Milwaukee to make grants available for small businesses

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Small businesss owners in the City of Milwaukee could soon be getting some much-needed financial relief. Mayor Tom Barrett announced a new funding program to help them with reopening.

Under the Milwaukee Business Restart Program, eligible businesses could get up to $50,000 in grants that won’t have to be repaid. It’s to help small businesses that couldn't get loans from the federal program get back on track from the state’s shut down order, in a safer way.

To be eligible, an organization can’t have more than 20 employees or more than 2-million dollars in revenue.

The City of Milwaukee will be using federal funds they received from the CARES Act.

“This is for those businesses that have already incurred costs for PPE and will have some future costs for PPE," said Mayor Barrett. "If they want to put in a new system for payments, be more credit card friendly so you don’t have to handle cash."

Barrett said they hope businesses can start getting the grant monies in early July or sooner. The online application process will be available in the coming days.