Policy Updates: Paycheck Protection Program & Unemployment Costs for Reimbursing Nonprofits

Unemployment Insurance – Last week we shared a copy of this letter that Maryland Nonprofits, the Maryland Municipal League and the Maryland Association of Counties jointly sent to Governor Hogan asking that ‘reimbursing employers’ receive the same delays and relief from COVID-19- driven unemployment insurance costs. Please share that with your own contacts in the legislature,  and pass this on with the alert on our webpage to your own self-insured members or contacts. 

At the federal level, the effort to ‘fix’ the U.S. Dept of Labor’s late-April guidance (requiring reimbursers to pay 100% of their benefits’ costs upfront before receiving the 50% relief provided in the CARES Act) now requires a legislated correction. The recently passed HEROES Act would do this by directing states to use the relief to simply reduce the charges billed to these employers by half.  But that bill may or may not survive the legislative meat-grinder, and this problem needs to be corrected before billings are made for the 2nd quarter of this year!  Please share any stories from your members with us and also respond to this national survey.

Paycheck Protection Program – As expected, the SBA released additional guidance on PPP loan forgiveness on the evening of May 22, which clarifies the forgiveness application rules and information released earlier last week. The new documents are Interim Final Rule on Loan Forgiveness & Interim Final Rule on Loan Review Procedures and Related Borrower Responsibilities. The National Council of Nonprofits has produced a quick analysis of what’s new in the ‘loan forgiveness’ rules.

State Revenues – The MD Bureau of Revenue Estimates will be briefing the House Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees this Thursday, May 28 at 1:30 pm – you can find the links to stream at the W&M’s meeting page.

That meeting and others this week related to COVID 19 can be found here on the General Assembly website.