Small businesses across the Hudson Valley are starting to finally see the federal money they were promised months ago.

Anthony Amato, co-owner of Foley's in Pleasantville was forced to shutdown right before St. Patrick's Day. Amato says it was devastating.

"I was in complete shock," says Amato. "It's not something any of us had expected."

Amato has been waiting for weeks for the federal loan assistance to come through, and says it finally has come through.

"We're going to use it to pay our rent, pay the employees we have on staff, the electric bills and the utility bills," says Amato.

The federal money comes from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). The controversial program ran out of money once and has been criticized because so many small business owners felt like they were shut out in favor of big businesses.

In recent weeks, the PPP funding has been replenished. Small Business Administration officials say the great thing about it is that in most cases its free money.

"As long as you use 75% of that loan money towards payroll you should be OK on the forgivable portion of the payroll," says John Mallano, of the Small Business Administration.

Small business owners like Brian Cardone say the PPP money is not the answer to 85 to 90% of the problems. Cardone says he thinks it won't help much because his plant is still closed.

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