Wrangell can anticipate receiving about $500,000 in direct federal aid as part of this month's COVID-19 relief package, according to the city's lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Sebastian O'Kelly. The state will receive a little over $1 billion, he said at a Wrangell Borough Assembly workshop Tuesday evening.
The $1.9 trillion aid package has passed the Senate and was scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday, with President Joe Biden expected to quickly sign the measure.
"It's probably going to pass on a party-line vote," O'Kelly told the assembly of the expected House action.
The bill will provide about $350 billion for states and municipal assistance to recover from the economic hit of the pandemic, along with $130 billion for school districts across the nation.
The $1 billion destined for the state of Alaska is less than the $1.25 billion the state received under the first federal relief bill last year, though the state shared almost half of that money with cities and boroughs which will receive their own allocations directly from the federal treasury in this latest bill
Wrangell can expect somewhere between $480,000 and $520,000, O'Kelly said. "I will caution that these are estimates at this point."
That would represent about 10% of the city's general fund budget this year.
Calling for a second round of COVID-19 relief funding was the top priority among a list of federal legislative priorities put together by the assembly. The city declared an economic disaster in August, in response to the pandemic's damage to the tourism and fishing industries.
The city received about $3.8 million last year under the federal CARES Act, using the money for a variety of items: Purchase of a new ambulance, various community support grants and offsetting some municipal payroll costs.
Mayor Steve Prysunka questioned why Wrangell was seeing so much less money in COVID-19 relief with this new package, compared to the CARES Act.
O'Kelly explained that with the CARES Act, all the money went to state governments, with "strong encouragement" to share it down to county and borough levels. In Alaska's case, O'Kelly said the state shared almost half of its funds with municipalities. Under this new relief bill, though, Congress directed money straight to localities, and not just to state governments.
"This time around Congress has provided more money, but provided a separate share for counties and boroughs, and for municipalities," O'Kelly said. "The state will be getting roughly the same amount of money that it got under the CARES Act, but there isn't a strong encouragement for the state to share that money with its localities. Some may, and some may not, especially since there's separate revenue streams."
Assembly Member Patty Gilbert asked if any money was going to be directed toward transportation costs, particularly freight service. O'Kelly answered that there was some relief planned for the transportation sector, but it was being directed at mass transit and airlines, not toward cargo transportation.
Reader Comments(0)