The funds can replace expenses incurred by work related to the coronavirus, but not to replace lost revenues, which has frustrated many local officials.
The county itself will receive about $1.6 million on top of the $3.3 million in the first installment. Commissioner Don Dixon said he anticipates needing it to add more health district personnel and costs the sheriff’s office and others have incurred that are directly tied to the coronavirus.
The commissioners have already approved expenses of about $700,000 for supplies and equipment to make county employees, residents and buildings safe during the pandemic; extra health department help; a COVID-19 education campaign and a program to help businesses operate safely.
“I believe we have a plan to use it all,” Dixon said of the new allocation. “Some for the homeless, some for the shelters, some for the food pantry, some to reimburse the sheriff for his COVID stuff and things like that. I hope we can use it for the general fund, that’s what would be the great part.”
County Administrator Judi Boyko has also presented the commissioners with a jobs program and some other uses for the money that still need approval.
The CARES Act funding can only be used to reimburse coronavirus expenses, and any unused money must be returned to the U.S. Treasury in December. U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, told the Journal-News that lawmakers restricted use of the funds to coronavirus expenses for a specific reason.
“What you didn’t want to do was give the money to states and they decide, for example Illinois decides we’ll deal with COVID-19 if we have to, but right now we need to pay pensions, so we’re going to bail out our pension fund,” Davidson said. “Then they say we would love to help the COVID-19 people we just need more money.”
Davidson introduced legislation that both extends the deadline and expands allowable uses of the money.
“It’s not over yet, but you’ve got to respond to the facts as you learn them,” Davidson said. “If you look at the city of Middletown for example, their city council endorsed our bill because they’ve had a big impact of loss of revenue and they’ve had COVID expenses but their immediate crisis is funding current operations because of loss of revenue.”
He said he is still confident his legislation will pass when they return to session next month, or at least by the December deadline.
Middletown received $922,988 in the first funding round and is slated to collect $461,494 more. Finance Director Jacob Burton said the city has spent about $478,000 on COVID-19 expenses, including additional salaries for the health department, a fire department captain, a part-time sanitation worker and equipment.
“Income tax collections are down $2.6 million, or 16%, year-to-date through July compared to 2019,” Burton said. “Allowing this funding to offset lost revenue in addition to increased expenditures due to COVID-19 would ensure the city could utilize all funding received from the CARES Act.”
Hamilton’s income tax revenues are down about $2.1 million, but Finance Director Dave Jones said lags in collections might bring in more. The city received the second-highest allotment of CARES funds at $1.25 million, and it will receive an additional $626,881 in the second allotment. Jones said the city has spent $899,500 of its initial allocation, including $300,000 each on programs to help small businesses and on local non-profits to help residents with utility and other bills.
Fairfield Assistant City Manager Dan Wendt said the city has $35,079 left of the first distribution.
“The city of Fairfield is using CARES Act funds to purchase personnel protective equipment and supplies relating to emergency medical services,” Wendy said. “In addition, the resource is being used to fund fire personnel staffing changes that were required to mitigate and to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency.”
The townships have seen less coronavirus-related expenses. West Chester Twp. has identified $60,000 in eligible expenses, and Liberty Twp. has incurred $26,000. They will receive $1.7 million and $1 million respectively in the two rounds of funding.
Other federal grants have also helped with funding.
“We have until October to declare our plans for use of the CARES Act funding and we plan to use that time to ensure the funding is being used responsibly and for its designated purpose,” said West Chester Finance Director Ken Keim.
Several other jurisdictions are still tabulating costs and in some cases developing programs like Oxford, Trenton and Ross Twp. So far, of the larger communities, Fairfield Twp. is the only one that spent all of its $428,864, and officials say they can use the extra $214,452.
“We have primarily spent our funds on safety service salaries and PPE. We purchased a handful of laptops for virtual meetings and remote work. Also purchased UV sanitizing machines for our medics and hand sanitizing stations for all buildings,” Township Administrator Julie Vonderhaar said. “We have spent all of our funding and could absolutely spend more.”
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