SALT LAKE CITY — Utah leaders announced plans Wednesday to roll out targeted assistance programs to help businesses and their employees recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19.
The state has $50 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act money that has to be spent before the end of the year and the latest iteration of the state’s economic recovery plan — Utah Leads Together 4.0 — points out exactly how that will be done.
“2020 has been unlike any year we’ve experienced,” Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said. “We’ve faced significant challenges from a health perspective, as well as in our economy.”
He said the plan is not only to keep Utahns healthy, but to use the federal money to help more Utahns engage in the economy more confidently.
“These are not just baby steps, but big steps in leading Utah together,” Wilson said. “We need to keep our eye on Utah’s long-term health and prosperity.”
Within the next 100 days, officials hope to get more Utahns back to work, further reducing the current 9.7% unemployment rate in the state. The plan “to navigate Utah from the depths of the pandemic back to economic and public health,” said Derek Miller, includes incentivizing businesses to follow public health guidelines, providing additional training to people in need, and finding matches for the more than 21,000 jobs already available in Utah, among other things.
“Stay safe to stay open” is the state’s new slogan for business owners.
Officials are asking them to visit StayOpenUtah.com to pledge to follow best practices for health and safety, and in turn, they will get signs and other resources designed to help foster greater consumer confidence.
“It is true that we are in the midst of an economic crisis, but we are also in the midst of an economic recovery and renewal,” Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and chairman of the economic response task force, said during Wednesday’s briefing.
Within 250 days, the state hopes to be able to move toward strategic investments, putting money into developing infrastructure and facilitate economic expansion for the future.
The state also aims to provide more short-term training programs, expand apprenticeship programs, provide vouchers for post-high school certification and one-year graduate programs.
The plan also lays out a longer term focus for the next 500 days, including strengthening cybersecurity, food supply, air quality, opportunities for remote work and more as it remains unknown what shifts the COVID-19 pandemic will deliver, said Theresa Foxley, CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah.
“We’re not sitting back waiting, we’re actually in the process of doing,” Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Wednesday. “I promise we’ll recover.”
The governor said, however, that economic success “comes down to each of us” adhering to public health guidelines.
Herbert said the sooner the state can collectively slow and stop the spread of COVID-19, the quicker things can open and get back to business as usual.
“For a lot of us, it seems like it has been three years and it really has been 3 1/2 months,” he said, adding that the people of Utah are “like the cream rising to the top.”
“We will find ways to get through this challenging time of uncertainty,” Herbert said.
The full 24-page plan, Utah Leads Together 4.0, can be found online, at coronavirus.utah.gov/utahleadstogether.