Arnold’s Country Kitchen operator Kahlil Arnold was worried small businesses would be left to twist in the wind after the governor ordered restaurant dining rooms to close during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So he was elated when Gov. Bill Lee and top state officials held a press conference Tuesday, June 2, at his meat-and-three eatery to announce a $200 million plan to buoy 28,000 businesses crippled by the crisis.

More restaurants reopening, including East Memphis & Cooper-Young favorites

It’s part of $2.6 billion the state received through the federal CARES Act for COVID relief.

Opened by Jack and Rose Arnold in 1982, the Nashville restaurant received a “small amount” of federal funds through the Paycheck Protection Program, but it won’t sustain the longtime eatery, Kahlil Arnold said, and the restaurant still isn’t assured of survival.

He noted he knows numerous small business whose owners were “freaking out” because they didn’t get any COVID relief money during the first or second rounds of federal help.

“To know that your state’s gonna really look out and help the small business. … It just feels like a big burden lifted. It feels like there’s a chance,” Arnold said, as he served a variety of meats and vegetables to customers. “You see a glimmer of hope in the clouds. It’s amazing. You feel like you might not be lost yet.”

Small businesses left empty-handed as Paycheck Protection funds run out

The line of hungry lunchtime diners has started to return to the restaurant located on 8th Avenue South near downtown Nashville, though it is still operating at 50% capacity. But Arnold’s was doing only 85% of its business after the governor sent out an executive order requiring all nonessential businesses to close. Restaurants were allowed to keep serving takeout meals and drinks.

The program affects other businesses, too, including gyms, barber shops, salons, tattoo parlors, bars, hotels, theaters, museums, zoos, amusement parks, bowling alleys, marinas, amusement, sports and recreation industries and any others forced to shut down to keep people apart and stop the spread of the virus.

Agents, managers, athletes, entertainers, and independent artists, writers and performers would be eligible as well.

Revenue Commissioner David Gerregano said the payments would be based on annual gross sales and run from $2,500 for the smallest businesses to $30,000 for the largest ones eligible, about $7,200 per taxpayer based on 28,000 businesses.

More than 73% of the businesses expected to qualify have annual gross sales less than $500,000.

PPP loans are complicated, especially for restaurateurs

The Department of Revenue will look at the sales taxes reported by businesses statewide and prepare to make payments.

More details are to be posted in the next few days at https://www.tn.gov/revenue/tennessee-business-relief-program.html.

“The vast majority of these companies were closed by executive order in the stay-at-home orders, so we wanted to go first to those that were made to close,” Lee said.

State Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat who serves on the governor’s federal financial accountability panel, said the stimulus program is the right move to help small businesses survive.

“This new stimulus program represents my belief that our focus and support should be targeted toward helping ‘mom and pop’ shops, the little guys and women- and minority-owned businesses, especially those that missed out on federal programs,” Akbari said.

“Whether it’s a diner, a beauty salon or specialty shop, small business are the bedrock foundation of our communities and state economy,” she said. “I’m hopeful this money helps some of these small, family-owned businesses catch up on rent or utility bills that were hard to pay because of this pandemic.”