CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Business Council announced Wednesday afternoon that they have created three COVID-19 Coronavirus relief programs for Wyoming businesses.

During the May 15 and 16 special Wyoming Legislative session, the Legislature passed a bill that creates three grant programs to provide relief to businesses. The programs are designed to provide rapid relief to businesses.

Of the $1.25 billion Wyoming received from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, $325 million will be distributed to Wyoming businesses affected by the COVID-19 through these three new programs.

Josh Dorrell, Wyoming Business Council CEO, said during Governor Gordon’s press conference on Wednesday that Wyoming people from business owners, to employees, to recent graduates have all be impacted by COVID-19.

The Wyoming Business Council hopes to start accepting applications for grant programs within the next couple weeks.

The programs are as follows:

• $50 million will be allocated to help businesses with 50 or fewer employees with grants of $50,000 per business.
• $225 million will be allocated to help businesses with up to 100 employees with grants of $300,000 per business.
• $50 million will be allocated to help businesses regardless of size with COVID-19 related expenses with grants of $500,000 per business.

Dorrell said the grants are designed to help businesses and employees no matter the industry or service provided.

“This bill was initially written to provide broad coverage to many business types, ensuring that businesses and employees would benefit from these funds, and we’re not picking winners and losers,” Dorrell said. “The greatest factor of eligibility for these funds is how your business was impacted by the crisis, not what kind of industry you work in or what type of business you have.”

Dorrell said business owners should look out for webinars with more information on these funds in the coming days.