From 4 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. today, the Small Business Administration will only accept Paycheck Protection Program loan applications from businesses with assets less than $1 billion, according to a 2 p.m. alert from federal officials.

“Every job is life-sustaining for someone, and the PPP is saving the livelihoods of those in our community,” Orrstown Executive Vice President and Chief Retail Officer Luke Bernstein said in his remarks to the nation Tuesday.

Combined assets between the two community development financial institutions, which will be organized as a single entity under the name Community First Fund, will total $101 million, and $129 million by 2024, Community First Fund officials said in a Tuesday announcement.

The unprecedented volume of crisis loan applications is shifting lender-borrower relationships, as community banks establish lending relationships with small business owners who struggled to receive financial support at bigger banks.

PRLA officials said they will begin accepting applications for HARP on April 23, and the application portal will end May 5. Only the first 1,000 applicants will be accepted during the first round.

The program comes out of a collaboration between nonprofit business groups ASSETS and the Community First Fund, which said they approached city officials with a concept plan to provide loan and grant funds for businesses operating in the city who struggled to access the Paycheck Protection Program loan funds from the Small Business Administration. 

More than $247 billion of the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been approved for use by American businesses as of Tuesday evening, according to the latest figures from the Small Business Administration, the federal agency overseeing the rollout of stimulus funds.More than $247 billion of the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been approved for use by American businesses as of Tuesday evening, according to the latest figures from the Small Business Administration, the federal agency overseeing the rollout of stimulus funds.

Harrisburg International Airport will receive $9.8 million in Federal Aviation Administration funding as part of the CARES Act, coronavirus relief legislation. It was one of 63 airports in the state to share in more than $239 million in funding.

Additional funds would ease the strain of capital and liquidity constraints on banks originating PPP loans, but midstate financial institutions said in interviews this week that guidelines for the additional funds and the PPP as a whole are still pending from the Fed and the Small Business Administration.

Businesses that collect Pennsylvania sales taxes will not have to make accelerated sales tax prepayments in April, May and June due to income shortfalls from social distancing requirements, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has caused a perfect storm for the midstate financial services sector — not just for the unprecedented scale of the loan program intended to sustain companies affected by the pandemic, but with day-to-day updates to guidelines about how to make funds available.

The GIANT Co. of Carlisle has established a $250,000 emergency fund to help support small businesses in Pennsylvania’s food supply chain that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The term and its potential impact in contracts are being scrutinized due to business interruptions and shutdowns caused by coronavirus, or Covid-19. In Pennsylvania mandatory shutdowns ordered by Gov. Tom Wolf in March have rendered many everyday business practices illegal.

Modifications to the U.S. tax code under the CARES Act, signed into law on March 27, are designed to help companies hold onto capital and retain employees until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, federal officials and local accounting professionals say.

Federal officials are working with local lenders to help small businesses pay the bills and keep workers on furloughed status — a kind of induced economic freeze — so they are positioned to make a successful economic rebound on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic.