Baker-Polito
Administration Releases New Announcements on Childcare, Small Business Tax
Relief and Unemployment Insurance Legislation Related to COVID-19
BOSTON – Today, Governor Charlie Baker announced
a series of new measures to adapt childcare operations, enhance the
Commonwealth’s healthcare system’s capacity, assist small businesses, and
support unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Childcare
Operations: Governor
Baker issued an Executive Order requiring all early education centers and
family childcare providers to close, starting Monday March 23 to mitigate the
spread of COVID-19. The Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) also
issued emergency procedures to set forth a process for opening Exempt Emergency
Child Care Programs during the COVID-19 outbreak to provide priority access for
families of emergency personnel, medical staff, and others critical to
confronting COVID-19.
Exempt Emergency
Child Care Programs: Exempt
Emergency Child Care Programs will be the only child care programs able to
operate during the COVID-19 outbreak. Families who work to maintain the health,
safety, and welfare of all Commonwealth citizens will receive priority access
to emergency childcare programs and these centers should only be used by people
who must go to work. Vulnerable children will also receive
priority access and space will be made for people who must go to work but
aren’t necessarily emergency personnel.
- The
Department of Early Education and Care put procedures in place to quickly
review applications for emergency child care programs, and to conduct
expedited background record checks for childcare teachers and staff.
- The
Department is working to ensure there is sufficient access to emergency
child care programs in each region of the Commonwealth, so those workers
who need childcare can still access it.
- A
proposed program can be either a currently-licensed child care program, or
a new program such as a location within or near a medical facility.
- Providers
impacted by these closures will continue to receive child care subsidy
payments from the state. This ensures that programs will be able to
re-open once the crisis is over. Parents who receive subsidies will not
lose their vouchers, and will be able to eventually resume care. EEC
will cover the cost of parent fees for subsidized families enrolled in
care.
- All
programs that would like to operate must complete the EEC’s Emergency
Licensing and Background Record Check process. Programs that have a
current license and educators with confirmed background checks will be
expedited for approval.
- Programs must adhere to strict safety and health
standards established by the Department of Public Health and Executive
Office of Health and Human Services.
Public Health
Orders: Department of
Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel has signed three public health orders
today which do the following:
- The first Order relaxes administrative
requirements so as to allow physician’s assistants who previously worked
on elective surgeries to be used elsewhere in the hospital under a
different supervising physician.
- The second Order, due to the expected demands on
nursing staff, would allow pharmacists to administer certain medication
for the treatment of opioid use disorder, where, under normal
circumstances, such medication must be administered by a nurse.
- The third Order requires Local Board of Health to
disclose the addresses – but no other identifying information – of those
diagnosed with COVID-19 to the official in charge of emergency calls in
the jurisdiction. That information can only be used for responding to
emergency calls and is to be kept confidential.
Extending the
Licenses of Certain Licensed Professionals: Governor Baker signed a new emergency order to ensure that licensed
professionals do not have their licenses or registrations lapse due to
unforeseen problems with renewal during the COVID-19 emergency. Specifically,
under this order, occupational or professional licenses of individuals that are
in good standing and that would otherwise be up for renewal during the COVID-19
emergency shall be extended for 90 days after the end of the public health
emergency. This order does not affect license extensions that have already
been granted in earlier emergency orders.
Small Business
Relief: The Baker-Polito
Administration today announced administrative tax relief measures for small
local businesses which have been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak,
especially in the restaurant and hospitality sectors. This tax relief includes
postponing the collection of regular sales tax, meals tax, and room occupancy
taxes that would be due in March, April and May so that they will instead be
due on June 20. Additionally, all penalties and interest that would otherwise
apply will be waived.
- Businesses that paid less than $150,000 in
regular sales plus meals taxes in the year ending February 29, 2020 will
be eligible for relief for sales and meals taxes, and business that paid
less than $150,000 in room occupancy taxes in the year ending February 29,
2020 will be eligible for relief with respect to room occupancy taxes.
- The Department of Revenue is currently drafting
emergency regulations to implement these administrative relief measures,
and they are expected to be finalized before Friday, March 20, 2020.
Unemployment
Benefits: Governor Baker
also today signed S.2599 to provide unemployment assistance to workers impacted
by COVID-19. This legislation will allow new claims to be paid more quickly by
waiving the one week waiting period for unemployment benefits.
The latest information and
guidance regarding COVID-19 is always available at mass.gov/COVID19.
(全美亞裔總商會新聞稿) 我們目前處于史無前例的風險，新冠狀病毒(COVID-19)影響到我們的日常生活和周圍的人群。 COVID-19大流行迅速發展的新形勢，極大地影響了亞裔商家和商業發展。 全美亞裔總商會(National ACE)如今比以往任何時候都更繼續完成其重要使命，繼續推動亞裔企業，商業發展及影響力。 
全美亞裔總商會由會長董繼玲會長領導，上週在國會山一連串的活動，為亞裔商家爭取權益。董事會成員Andrew Chau在眾議院小企業委員會上作了證詞，敘述冠狀病毒對亞裔中小企業的巨大影響。 並由會長董繼玲及主席吳嘉琳 在國會大廈與國會亞太裔小組成員會面，敦促國會立即採取行動，保護全國200萬名亞裔企業和超過350萬名他們雇用的員工。 出席國會議員，包括趙美心，劉雲平，Andy Kim，和Susie Lee 等 。 
全美亞裔總商會並由會長董繼玲會長， 政策委員會主席吉米·弗格森(Jimmy
Ferguson) 聯繫小型企業圓桌會議的成員，會見了中小企業管理局(Small
Business Administration) 局長Jovita Carranza， 要求為受到冠狀病毒影響的亞裔企務尋求解決方案 。 SBA隨即宣佈他們將直接與各州官員合作，為受到大流行影響的小型企業提供高達200萬美元的經濟傷害災難貸款。 www.sba.gov 
全美亞裔總商會商會並與其他各個多元化商會的共同努力。 全美亞裔總商會與其他全國性多元化商會(美國非裔商會，美國西班牙裔商會，全國LGBT商會) 舉行了會議，討論了未來共同合作的戰略與方向。 所有商會共同致信國會領導，Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic Leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy 主張在整個危機中如何為我們各自的成員和合作夥伴提供保護和資源。信中表示，全力支持多元化中小企業成長。全國性多元化商會 代表代表美國多元化企業家和勞動力的一些最大的組織。組織共同帶來了超過9萬億美元的經濟影響，以及成千上萬的納稅，行業創新工作。鼓勵在跨部門多元化和包容性倡議中實現平等，努力確定各種業務之間的合作領域，並倡導支持公共和私營部門中多元化公司成長的政策：在危機時期為全國性多元化的業務提供支持。全國性多元化商會組織主要是，它們代表成千上萬的小型企業，並在全國范圍內僱用數十萬人。小型企業是為美國大多數勞動力提供工作的經濟引擎。減少經濟活動並威脅創造就業機會。根據牛津經濟研究院（Oxford Economics）進行的活動行業委員會（Events Industry
Council）的《 2018年經濟意義研究》，每年在美國舉行的會議超過190萬次，參加人數超過250萬次 。這些會議為美國國內生產總值貢獻了超過4，460億美元，並直接支持了全國590萬個工作崗位。
