Where will the County $95M in CARES Act Funding go?

Nearly half (43%) of it will be already be publicly committed before the county board even meets to discuss it tonight.

Follow the money. Or at least try to!

HOW MUCH HAS ALREADY BEEN COMMITTED?

I tried to keep track and this is what I think has been announced publicly as where the money is going.  At least this is what I could find, the county titles on legislation can make it hard to search for items.

• Dane County announces $10 million eviction prevention fund– Madison 365 (May 18th)
  • County Board action items
    • Nothing in legistar yet?
• Dane County Increases Dane Arts Need Grant Program to $122,500 to Support Local Artists During COVID-19 Pandemic – Dane County (May 13)
  • County Board action items
    • AMENDING THE 2020 BUDGET TO FUND THE DANE ARTS NEED GRANT PROGRAM IN THE OFFICE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS – not yet passed
• Dane County to fund $3.5 million grant program for child care providers – Cap Times (May 7)
  • County Board action items
    • AUTHORIZING CONTRACT TO COMMUNITY COORDINATED CHILD CARE, INC. DCDHS – EAWS DIVISION – Not yet passed
• Funding for Dane County small business support program to increase by $10 million – State Journal (May 3rd)
  • County Board action items
    • APPROVING A SECOND ADDENDUM TO A CONTRACT FOR AN EMERGENCY SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM – Passed 5/11
• $3 million from Dane County to bolster food pantries – WKOW (May 1)
  • County Board action items
    • ESTABLISHING A COVID-19 FOOD PROGRAM AND APPROVING A CONTRACT WITH SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK TO PURCHASE AND DISTRIBUTE FOOD TO DANE COUNTY FOOD PANTRIES – Passed 5/11
• Dane County Increases Funding for Small Business Pandemic Support Grant Program to $800,000 Following Overwhelming Community Interest – Dane County (April 6th)
  • County Board action items
    • APPROVING A CONTRACT FOR AN EMERGENCY SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM – Passed 4/6
    • APPROVING AN ADDENDUM TO A CONTRACT FOR AN EMERGENCY SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM -Passed 5/11
• More than 300 homeless being housed in Madison-area hotels amid outbreak – State Journal (April 6th)
  • County Board action items
    • Request for Waiver of Bid – Human Services – Housing and Feeding Homeless Persons during the Pandemic (Various Vendors) – Passed 3/30
    • AWARDING CONTRACT TO S AND J HOME CARE, LLC DCDHS – HAA DIVISION – Passed 5/11

If you add this all up I believe its about $41M.  Not all of it has been approved by the county board yet, but how could they say no to any of it.  It also includes $1.5M/mo to pay for the hotels for people without homes through the end of the year ($13.5M), as that is what they announced in various meetings this week. See below where Parisi says it is $24M. I’m unclear if some of this is FEMA money instead of CARES Act money, the fiscal notes on some of the items were not clear.  It’s hard to follow the money!

WHO COMMITTED IT?

All of this was announced by press release, and then the county board actions for it ended up being a rubber stamp.  Governance by press release.  It makes things difficult because once the County Board Executive has held the press conference and announced the funding, how would the county board even start to undo it?

WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR SPENDING THIS MONEY?

As far as I can tell:

• It has to be spent on COVID related expenses
• Has to be spent by the end of the year
• Can’t be used to replace money that was already budgeted

MESSAGE FROM COUNTY EXECUTIVE JOE PARISI TO COUNTY BOARD

His math is a little different than what I realized.  His adds up to $63M, leaving $32M and he’s hoping to use $20-25 of that to fill gaps in the budget.  Leaving the county board $12 – 17M.

To:  County Board of Supervisors

Fr:   County Executive Joe Parisi

Re:  Update on COVID CARES Act Funding

Over the last couple of weeks, we have moved quickly to ease some of the hardships brought about by the Covid-19 global pandemic in our community. Because of our collaborative efforts we connected local growers struggling to sell their produce with the increasing number in our community in search of fresh, healthy foods. The partnership we forged between farmers and food pantries will keep shelves stocked at a time the need for emergency food supply remains the most common call to the United Way’s 211 hotline. To date, we provided enough food for this project until July. Given the long duration nature of this pandemic and warnings from the scientists about future waves of illness given the absence of a vaccine, it’s reasonable to assume the need for emergency food will go far beyond a couple months from now. If the need for food persists as we anticipate, the tally for this work to continue this year will be $8 million.

We created the boldest local small business support program in the country – totaling $10.8 million – providing a lifeline to the small businesses that comprise the backbone of our vibrant economy. This will position more of our businesses for successful re-openings and more importantly, keep people employed in our community.

Perhaps our greatest shared success is the herculean efforts that went into the early weeks of this pandemic to get emergency hotel rooms to safely shelter those in our community who struggle with homelessness. We have seen what this virus does in congregate settings and identifying and moving over 350 at risk individuals to the safety of hotel space is a remarkable humanitarian success story. Again, in the absence of a vaccine it’s safe to assume these sheltering needs will not ease up, potentially until next spring. If we decide to keep folks in our shelter settings until vaccines are available and not displace them in the winter months, it will cost us around $24 million.

Later today we will unveil a robust community partnership to help our neighbors and friends facing housing insecurity as a result of the economic hardships brought about by Covid-19. The highlight of this nearly $11.5 million effort is a $10 million Dane County emergency eviction prevention fund administered by the Tenant Resource Center. Additional dollars will help hire housing navigators to do the important advocacy work needed to connect individuals in need of housing with alternatives and allow Dane County Joining Forces for Families to provide emergency assistance to those in greatest need.

Last week we announced a $3.5 million grant program that proposes to award funds to 500 Dane County licensed child care facilities. The solvency of these providers is critical as we enter the summer months and more parents head back into work setting. That contract to award child care money pends before you this week; the latest in our series of joint initiatives to ensure basic needs are met first across our community.

We have also bolstered county government’s ability to manage the impacts of the pandemic. We expanded the ability of our Public Health Department (over $1 million) to do Covid contact investigations, support basic of needs of those who quickly need to be placed in quarantine, and added disease control capacity critical for our community as it reopens in the coming weeks. We continue to aggressively pursue personal protective equipment ($3.5 million) to keep frontline county workers – our nurses, medics, and deputies – safe. This equipment – masks, gloves, face shields, and sanitizers, has also been provided to our partner purchase of service (POS) agencies. An additional $2 million is envisioned to help support these partners with various needs. CARES funds are also helping us acquire millions of dollars in testing kits, allowing us to make sure those in lower income neighborhoods with limited means of transportation have access to health care and the limited tools available to minimize the spread of this virus.

Members of the County Board have expressed an interest in developing supports for community non-profits. As you see at this week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the administration has set aside funds for the Board for this purpose. I look forward to your ideas on how to best help our non-profit partners.

We have done a great deal but we also know the full impacts of this pandemic haven’t been realized yet. We know this will go on for many, many months. There’s also a lot we don’t know. Will the state reopening prematurely result in new spikes of cases?  Will a second wave this fall overwhelm our health care system and result in renewed closures? If our community were to experience a surge of illness similar to what’s been seen in other communities our size nationally, new critical needs would emerge.

What we haven’t addressed yet is how to buffer the county budget from the ravages of Covid. Should we experience a $20-$25 million decline in county sales tax collections this year, county funded services would be significantly impacted when we sit down to do the 2021 budget this fall. Given we are in the same position as local and state governments nationwide, we are hopeful we will be able to apply CARES funding to that projected deficit. Should the US Treasury allow this – and it’s important to note there’s a lot of interest nationally in allowing this – that’s the difference between a county budget with substantial reductions and one where we are better able to protect the safety net we have proudly created over the years. Setting aside the dollars needed to offset our revenue losses ($24 million) is critical for us to maintain the services this community depends upon.

We are in the midst of uncertain times. These times are testing all of us and what new norms emerge we have yet to fully realize. But by continuing to work together, we will rise to whatever new challenges await us with this pandemic.

WHAT WILL THE COUNTY BOARD DISCUSS TONIGHT?

There are no supporting materials or further information provided on the agenda.

6:00 PM County Board Committee of the Whole–Remote Meeting: Call (Toll Free): 1-877-568-4106; Access Code: 435-691-885

WHAT ARE THE UNMET NEEDS IN OUR COMMUNITY?

I can’t really say with any certainty, but here’s a few I am aware of and have heard others talk about:

• More eviction attorneys for when the courts re-open.
• Access to internet and computers, minutes for phones or phone plans for those that need to go to medical appointments, show up to court, for kids to access schools and so many other things that can’t be done right now.
• Help paying utilities. (gas, electric, water)
• Getting the 300 people in the hotels into housing so they don’t have to go back to shelter – this includes money for rent, security deposit, pay off old utility bills, etc plus the staffing to help with case management.
• Funding for those slipping between the cracks right now because they don’t qualify for various programs:  undocumented persons, people who didn’t get their stimulus checks or unemployment yet or don’t qualify, etc.
• Funding for PPE and cleaning supplies for the non-profits and their clients.
• Clearly, we can’t send people back to shelters – and particularly the men’s shelters that are in various church basements and a breeding ground for viruses and spreading infections.  We need a new purpose built men’s shelter.
• I’m sure there are many more – just so hard to tell when we are all in semi-isolation and community conversations about the needs are not happening in public venues.

It will be interesting to hear what the county board feels the needs are in our community.  I wish there was public input on the agenda tonight or something planned for public input.  I’d really like to hear from the community what they feel the needs are, because I don’t feel like I have a good handle on it at this time.