County commissioners in Southwest Oklahoma are grappling with how to spend millions of dollars from the federal government.
Comanche County will receive almost $23.5 million from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan signed into law March 12.
“We’ve received our first payment of about $12.5 million,” said Comanche County District 1 Commissioner Alvin Cargill. “It was kind of amazing seeing all that money in our account.”
A portion of that $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill — Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds — is designated to provide $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments which includes $23,454,078 million to Comanche County.
The counties will receive the funds in two installments. The initial payment of 50 percent was received in May and the balance will delivered about 12 months later, according to the US Treasury Department website. Tribal governments will receive two payments, with the first payment available in May and the second payment, based on employment data, to be delivered in June 2021.
The fiscal recovery funds are designed to provide flexibility for each government to meet local needs — including support for households, small businesses, impacted industries, essential workers, and the communities hardest hit by the crisis. These funds can also be used to make necessary investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure.
Funds can be used to respond to acute pandemic-response needs, fill revenue shortfalls among state and local governments, and support the communities and populations hardest-hit by the COVID-19 crisis, said Treasury officials in a press release. Eligible state, territorial, metropolitan city, county, and Tribal governments will be able to access funding directly from the Treasury Department as they recover from the pandemic.
While that may seem straightforward, Cargill said the rules governing the use of the funds are complicated — so much so the board of commissioners are interviewing firms to help manage the funds and ensure the county stays within regulations.
“If we spend that money on something that we’re not allowed to then, we, as a county, would have to pay that money back and that’s something we certainly don’t want to do,” Cargill said. “That’s why we’re being very, very cautious and making sure that we partner with some people that will work with us and help us get past the initial plan implementation.”
Cargill declined to give specifics on where the county is looking to spend the money, but some can be used to recoup county revenue losses from the pandemic.
“We’re working on it,” said Cargill. “We’re (commissioners) closing out our first round of kind of going through and seeing and understanding what the needs are for the county, and we’re working with some of the smaller towns in the county to get an idea of their needs as well.”
According to the Treasury Department’s website, funds can also be used to provide premium pay to essential workers both directly and through grants to third-party employers. The payments are meant to prioritize low and moderate-income workers who faced the greatest mismatch between employment related health risks and compensation.
The interim final rule is made up of about 39 pages of the dos and don’ts on how to spend the money. These guidelines have left many commissioners, including Caddo County, confused on what to use the money for. For example, said Benny Bolling, Caddo County District 1 commissioner, his county does not have a hospital or county sewage system.
“We’re happy to have the money,” Bolling said. “But these rules were not written for small, rural counties like mine.”
Bolling and his fellow commissioners have met with the state auditor and attorney general on how to spend the money but often times they have left those meetings with even more questions than they went in with, he said.
“I’m very concerned about it,” said Bolling. “This money can be a nightmare if we use it wrong so we’re still a long way off from making any decision about it.”
According to the Treasury Department, the funds can be used in several areas at the discretion of county commissioners.
The funds can be used to support public health response to COVID-19 which includes vaccination, medical expenses, testing as well as provide behavioral health services. The rules support improvements to infrastructure such as building or upgrading facilities and transmission distribution and storage systems. Included in the rules is language to allowing counties to focus on households and businesses without access to broadband internet and fund projects that deliver reliable service with a minimum of 100 Mbps download and upload speeds.
One of the more flexible areas of the rules includes the ability of counties to offer monetary assistance to households or populations facing negative economic impacts due to COVID–19. This includes food assistance; rent, mortgage, or utility assistance; counseling and legal aid to prevent eviction or homelessness. The rules also allow for cash assistance emergency assistance for burials, home repairs, weatherization, or other needs; internet access or digital literacy assistance; or job training to address negative economic or public health impacts experienced due to a worker’s occupation or level of training.
