The Newark Emergency Small Business Grant Fund was created in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic to support the city's impacted enterprises. The program's latest round, its fourth, offers up to $15,000 for eligible companies.

One sets aside $180 million of American Rescue Plan aid for schools and small businesses to upgrade their ventilation and water systems. Another makes New Jersey the 27th state to offer C-PACE financing, according to Environment New Jersey head Doug O'Malley, "the most popular energy efficiency program you haven't heard of,” to commercial property owners.

A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Murphy’s office said that the rates for employers were set into law when Murphy approved a bill in January to space out payments, “making any contribution of federal funds irrelevant in the current fiscal year.”

Two South Jersey Democratic state senators are signing on to a mostly Republican-led effort to use American Rescue Plan money to prevent an increase in N.J. employers' unemployment levy.

Instead, the board said it would extend its 2021 fiscal year spending plan, though agency head Kevin Corbett said it is doing so on borrowed time.

The initiative, part of the American Rescue Plan, will engage with community organizations to aid small businesses around the country during recovery, with a priority on those owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, women and veterans.

City officials said the plan - which will contribute more than $8 million of the $177 million it's getting from the Biden administration under the American Rescue Plan - would hone in on job growth, so-called “equitable development,” small business growth, and neighborhood revitalization.

Business groups contend the state can act now to prevent the increases, given a $6.5 billion federal relief package under the American Rescue Plan and $10 billion of surplus money, but it is opting not to.

The main spending bills were passed by their respective budget committees with little time for public review, drawing the scorn of Republican lawmakers and good government advocates.  In the case of the Assembly version, it was approved just 11 minutes after the full text was released to the public.

$190 million will be used to benefit businesses and low- and moderate-income residents in these stretches of the state.

New Jersey in a peculiar situation: too much money and not a solid idea of where to spend it. As of the latest estimates, the state is looking at a $6.3 billion closing balance come June 30. That’s thanks to billions of dollars in federal aid, nearly $4 billion of bond issue proceeds and higher tax revenue fueled by pent-up consumer demand.

The funding will provide communities with the resources to give homes to the people who have had to endure the COVID-19 pandemic without one.