Coronavirus Relief Funds
Originally written in the August 10 edition of the CivicLex Weekly.
On Tuesday, in the first Council Work Session since the summer recess, Council will hear a presentation about the current and future relief funds for the COVID pandemic for the city of Lexington. LFUCG is eligible for up to $25M in reimbursement from the CARES Act for documented pandemic related expenses, PPE, and telework needs.
How does this reimbursement process work?
Following the guidelines of what reimbursement can cover, the city applies for financial relief eligible costs (like payroll for first responders) from Kentucky's Department of Local Government (DLG).
The DLG administers the funds that the State Government has received for COVID relief.
If the City is awarded their request, the CARES funding offsets money that has been budgeted for those eligible costs (again, like payroll for first responders).
Since there were already resources budgeted for those eligible costs, the money that would have been spent on that is then freed up to be used for other expenses or to make up a deficit from a loss in revenue.
What has LFUCG received so far?
To date, one application submitted by LFUCG for $9,371,076.00 was approved. The following costs were included in that application:
~$8.5m – Payroll costs
$615k - PPE purchases
$250k - Telework costs
The $8.5m in Payroll cost reimbursement is being directed to the Economic Contingency Fund ("Rainy Day Fund") and the Budget Stabilization Fund to make up for funds removed during the budgeting process.
What did receiving this CARES money allow LFUCG to fund?
$1.8m was restored to the Affordable Housing Fund.
$2.1m was restored to the ESR program, which funds external social service organizations, bringing it back to previous funding levels.
$2.5m was allocated for a new Small Business Stimulus Program.
Other additional costs
What are LFUCG's priorities for additional relief funds moving forward?
(Taken from 8/11 Work Session packet)
$6m - Economic Contingency Fund ("Rainy Day Fund")
$3m - Assistance Programs for rent, food, & utility relief
$2.25m – Facility alterations, equipment, and telework support due to pandemic response
$2.15m - Budget Stabilization fund
$1.5m - Homeless Emergency Shelters/ Affordable Housing
$450k - Fifth & Chestnut Building & Cost Share RFP
$100k - Opioid programming
$125k - A study to examine racial disparities in city contracting
$50k - Police After-action Citizen Review Board