photo by: Associated Press

President Donald Trump signs a coronavirus aid package to direct funds to small businesses, hospitals, and testing, in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, April 24, 2020, in Washington, as from left, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Jovita Carranza, administrator of the Small Business Administration, and House Minority Kevin McCarthy of Calif., look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Kansas businesses received more than $4.2 billion in federal loans from a $349 billion Small Business Administration program before it ran out of money in mid-April.

But it remains unclear whether Kansas businesses are getting their fair share of the money since the Paycheck Protection Program was restocked with $320 billion in new federal funding on April 27. The SBA has not released state-level data about who is receiving the loans since April 16.

The best that can be said is, anecdotally, the program that is designed to give businesses mostly forgivable loans to maintain their employee payroll is going better than it did during its early days.

Will Katz, director of the KU Small Business Development Center, told the Journal-World there seems to be “less heartburn” with the second go-round of funding for the PPP. The center has a partnership with the SBA and provides advisory services to Douglas, Franklin, Jefferson, Atchison, Leavenworth and Doniphan counties in Kansas.

“The whole program is very complex,” Katz said. “During the first weeks of the PPP, you saw some of the difficulties of rolling out complex, newly ideated legislation.”

Katz compared the initial rollout to if Congress passed a law requiring Tesla to make a new car and park one in every American’s driveway in a matter of weeks — the law itself may be possible, but there’s no way Tesla could ramp up such a production demand that quickly.

That was the level of the program’s magnitude facing the SBA and many participating lenders across the country. All involved had to quickly understand what they could and couldn’t do under the program guidelines.

“More banks now have a pretty good grasp on what they’re supposed to do,” Katz said. “But small businesses have been hit really, really hard by this. I don’t think anyone understood how much need would be out there on the part of small businesses.”

It is unclear why the federal government is not releasing state-level statistics about the second phase of the loan program. An SBA spokesperson confirmed to the Journal-World that statistics for the new round of funding aren’t yet available, but did not elaborate on why.

The program has been the subject of controversy. In recent weeks, many publicly traded companies — such as the restaurant chain Shake Shack and larger hotel corporations — have come under fire for applying for and accepting loans from the program that could better help small businesses.

Kansas, so far, seems to have avoided much of the scrutiny. According to a database compiled Friday by the Washington Post, only one public Kansas company has received an SBA loan under the PPP: Torotel Inc., an Olathe-based company with 173 employees, received a loan for $1.98 million. The company makes electrical components for the defense and energy sectors, according to its website.

Kansas as a whole has been approved for 26,245 loans totaling over $4.28 billion, according to the SBA — though the data is only current as of April 16, and does not delve deeper into what types of businesses in the state are receiving loans or for how much. The allocation amounts to around 1% of the total PPP program, just as Kansas’ population accounts for around 1% of the United States.

Just over 74% of the 1.6 million loans issued across the country were for under $150,000, according to the SBA data. Such data since the program began issuing loans again on April 27 has not been made available.

As local businesses continue to apply for PPP loans, Katz cautioned that while business owners can apply for the loans at multiple lending locations if they feel the process isn’t moving fast enough, it’s imperative they don’t accept more than one loan.

Businesses are encouraged to contact their existing banker to find out if the bank is participating in the PPP. Other resources in Douglas County for SBA information include Katz’s organization, located at 718 New Hampshire St., and Wakarusa Valley Development Inc., 4321 W. Sixth St., suite B.

Also available to local businesses is the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan program — administered through the SBA and available for any business with less than 500 employees. The program itself has been around for nearly 20 years, but Katz cautioned that while it is effective, it has also been consistently underfunded for years.

The program provides for an advance of up to $10,000 to provide economic relief to businesses experiencing a temporary loss of revenue. Funds will be made available following a successful application. The loan advance will not have to be repaid, according to the SBA website.

Data for the EIDL program is current as of April 24, and shows 7,994 claims from Kansas have been processed totaling $34.3 million. Nationwide, the SBA has processed over 1.1 million advance claims totaling $4.8 billion.

More funding for federal stimulus programs may be available once Congress reconvenes in the coming weeks and drafts additional COVID-19 relief legislation.