SHELBY COUNTY, Ky.-- More COVID-19 relief funds will soon reach counties across the Bluegrass state thanks to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.
So much needed relief during the pandemic is being pumped into local governments across the Commonwealth.
This comes after Pres. Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this month.
Dan Ison, Shelby County’s Judge-Executive tells Spectrum News 1, ”We never anticipated getting that source of revenue.”
The U.S. Department of Treasury breakdown for county allocation of funds from the COVID-19 relief package shows Shelby County receiving $9,507,903.
Ison says it’s a lot of money to use with limited guidelines on how to spend it.
“We work on about $25 million - $26 million a year budget. It’s a great asset coming back to us, but what we don’t know is what are the restrictions, what can it be spent on, explains Ison.
Ison says the direct funding will help his county replace lost revenue and cover additional costs for essential services such as emergency responders.
“It’s going to be used for the services of Shelby County whether it be our emergency medical service, our fire department, our 911, our jail system. We have lost revenues in those,” suggests Ison.
Shelby County has also seen a dip in funds being collected from tourism because the pandemic forced them to cancel their high profile equine events.
“We have people coming all over the world to Shelby County for our horse show and we had to cancel it last year. That impacted our fairgrounds, it impacted their revenue,” adds Ison.
140 miles down the road in Daviess County, leaders are anticipating $19,687,433 to offset the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Al Mattingly, Daviess County’s Judge-Executive says,” how excited would you be if all of sudden 20 million dumped into your bank account? It makes a lot of things possible that we wouldn’t consider in the past.”
Mattingly says that counties will receive the money in two different installments. Half will come in this fiscal year, and the other half will come within the next year.
When possible, Mattingly will make decisions in conjunction with the upcoming budget process.
“There are some roads in our county that need to be rebuild that quite possibly will consider doing them ahead of schedule. Where you always are planning out 5 years we might move those roads ahead of time,” suggests Mattingly.
According to the broad bill, there aren’t many restrictions regarding how the dollars are to be spent which is causing frustration among county leaders.
Judge Ison and others are waiting to hear back from the federal treasury department for guidance.
“We need that help and we’re delighted to get that help, but give us some guidelines and we’ll work with you,” explains Ison.
Overall, decision makers are thankful that the financial boost will go straight to the counties and not through the state first.
“We’re all going to have to account for it and we absolutely want to account for it, but we don’t need a middleman in there it just slows the process down,” says Mattingly.
According to Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, Jefferson County will receive the most federal aid in Kentucky at $434,525,029.
Click Here: For a look at the separate funds being distributed across other counties in Kentucky.