Zoom
Board of Alders virtual meeting on Monday.
The city received an unexpected holiday season gift from the state budget office: $3.1 million in state-allocated federal funds to help cover municipal public safety and public health costs related to Covid-19 the city’s response to Covid-19.
The Board of Alders voted unanimously in support of accepting that direct financial Monday night during the local legislature’s latest bimonthly full board meeting.
The virtual meeting took place online via Zoom and YouTube Live.
The alders unanimously backed a resolution authorizing the mayor to accept $3,120,837 from the state Office of Policy and Management’s Municipal Coronavirus Relief Fund Program as part of a mass statewide distribution of funds announced by the state on Dec. 16.
According to the resolution itself, a letter submitted in advance by city Budget Director Michael Gormany, and Gormany’s presentation to the alders during Monday night’s public information caucus, the money from the state can be used to cover a handful of specific Covid-related costs incurred between July 1 and Dec. 30. Those include:
• The city’s local 25 percent match for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has its own federal program that reimburses municipalities for 75 percent of Covid-related government costs.
• Relevant police, fire, and public health expenditures, such as for salaries, overtime, and equipment.
“We didn’t really submit any expenditures to the state,” Gormany said during the public information caucus. “The state is really spending down their allocation of the CARES Act, and passing it along to cities and towns.”
The city received $3.1 million through this allocation thanks to a state formula based largely on population size, density, and risk level.
According to a Dec. 16 letter from the state OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw, Bridgeport received $5.4 million through this latest allocation, Hartford received $4.8 million, Stamford received $1.6 million, and Waterbury received $4.8 million.
That state letter also notes that this current allocation of Covid-related reimbursements to municipalities totals $45.5 million statewide, with an additional $14.5 million having already been distributed for claims submitted through June 30.
And how much money has the city spent on Covid-related costs that can be reimbursed by FEMA at 75 percent? asked Downtown Alder Abby Roth during the public information caucus. How much of this $3.1 million will have to be put towards that 25 percent local match?
Gormany said that, to date, the city has spent around $4.2 million on Covid-related costs. “It’s kind of a wait and see game as to how much of this $3.1 million we’ll have to apply as part of a match,” he said. He gave a rough estimate of between $500,000 and $800,000.
The city is currently projecting a $10 million deficit by the current fiscal year’s end on June 30, 2021, according to the October monthly financial report. That does not include Covid-related costs that the city budget office has flagged as reimbursable by FEMA.
NH can thank the suburbs they despise and decry so much for the dough that comes right out of their pockets to fund loser cities that can't manage their finances. But it's never enough for cities ; is it? When does this end? A broke state bails out a broke city.... who's gonna fund the next deficit coming??