SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) The San Francisco Board of Supervisors announced a legislative plan to help shop owners financially impacted in the wake of the coronavirus.
Some San Francisco businesses report revenue being down as much as fifty percent.
Sharky Laguana, owner of Bandago says, “San Francisco we’re seeing a seventy to eighty percent drop.”
Laguana describes the local impact the coronavirus has had on his upscale passenger van business Bandago in San Francisco.
The business owner is concerned that if something is not done things could get even worse.
“If crowd gatherings become a problem, if the government begins to say that you can’t get people together, obviously it makes it really hard for the arts community to make a living. which means it is going to be really hard for us to put vans on the road,” Laguana says.
Jay Cheng from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce explains, “Small business owners are going to have to make really difficult decisions. Am I going to pay rent? Am I going to be able to sustain inventory or am I going to have to cut employee hours?”
Cheng adds the chamber has a proposal for an economic recovery package that city leaders are also taking a look at.
“For so many of these businesses the key question is about cash flow. Right? We have tax day coming up for all of us, in March and April. Payroll taxes, sales taxes, and for businesses who want to pay their taxes, want to pay their fair share but if we can push back those due dates later in the year, that gives them enough cash flow to ride out this down turn,” Cheng said.
Without it, the ripple effect for San Francisco businesses will be laying off employees
Laguana expresses his concern for layoffs, “That’s the big concern right now is taking care of the people that work for us and making sure we have the resources to take care of them. I don’t know how long that will last or how sustainable that will be without business to support it.”
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