into our economy.
From the beginning, this crisis back in March, I have been fully committed to keeping Marylanders informed, to being transparent, and to providing the facts as directly as I can. We’ve also continued to take bold actions and to make sound decisions based upon the rapidly changing facts on the ground. That is exactly what we will continue to do in the days, weeks, and months ahead., but it is the everyday actions of all Marylanders that will ultimately determine if our health and economic recovery can continue.
I know that there is COVID fatigue and tremendous frustration that this pandemic is continuing to disrupt our daily lives, and I know that many people are experiencing a great deal of hardship and stress. This has been a very long and difficult year for all of us, but the only way that we can continue to make progress is by all of us doing our part and looking out for one another. We need to recommit to the simple actions that can keep our families and our neighbors safe. Because only the people of Maryland have the power to slow the spread, prevent the surge, and to keep Maryland open for business.
As I have traveled all across Maryland over these last several weeks, I have been inspired by the incredible strength and resilience of Marylanders, the restaurant and small business owners who found ways to adapt and get back to serving customers, the hardworking farmers and watermen who have kept our food supply chain functioning smoothly, essential workers in our grocery stores and pharmacies are all working, and those working in supply warehouses and transportation who work day in and day out since those darkest days back in the spring, as well as the scientists working to develop vaccines and new therapeutic treatments right here in our state.
Most importantly, our doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and first responders who continue to give all that they have on the front lines. Each and every one of you truly are showing what it means to be Maryland Strong.
With that, I’ll be happy to take a few questions.
SPEAKER: Governor, can you talk a little bit about how you arrived at the $500 million number? (Inaudible).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We didn’t think it was prudent to drain the rainy day fund or to spend half a billion from the rainy day fund, but the recommended traditional percentage is just under $500 million and this is the money in excess and over that amount, so we’re still keeping the traditional and recommended amount which is nearly a billion 500 something in the rainy day fund, and this was the excess money that was above and beyond that. We thought that was the right amount of money that we could put into all these programs and realistically get out to people to help. And so we were comfortable with that. It was a decision by our entire administration, our budget secretary, we spent a lot of time working on it and we believe it’s the prudent thing to do to invest in our economy so that we don’t have further business loss and further unemployment and so we can start to get more revenues coming into the state by keeping our economy state.
SPEAKER: Do you think it’s enough money?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I’m hoping that it is, but we really — it is sort of. It’s a tremendous amount of money. We can’t do it alone. We still need that next stimulus package at the federal level. Obviously it appears that we’re not going to get that before the election. I’m hopeful that whenever, regardless of what happens in the election, that the next swearing in, right after the election, that Congress will maybe be able to work out their differences in both houses, both parties, and that maybe we can reach some kind of the agreement because we really need the funding from the federal government.
(Question off mic).
You know, the state law gives each of the local jurisdictions the power to be more restrictive than the state. They can’t be less restrictive. They have to follow the executive orders of the state, but they can take additional actions on their own. People think we granted them that authority, but they actually have that authority constitutionally.
We have been encouraging them since June to follow our Roadmap to Recovery which we think makes the most sense. 89% of our counties are. There’s 4-5 who are not. They have situations on the ground that caused them to go a little slower, which may be prudent, but right now PG County is down to 3.9. AA County, 3.2. Baltimore City, 2.8. And Montgomery County 2.6. You can’t get much lower than that. And we still have businesses that aren’t open, 25% capacity in restaurants, closing things at 10:00 that are open later everywhere else in the state.
We don’t want to take away their authority but we continue to encourage them because it’s hurting our business community and we’re doing a great job staying on top of the health metrics. We talk to them weekly. We have weekly calls with the entire administration. The cabinet secretaries, the local health officers, local school superintendents. We’re trying to get the schools and businesses open, but it is their authority by right.
(Question off mic).
There’s 19 jurisdictions that we actually provide. It’s a pass through. But they have to report back to us. And so as a whole, those 19 counties still have nearly two-thirds of their money remaining. It has to be spent by year end. So we’re going to work with all of them to see if we can get some of that into these programs and/or other things, but we have to get it out so it’s not sitting in their bank accounts.
And the other five counties, the largest counties, the way the federal government programs are set up, they get their money directly without passing through the state. They have nearly twice as much as the other 19 counties. And we don’t get reports from them about what they spend it on, but we’re just encouraging them to spend as much as they can as quickly as they can because it makes an impact.
(Question off mic).
We wanted to have some flexibility and we wanted to have it immediately readily available because first of all, we don’t know where — I mean, this thing changed every day for the last 7 months. We’ll find out something next week or next month that we weren’t aware of. One of these funds might be oversubscribed and we run out of money. Our team really sat down and went through what, how much should we put where, that would be most effective to helping people get jobs, return to their jobs, keep their jobs, keep small businesses from failing. And the 100 million is really kind of a safety valve for the next thing that we might need. If we get federal funding in the next month or two, we may not need it. If we don’t, we may have some serious problems that we need to invest in.
(Question off mic).
Some of them are really struggling and it’s a desperate situation. Many businesses, some of the ones that we talked about trying to address, are hanging on by a thread. And they may not make it another month or two. So when that happens, it’s that owner of the business and all those people that they employ. We’re all concerned about all of them. This won’t solve all of their problems but it can help them stay alive until we get the vaccines or the federal funding, until our economy starts to take off.
I can say that our economy is doing better than the country and almost all the states in America, but it’s still really bad. It’s not a great situation for all these hardworking struggling folks.
(Question off mic).
Hopefully we’ll have some room. We have to go into overtime for the rest of the folks. No, this thing continues to be of concern. We are going to continue to have issues with people who are not going to struggle to get their payments. Let me just run through some of the facts for you. First of all, we have had 788,000 completed plans. That’s more than we usually do in several years, but it’s been over a period of a couple of months. 93.7% of those have been fully processed and people have received an answer. Now, it’s not always the answer that they want. 622,091 people have gotten their payments. 116,000 have been denied because they do not meet the federal requirements and we can’t by law pay them. So those 116,000 people are really frustrated, but we are not able to pay them money because they don’t qualify.
There is a pending or remaining in process 6.3%. That’s 29,000. It’s a lot of people. Tiny percentage, I think it’s the best in the country, our backlog is at 49,000. I think Virginia is 150,000. California is 1.4 million. We were the first state in America to have a website that could handle all of the things. Our upgraded website is now the best in the country. We’ve expanded call centers, we’ve hired hundreds of extra people, but you can’t have 5, 6, 700,000 people call on the phone every week and handle that. It would be like calling Google and saying can you give me this information. We have a great website and we’re trying to help people navigate through that, but of the 49,000 that haven’t been resolved, it’s not because people don’t care or they don’t want to try to help them, but 47,000 of them are currently under investigation. That doesn’t mean they’re bad people; it means their employer said they’re not involuntarily terminated or I didn’t fire them, they just didn’t show up. They can’t qualify. So we’re trying to resolve those issues. It takes a lot of time. Talking to 49,000 people for sometimes hours a day is hard. So people say why haven’t I gotten my unemployment. It takes a while to get 49,000 people resolved even if you have a couple thousand people working on it.
2,205 have some other issue. That’s 0.3%. The ones that we flagged as fraudulent, we have 149,518 fraudulent plans. That slows down the system, trying to respond to those 149,000 cases of fraud, identity theft, half a billion dollars. I think we ended up losing $1.1 billion or something. Many states don’t even have a website. Some have turned off their phones.
So I guess my heart goes out to every single person that hasn’t been resolved and I can tell you we’re moving heaven and earth to try to get them resolved, but for the next year, you’ll hear 100,000 people who won’t be satisfied with the result or don’t feel like they’re being handled fast enough. I believe in almost every category, we’re doing better than almost all the states.
But we’re still working on that. 83% of the ones that we flagged as potentially fraudulent, which take a long time to investigate, 83% of those were confirmed as fraud. You know, 7,255 of those that were mostly out of state are currently under review. And it takes federal, Department of Labor, lawyers back and forth with the lawyers, there are five or six different states where they’re all filing simultaneously. Many of these are brand new programs. A chunk of this is self-employed people who were never eligible before for unemployment and don’t know how to work unemployment.
I’m as frustrated as the folks that you talk to. We have meetings on it every single day. We’ve made tremendous progress. $7.6 billion is in the hands of 700,000 people, but still a lot of people we’re trying to help.
Kate was skipped over a couple of times.
(Question off mic).
Well, we’ve taken on the amount that we thought was legitimate of the rainy-day fund, useful, and not dropping below what we normally keep in reserves. We’re hoping this will be enough but we really don’t know what will happen over the coming weeks and months or when Washington will act, when the virus is going to potentially spike up, people won’t go out to these businesses and restaurants.
We don’t have all the answers, but we believe with all the best data, input, and advice from our team that this is going to help a lot. It won’t help every single person or business, but it will help a whole lot of people and businesses and keep employees working which is what we’re trying to do. Frankly we’re all trying to figure this out as we go and we’re just hoping we’re making the right decisions.
(Question off mic).
Are you concerned about the security of the election?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: On the first point, businesses can get help from different places. The layoff aversion fund so they’re not getting rid of their employees. They can also go through any of these programs depending on their need and what they’re qualified for.
With respect to the security of the election, we’ve been watching it very carefully, both nationally and here in the state of Maryland. We’ve had multiple meetings with all of the federal and state security experts. We had a meeting just last week with every representative from the FBI, Homeland Security, from the postal inspectors, along with all of our security team, our Homeland Security director, our superintendent of state police, our cyber coms division, the National Guard. All of us at the meeting. And they’re all cooperating local, state, and federal together on election security. We went through all kinds of potential scenarios and some concerns about things that could happen and laid out plans for all that we could do to try to prevent it from happening. And they’re meeting ongoing, state elections, local boards, local law enforcement. There’s a huge team of people through the Maryland emergency management team trying to ensure that every vote is counted and that nobody is tampering with the election. I’m reasonably confident that really smart people are all over the problem, but I can’t guarantee that people aren’t going to try to do some bad things.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
They won’t be able to sit on the money. They either have to get it out or they lose it or set up programs to ensure that.
I don’t know that it’s 19 counties that haven’t done it. It’s just an average of the 19 counties. I just want to be clear. We’ll try to get it out through some other programs or do it directly. But trying to process all those things, knowing who is the business most in need in this Main Street in this small county, they have a better idea and can get it out quicker but if they’re not doing that, we will work with them with every agency to try to together do it.
All right. Thank you all very, very much.
But first I want to provide an update on Maryland’s continued health and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of our early and aggressive mitigation efforts and the vigilance of the people of Maryland, our key health metrics continue to remain low and stable. While there are spikes across the nation, Maryland is one of only eight states in America where new cases of COVID-19 are low and continuing to stay low. Our statewide positivity rate is one of the lowest in America, currently at 3.1%, a decline of nearly 89% since it peaked at 26.91% 188 days August on April 17th.
We are closely monitoring a slight uptick in hospitalizations, both acute and ICU beds, over the past 2 weeks. However, hospitalizations are still down 73% since they peaked 175 days ago at 1,711, and we’ve seen a nearly 80% decline in ICU levels since they peaked 165 days ago on May 10th.
Our first goal every day is to save the lives of Marylanders, and according to the CDC, Maryland currently has one of the lowest death rates in the country with a 0.7 new deaths per 100,000 people, and we are pleased that twice this month for the first time since the pandemic began, we have had days with zero new deaths statewide.
While Maryland is continuing to make progress in limiting the spread of the virus, the spiking numbers in other states, both in our region and across the nation, are concerning. And they are an important reminder that this crisis is far from over. The fact is that COVID-19 is spreading rapidly throughout the country, and this virus certainly does not recognize state borders. So while we’re currently doing better than 42 other states on our health metrics, we are also continuing to make every effort to keep Maryland safely open for business. The way we do that is by continuing with our cautious data-driven approach and by everyone continuing to follow the public health guidance.
I want to sincerely thank Marylanders for their vigilance throughout this pandemic in wearing masks, physical distancing, and by taking the other simple steps which are the reason that we are doing so well in comparison to others.
Our contact tracing operation continues to show that social gatherings remain the most likely source of transmissions. The number one activity of those who have tested positive continues to be family gatherings, followed by house parties. With the holidays fast approaching and with the virus spiking in 42 states, this data is an important reminder that the way to keep each other safe and to keep Maryland open for business is pretty simple: Avoid traveling to hotspots and continue following the public health guidelines by wearing masks or face coverings and practicing physical distancing.
A new Goucher College poll shows that 89% of all Marylanders agree that taking these simple actions is helping us to stop the spread of the virus. So masks and distancing remain our most effective mitigation strategies. We also want to recommend that Marylanders continue as much as possible to avoid large crowds, gatherings, and congregate settings. And as I mentioned, for months, our data continues to show that smaller gatherings and parties are the number one source of new cases. So we can’t let our guard down, and we should remain vigilant, even when we are in close contact with the people that we know and love. Outdoor activity continues to be much safer than indoor activity, and frequent hand washing remains a critically important tool.
Following these simple guidelines will keep us firmly on the road to recovery and help us slow the spread, prevent the surge, and keep Maryland open for business.
In addition to doing better on our health metrics than most of the nation, we are also experiencing a better economic recovery than the nation and most other states. Maryland was able to keep more than 70% of our entire economy open throughout the entire crisis. We safely opened 98% of our economy back in mid-June, and nearly two months ago we entered stage 3 of our recovery plan when all businesses were able to safely reopen in our state. We have now added and regained nearly 200,000 jobs since our recovery began. Last month our private sector grew at the 7th fastest rate in America. Our healthcare sector grew at the 6th fastest rate among all 50 states. And our manufacturing sector grew at the 3rd fastest rate in the nation.
There are, however, increasing indications that the national economic recovery is stalling. The failure of Washington to provide additional stimulus relief for our small businesses, struggling families, and to the states for economic recovery is having a devastating impact. We need both parties in Washington to stop playing politics, to end the gridlock, and to get this done for the American people.
Our small business community and our struggling Marylanders who depend on them for their jobs cannot afford to wait any longer. This is especially true for our restaurants, entertainment venues, and our small mom and pop shops along our Main Streets across the state, many of whom are struggling and are desperately in need of additional and immediate relief.
More than 81,000 Maryland businesses have already received $10 billion in PPP funding, and we have already put out $7.6 billion in unemployment assistance to more than 622,000 Marylanders.
In addition, we are also already provided $250 million in emergency economic relief, including more than 10,000 grants and loans to systematically businesses and nonprofits. Earlier this week we announced $13 million in additional relief for Maryland farmers, growers, producers, and watermen. We have already provided $10 million in funding to help small businesses retain their employees. And have provided $3 million more in assistance for our arts and nonprofit organizations.
All of this has made a big difference, but it’s still not enough. So today we are doubling this $250 million in relief by investing $250 million from the state’s rainy-day fund for a total relief package of $500 million through the Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative. This new $250 million investment will fund a combination of new relief programs, as well as the expansion of our existing successful relief programs in order to quickly provide additional relief to the small businesses and their employees who need our help the most. This economic recovery investment will include an additional $50 million for the Maryland small business COVID-19 relief grant fund, which provides direct, immediate grants to businesses and nonprofits that have lost revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This $50 million represents the third installment of this successful program which we launched in March and expanded in June to bring our total investment to $145 million. It will allow us to fully fund the entire backlog of all the business grant applications which have been already received and reviewed by the Maryland Department of Commerce. The Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative will also provide $50 million in new relief specifically for Maryland restaurants. This will go to things like purchasing equipment and services to expand outdoor dining for the fall and winter, through improvements such as tenting and heaters as well as funding for infrastructure and health improvements, including HVAC filtration systems and sanitation services. It will also fund things like technology upgrades to support the expansion of more carryout and delivery, as well as the purchase of PPE for restaurant staff, and it will even assist struggling businesses with paying their rent. We are providing this funding to local jurisdictions who will be able to distribute these available funds to qualifying restaurants as quickly as possible. All this money must be disbursed immediately and no later than December 31st of this year.
Yes also providing $20 million to assist other hard-hit businesses and local entertainment venues in our 33 Maryland Main Street organizations as well as the Baltimore City Main Street organizations, representing nearly 4,000 businesses across the state.
We will invest another $20 million, which will triple the investment in the COVID-19 layoff aversion fund. This successful program administered by the Maryland Department of Labor has already helped small businesses with an average of 20 employees to stay open and has saved nearly 9,000 Maryland jobs.
We are also doubling our previous commitment with an additional $5 million into the Maryland small business financing authority to provide even more small and minority business low interest loans. Our economic recovery initiative will also include $2 million in additional funding to support hometown tourism efforts that promote our restaurants, local attractions and shops, and an additional $3 million in funding will also go to assist nonprofits, county arts organizations, and local artists.
Finally, we are establishing a dedicated emergency rapid response fund of $100 million, which will be available to immediately deploy to the other areas of economic need as we move forward, as we assess our state economic situation on an ongoing basis, and as we wait for the federal government to reach a consensus on the next federal stimulus package.
I have directed our teams in each agency to ensure that this much needed funding gets out the door to our struggling citizens and small businesses as quickly as possible. We also intend to work closely with our local partners so that they can assist in expeditiously getting the money into the hands of those who need it most. This new $250 million Maryland Strong: Economic Recovery Initiative will be critical to the thousands of struggling restaurants, small businesses, and Main Streets across the state who are attempting to weather this crisis.
Equally important to their survival will be all 24 jurisdictions finally moving into stage 3 of the Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery plan. For months, our restaurants and small businesses and retail shops have had safe phased reopening plans, and our health metrics are well below required reopening levels. And yet we have a few local leaders who are still refusing to allow them to open and to operate under the state’s reopening guidelines.
Slowing the spread of this virus and saving lives continues to be our most important priority, and with our health metrics continuing to remain low and stable, local jurisdictions should be focused on our economic health and well-being as well. We are disappointed that many counties have not yet allocated the bulk of the assistance funding which has already been provided to them in order to help citizens and small businesses in their communities. The state paid out more than $362 million in CARES Act funding to 19 of our smaller counties, and to date only one-third of that funding has been spent or disbursed by the counties. The five largest counties received another $691 million directly from the federal government in CARES Act funding. This money is required to be spent by the end of the calendar year, and so we’re calling on all of the local jurisdictions to consider matching these new state investments by utilizing some of their remaining CARES Act funding and to help us quickly push it out into our economy.
From the beginning, this crisis back in March, I have been fully committed to keeping Marylanders informed, to being transparent, and to providing the facts as directly as I can. We’ve also continued to take bold actions and to make sound decisions based upon the rapidly changing facts on the ground. That is exactly what we will continue to do in the days, weeks, and months ahead., but it is the everyday actions of all Marylanders that will ultimately determine if our health and economic recovery can continue.
I know that there is COVID fatigue and tremendous frustration that this pandemic is continuing to disrupt our daily lives, and I know that many people are experiencing a great deal of hardship and stress. This has been a very long and difficult year for all of us, but the only way that we can continue to make progress is by all of us doing our part and looking out for one another. We need to recommit to the simple actions that can keep our families and our neighbors safe. Because only the people of Maryland have the power to slow the spread, prevent the surge, and to keep Maryland open for business.
As I have traveled all across Maryland over these last several weeks, I have been inspired by the incredible strength and resilience of Marylanders, the restaurant and small business owners who found ways to adapt and get back to serving customers, the hardworking farmers and watermen who have kept our food supply chain functioning smoothly, essential workers in our grocery stores and pharmacies are all working, and those working in supply warehouses and transportation who work day in and day out since those darkest days back in the spring, as well as the scientists working to develop vaccines and new therapeutic treatments right here in our state.
Most importantly, our doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and first responders who continue to give all that they have on the front lines. Each and every one of you truly are showing what it means to be Maryland Strong.
With that, I’ll be happy to take a few questions.
SPEAKER: Governor, can you talk a little bit about how you arrived at the $500 million number? (Inaudible).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We didn’t think it was prudent to drain the rainy day fund or to spend half a billion from the rainy day fund, but the recommended traditional percentage is just under $500 million and this is the money in excess and over that amount, so we’re still keeping the traditional and recommended amount which is nearly a billion 500 something in the rainy day fund, and this was the excess money that was above and beyond that. We thought that was the right amount of money that we could put into all these programs and realistically get out to people to help. And so we were comfortable with that. It was a decision by our entire administration, our budget secretary, we spent a lot of time working on it and we believe it’s the prudent thing to do to invest in our economy so that we don’t have further business loss and further unemployment and so we can start to get more revenues coming into the state by keeping our economy state.
SPEAKER: Do you think it’s enough money?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I’m hoping that it is, but we really — it is sort of. It’s a tremendous amount of money. We can’t do it alone. We still need that next stimulus package at the federal level. Obviously it appears that we’re not going to get that before the election. I’m hopeful that whenever, regardless of what happens in the election, that the next swearing in, right after the election, that Congress will maybe be able to work out their differences in both houses, both parties, and that maybe we can reach some kind of the agreement because we really need the funding from the federal government.
(Question off mic).
You know, the state law gives each of the local jurisdictions the power to be more restrictive than the state. They can’t be less restrictive. They have to follow the executive orders of the state, but they can take additional actions on their own. People think we granted them that authority, but they actually have that authority constitutionally.
We have been encouraging them since June to follow our Roadmap to Recovery which we think makes the most sense. 89% of our counties are. There’s 4-5 who are not. They have situations on the ground that caused them to go a little slower, which may be prudent, but right now PG County is down to 3.9. AA County, 3.2. Baltimore City, 2.8. And Montgomery County 2.6. You can’t get much lower than that. And we still have businesses that aren’t open, 25% capacity in restaurants, closing things at 10:00 that are open later everywhere else in the state.
We don’t want to take away their authority but we continue to encourage them because it’s hurting our business community and we’re doing a great job staying on top of the health metrics. We talk to them weekly. We have weekly calls with the entire administration. The cabinet secretaries, the local health officers, local school superintendents. We’re trying to get the schools and businesses open, but it is their authority by right.
(Question off mic).
There’s 19 jurisdictions that we actually provide. It’s a pass through. But they have to report back to us. And so as a whole, those 19 counties still have nearly two-thirds of their money remaining. It has to be spent by year end. So we’re going to work with all of them to see if we can get some of that into these programs and/or other things, but we have to get it out so it’s not sitting in their bank accounts.
And the other five counties, the largest counties, the way the federal government programs are set up, they get their money directly without passing through the state. They have nearly twice as much as the other 19 counties. And we don’t get reports from them about what they spend it on, but we’re just encouraging them to spend as much as they can as quickly as they can because it makes an impact.
(Question off mic).
We wanted to have some flexibility and we wanted to have it immediately readily available because first of all, we don’t know where — I mean, this thing changed every day for the last 7 months. We’ll find out something next week or next month that we weren’t aware of. One of these funds might be oversubscribed and we run out of money. Our team really sat down and went through what, how much should we put where, that would be most effective to helping people get jobs, return to their jobs, keep their jobs, keep small businesses from failing. And the 100 million is really kind of a safety valve for the next thing that we might need. If we get federal funding in the next month or two, we may not need it. If we don’t, we may have some serious problems that we need to invest in.
(Question off mic).
Some of them are really struggling and it’s a desperate situation. Many businesses, some of the ones that we talked about trying to address, are hanging on by a thread. And they may not make it another month or two. So when that happens, it’s that owner of the business and all those people that they employ. We’re all concerned about all of them. This won’t solve all of their problems but it can help them stay alive until we get the vaccines or the federal funding, until our economy starts to take off.
I can say that our economy is doing better than the country and almost all the states in America, but it’s still really bad. It’s not a great situation for all these hardworking struggling folks.
(Question off mic).
Hopefully we’ll have some room. We have to go into overtime for the rest of the folks. No, this thing continues to be of concern. We are going to continue to have issues with people who are not going to struggle to get their payments. Let me just run through some of the facts for you. First of all, we have had 788,000 completed plans. That’s more than we usually do in several years, but it’s been over a period of a couple of months. 93.7% of those have been fully processed and people have received an answer. Now, it’s not always the answer that they want. 622,091 people have gotten their payments. 116,000 have been denied because they do not meet the federal requirements and we can’t by law pay them. So those 116,000 people are really frustrated, but we are not able to pay them money because they don’t qualify.
There is a pending or remaining in process 6.3%. That’s 29,000. It’s a lot of people. Tiny percentage, I think it’s the best in the country, our backlog is at 49,000. I think Virginia is 150,000. California is 1.4 million. We were the first state in America to have a website that could handle all of the things. Our upgraded website is now the best in the country. We’ve expanded call centers, we’ve hired hundreds of extra people, but you can’t have 5, 6, 700,000 people call on the phone every week and handle that. It would be like calling Google and saying can you give me this information. We have a great website and we’re trying to help people navigate through that, but of the 49,000 that haven’t been resolved, it’s not because people don’t care or they don’t want to try to help them, but 47,000 of them are currently under investigation. That doesn’t mean they’re bad people; it means their employer said they’re not involuntarily terminated or I didn’t fire them, they just didn’t show up. They can’t qualify. So we’re trying to resolve those issues. It takes a lot of time. Talking to 49,000 people for sometimes hours a day is hard. So people say why haven’t I gotten my unemployment. It takes a while to get 49,000 people resolved even if you have a couple thousand people working on it.
2,205 have some other issue. That’s 0.3%. The ones that we flagged as fraudulent, we have 149,518 fraudulent plans. That slows down the system, trying to respond to those 149,000 cases of fraud, identity theft, half a billion dollars. I think we ended up losing $1.1 billion or something. Many states don’t even have a website. Some have turned off their phones.
So I guess my heart goes out to every single person that hasn’t been resolved and I can tell you we’re moving heaven and earth to try to get them resolved, but for the next year, you’ll hear 100,000 people who won’t be satisfied with the result or don’t feel like they’re being handled fast enough. I believe in almost every category, we’re doing better than almost all the states.
But we’re still working on that. 83% of the ones that we flagged as potentially fraudulent, which take a long time to investigate, 83% of those were confirmed as fraud. You know, 7,255 of those that were mostly out of state are currently under review. And it takes federal, Department of Labor, lawyers back and forth with the lawyers, there are five or six different states where they’re all filing simultaneously. Many of these are brand new programs. A chunk of this is self-employed people who were never eligible before for unemployment and don’t know how to work unemployment.
I’m as frustrated as the folks that you talk to. We have meetings on it every single day. We’ve made tremendous progress. $7.6 billion is in the hands of 700,000 people, but still a lot of people we’re trying to help.
Kate was skipped over a couple of times.
(Question off mic).
Well, we’ve taken on the amount that we thought was legitimate of the rainy-day fund, useful, and not dropping below what we normally keep in reserves. We’re hoping this will be enough but we really don’t know what will happen over the coming weeks and months or when Washington will act, when the virus is going to potentially spike up, people won’t go out to these businesses and restaurants.
We don’t have all the answers, but we believe with all the best data, input, and advice from our team that this is going to help a lot. It won’t help every single person or business, but it will help a whole lot of people and businesses and keep employees working which is what we’re trying to do. Frankly we’re all trying to figure this out as we go and we’re just hoping we’re making the right decisions.
(Question off mic).
Are you concerned about the security of the election?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: On the first point, businesses can get help from different places. The layoff aversion fund so they’re not getting rid of their employees. They can also go through any of these programs depending on their need and what they’re qualified for.
With respect to the security of the election, we’ve been watching it very carefully, both nationally and here in the state of Maryland. We’ve had multiple meetings with all of the federal and state security experts. We had a meeting just last week with every representative from the FBI, Homeland Security, from the postal inspectors, along with all of our security team, our Homeland Security director, our superintendent of state police, our cyber coms division, the National Guard. All of us at the meeting. And they’re all cooperating local, state, and federal together on election security. We went through all kinds of potential scenarios and some concerns about things that could happen and laid out plans for all that we could do to try to prevent it from happening. And they’re meeting ongoing, state elections, local boards, local law enforcement. There’s a huge team of people through the Maryland emergency management team trying to ensure that every vote is counted and that nobody is tampering with the election. I’m reasonably confident that really smart people are all over the problem, but I can’t guarantee that people aren’t going to try to do some bad things.
SPEAKER: Last question.
(Question off mic).
They won’t be able to sit on the money. They either have to get it out or they lose it or set up programs to ensure that.
I don’t know that it’s 19 counties that haven’t done it. It’s just an average of the 19 counties. I just want to be clear. We’ll try to get it out through some other programs or do it directly. But trying to process all those things, knowing who is the business most in need in this Main Street in this small county, they have a better idea and can get it out quicker but if they’re not doing that, we will work with them with every agency to try to together do it.
All right. Thank you all very, very much.