Friday March 29th, 2024 3:47AM

Gainesville looks at how to use latest COVID-19 stimulus funds

GAINESVILLE – Even as millions of Americans daily check their banks accounts or search in their mailboxes for the arrival of the latest round of coronavirus relief funds, so does the City of Gainesville.

Gainesville, and thousands of other municipalities nationwide, will be getting funds from the federal government in this latest round of stimulus funding signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021.

This round of funding for governing entities such as the City of Gainesville is intended to replace lost tax revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  At present it is unclear what restrictions, if any, are being placed on how those governing entities spend the money or if there is a deadline by which the monies must be spent.

When asked about the dollar amount Gainesville is expecting Gainesville City Manager Bryan Lackey said earlier this week, “It’s a moving target…I’m not certain yet on the amounts…but we’re anxious to see what that is.”

Lackey used the plural, “amounts”, because it appeared at that time the payments will be coming over a two-fiscal-year period.  “It’s not a lump sum coming in, and there are some requirements on what we have to do to get that.”

When asked about how the funds might be used Lackey answered, “Everybody’s got ideas. So we don’t know exactly…can we use it to refund some things?  We need clarification on what we can do.”  That clarification, Lackey said, is forthcoming from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The two previous COVID-related disbursements from the federal government were smaller and could only be used for pandemic related purposes, but the latest distribution will likely be much larger, and maybe less restrictive, according to Lackey. 

As to how those smaller previous COVID-related disbursements were used, Lackey responded, “It was far less than the numbers we are talking about now; we had some personnel costs in public safety, sanitation and public works…a lot of overtime people had to put in.  So we were allowed to use it to a large part toward that, and we did a lot of things IT (Information Technology)-wise because we went virtual…and efforts to make some of our facilities touchless…doors, when you go in and out, those type of things.”

“You have to keep in mind that we didn’t receive near as much money in those first applications as some other jurisdictions, as what we are going to receive next time.”

Lackey said a lot is still to be determined by city leaders as to what the next round of funding will look like.  “What flexibility do we have?  How rigid are the requirements going to be?  That’s what we’ve got to get the clarification on in this next round.”

  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Local/State News
  • Associated Tags: gainesville, COVID-19, coronavirus pandemic, Stimulus funds, City of Gainesville government
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