The federal funding freeze, despite being temporarily stayed by courts, has blocked promised grant money from reaching small business owners in Arizona.
Affected programs include Inflation Reduction Act funds aimed at helping farmers switch to more drought-tolerant crops and others that enable business owners to install solar panels. That’s according to Kimber Lanning, CEO of the nonprofit Local First Arizona, who says these grants come as reimbursements after the money is already spent.
“There’s a lot of panic…. So many of them are really trying to figure out what their losses will be and whether or not this may put them into some sort of bankruptcy situation,” Lanning says…