“The board of commissioners has identified some very productive applications for their funding and want to be able to have an impact, short, interim and long term in the county,” Boyko said. “Not just survive this pandemic but really create some value in providing services to residents and the corporate citizens of Butler County.”
The pandemic has created a glut of workers who are underemployed or unemployed and businesses that are recreating themselves to produce products in demand because of the virus. White Dog Distilling Company in Middletown, for instance, is making hand sanitizer.
The pilot program Boyko is suggesting would identify the workforce needs of local businesses that changed because of the pandemic and provide training for displaced workers.
There has been shortage of respiratory therapists, and the pilot program could help provide that training in cooperation with schools like Butler Tech and others, officials said.
Butler County Job and Family Services Executive Director Bill Morrison said his employees at OhioMeansJobs will be reaching out to their sources in the chambers of commerce and other business organizations to gauge the new needs.
For residents, the extra $600 in unemployment — on top of state unemployment benefits — the federal government has been providing ended last week, and Morrison said if it is not renewed he expects many more people to seek their services.
“It did serve perhaps as a disincentive. So we’re expecting to see that change dramatically,” Morrison said. “We have over the last six weeks probably started trending where there are more people coming in looking for employment. A lot of them are people out of the restaurant industry and other sectors that are very uncertain as to how they are going to come back.”
U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, told the Journal-News there is a sense of urgency in Washington to do something on a number of fronts but “the main impasse” is the $15-per-hour “bonus” is concerned.
“This is a moral hazard created by a well-intentioned government program,” Davidson said. “But the question is do we keep doing that or do we change that. Republicans broadly say we should change that, people shouldn’t make more for not working than they were making when they were working. Democrats want to hold that at a fixed amount of $15 per hour.”
A bill Davidson has been trying to push through would have a direct impact on Boyko’s pilot program. The CARES funding expires this year and is limited to coronavirus expenses. Davidson said if he is successful the CARES deadline would stretch out to next summer, which would give time to get the program up and running. Loosening restrictions on the use of the money would also allow governments to use the money to replenish revenues lost due to the pandemic.
The state legislature passed the $350 million coronavirus relief bill and the funds have been distributed to local jurisdictions. The county’s share of the $10.7 million allocated to Butler County is $3.3 million.
When the federal government approved the $2 trillion CARES Act in late March, local governments were largely left out of the relief funding. In Ohio, only governments with populations higher than 500,000 — Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Montgomery and Summit counties and the city of Columbus — were eligible. Butler County has about 400,000 residents.
Davidson said he still believes he will be successful in passing the legislation to loosen timeline and use restrictions on the CARES money.
“The good news is broadly there is a sense of agreement on the flexibility for some of the money we’ve already sent to the states,” Davidson said.
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