“We were just interested to … see what the impacts potentially could be [on the community],” says Heather McDaniel, president of TCAD. 

She called the U.S. Treasury’s decision to release the PPP data a “pretty unprecedented move.” McDaniel spoke with CNYBJ on July 21.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) implemented the PPP loan program to help small businesses survive and retain jobs “in very uncertain times.”

The SBA will forgive the loans if employee-retention criteria are met and the funds are used for eligible expenses. 

“Talking to businesses, I’ve heard several times that [PPP loans were] absolutely critical for essential businesses to keep operating in a reduced-revenue climate; to keep employees on the payroll while they might have been closed in those first few weeks even,” says McDaniel.

She says she knows from experience that when a business sees a downturn and reduces operations and staff, it takes a “really long time” for it to come back and “a lot of times” hire new people to fill those positions and then have to train the new employees. 

“My assumption is that it really helped to keep businesses at a stable level so that when the economy does start to come back, they’ll be able to continue to grow,” McDaniel adds.

About the PPP loans

The PPP loan information was sorted into two classes, including loans of $150,000 or more (class I) and loans less than $150,000 (class II). 

Class I includes the names of recipient businesses but categorizes their loans into five different ranges ($150,000 to $350,000; $350,000 to $1 million; $1 million to $2 million; $2 million to $5 million; and $5 million to $10 million). 

Class II omits names but includes precise loan amounts. Additional information, including industry, lender, and jobs retained, is provided for all loans and offers a glimpse into “just how critical the PPP was in enabling businesses to retain jobs in Tompkins County,” TCAD contends.

Although class I loans comprised only 13.6 percent of all loans in Tompkins County, they contributed to 57.4 percent of jobs retained in the county, with an average retention of 44 jobs per loan. 

More than half of the 171 class I loans were in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. Conversely, class II loans comprised the “vast majority” of all loans at 86.4 percent yet contributed to only 42.6 percent of jobs retained. 

They had an average loan size of $36,925 and retention of 5.5 jobs per loan, TCAD said.

Industries impacted

The professional, scientific, and technical services; health care and social assistance; accommodation and food services; other services; and retail trade industries all exceeded 100 loans approved. 

Industries that surpassed 1,000 jobs retained were accommodation and food services; health care and social assistance; retail trade; and professional, scientific, and technical services.

“PPP helped keep The Computing Center’s 21 staff members employed and benefits fully paid,” Larry Baum, TCAD board chair and founder of The Computing Center, said in a release. “It also allowed many of our clients to continue operations and keep their staff in place as well. The entire program assisted us to stay fully operational throughout and able to deliver computer products as well as onsite and remote services to clients.”

Industries that TCAD supports — including manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and professional, scientific, and technical services — comprised nearly one-quarter of all loans and jobs retained, with an average retention of 10 jobs per loan. 

Among those industries, the number of the smaller class II loans exceeded the larger class I loans by a ratio of more than 5-to-1, yet jobs retained by class I loans nearly doubled that of class II loans. 

Class I had an average retention of 40 jobs per loan, whereas class II retained only 4 jobs per loan.

Banks involved 

Many local banks “stepped up” to be a conduit for the SBA program, TCAD notes.

Tompkins Trust Company approved a total of 414 loans, which are projected to retain 6,049 jobs, with an average retention of nearly 15 jobs per loan. 

Both Elmira Savings Bank and M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB) each approved more than 100 loans and each projected the retention of over 1,000 jobs. 

The local lenders also included Alternatives Federal Credit Union, CFCU Community Credit Union, Chemung Canal Trust Company (NASDAQ: CHMG), and KeyBank (NYSE: KEY). Combined, the local lenders approved nearly three-quarters of all loans with a projected job retention of 82 percent within Tompkins County.

“The Paycheck Protection Program has been an important resource to help small businesses remain open and keep people working,” Peter Newman, president of the Binghamton region of M&T Bank, said.