Kansas gets ready to send tax dollars to small businesses hurt by pandemic orders

Federal money will pay for property tax refunds for some small businesses that lost money in the wake of various efforts to control the spread of COVID-19.
LAWRENCE, Kansas – Tish Cobb figures she lost about $15,000 in the spring of 2020 when state and local health orders aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus shut down her hair salon.

“I lost business,” she said, “for eight weeks.”

Subsequent orders that limited the number of customers she could serve also cost her money.

Now, she and other small business owners can recoup some of their COVID-19 pandemic losses through a program established by the Retail Storefront Property Tax Relief Act passed in the final days of the Kansas Legislature’s 2022 session and signed into law by Gov. Laura Kelly in June.