Michigan counties on verge of receiving $1.95 billion
A vote in the U.S. House and a signature by President Joe Biden, both expected, are all that stand between Michigan’s 83 counties and a surge of nearly $2 billion in federal aid to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Late last week, the U.S. Senate approved aid legislation, making changes that actually increased aid to counties, instead of expected decreases from the House-backed plan.
As matters stand this morning, counties across the U.S. would:
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Receive $65.1 billion in direct aid from the federal treasury, with an initial 50 percent payment in 60 days, followed by the remainder no earlier than one year later (Michigan’s share would be $1.95 billion based on population); and
- Receive $1.5 billion over two years for counties in the federal PILT program (Michigan is no. 2 among states east of the Mississippi River in amount of federal land).
“This is a huge investment for Michigan counties, which are diligently addressing public health and safety needs of the crisis, while calculating upcoming drops in the property tax revenues that are key to funding such services,” said Stephan Currie, MAC’s executive director.
These aid funds are part of the overall $1.9 trillion relief package meant to speed up delivery of vaccines to U.S. citizens and aid citizens and state and local governments harmed financially by the year-long crisis.
Final passage in the U.S. House is expected in this week, and President Biden has long indicated his support for the package.
- Respond to the public health emergency with respect to the COVID‐19 or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality
- Respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID‐19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers of the county that are performing such essential work, or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers who perform essential work
- Make provision for government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue (i.e. online, property or income tax) due to the public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the county prior to the emergency (i.e., Jan. 20, 2020)
- Make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure
(It is important to note under the first bullet that the examples outlined are intended to clarify congressional intent that these activities would be eligible. However, state and local activities would NOT be limited only to these activities.)
Local governments would be required to provide “periodic reports” providing a detailed accounting of the use of funds.
Note that the NACo Clearinghouse page offers boxes to either pose questions to NACo staffers on the legislation and implementation, or to share your county’s stories about your challenges in accessing funds under the previous rounds of federal aid.
