With the economic recovery faltering (just check out today's brutal jobless claims data) and federal aid stalled in Washington, state governments are stepping in to try to help small businesses survive the pandemic winter. In recent weeks, both blue and red states have rolled out new grant and loan programs to help their businesses hang on. The trouble is, there's a limit to what states can do. The pandemic has blown a hole in state budgets, and unlike the federal government, most states can't run a deficit. Governors say they need federal help. As Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio told me: “We have done what we can do to pump money into small businesses so that people can continue to work... We’ve got to get that help from the federal government. That’s the only place we can get it.” For more on what states are doing, and why saving small businesses is so important to their budgets and economies, see my story in today's The New York Times : #economy #smallbusiness #jobs …see more