Restaurants and other small businesses in Los Angeles could qualify for $5,000 in direct aid from the city under the budget submitted earlier this week by Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The proposed financial plan would also allow restaurants to defer up to $8,000 in city fees for three years, and would suspend valet and off-site parking requirements for an additional savings of what Garcetti pegged at $10,000.
He is also asking the City Council to cut the cost of liquor licenses by 70% and to reserve $2 million in grants for establishing outdoor-dining “parklets” in low-income areas.
The outdoor dining OK'd by the city as an emergency response to the pandemic would be allowed to remain in operation permanently.
To offset damage from the pandemic, the Democrat put forth a plan for what he called comeback checks—direct grants of $5,000 a piece to 5,000 small businesses in the City of Angels. The funds could be used to retire debt incurred during the crisis, purchase new equipment and cover the first month of payroll expenses.
“We’ll focus them where our city took the biggest hits, from South LA to East LA to the Northeast San Fernando Valley,” Garcetti said in his annual State of the City Address.
Restaurants in Los Angeles were tightly restricted at multiple times during the pandemic. Dining rooms were only recently allowed to reopen, and at just 25% of total seating capacities. Outdoor dining was suspended after a post-holiday surge in new COVID-19 cases, though places could offer takeout and delivery.
All told, the mayor asked for $150 million in economic aid, with much of it targeted at small businesses.
“If we want a strong economy, we have to help small business owners thrive,” Garcetti said. “I know that in my blood.”
The request for economic stimulus dollars apparently does not include one of the more extraordinary components of Garcetti’s budget, a $24 million test of a guaranteed minimum income, or GMI. Under the setup proposed by the mayor, selected families residing in Los Angeles would receive a check of $1,000 every month for use as they see fit.
Some sociologists and economists have contended that a GMI could be a more effective way of helping the underprivileged—and stimulating the economy—than the conventional systems currently in place around the globe. Although the plans have been tried before in the U.S., those tests were far smaller than the pilot program Garcetti is proposing.
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