$86M for Marin in COVID relief bill

Sessions start Monday on how to spend the money

Marin County expects to receive $50.2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, while its cities and towns are estimated to get an additional $36 million, county officials said.

Assistant County Administrator Dan Eilerman provided the summary for the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. He said many details about the massive $1.86 trillion relief package, approved earlier this month, remain unknown.

“It bears keeping in mind that nearly all these relief funds are one-time in nature,” he said. “So we’re not really seeing ongoing investments in state or local programs.”

During public comment at the supervisors’ meeting, Rollie Katz, executive director of the Marin Association of Public Employees, said, “We spend a lot of time talking — at least in this part of the country — about the names of streets and buildings and statues, but this is really going to make a difference.

“This is going to dramatically reduce childhood poverty in this county,” Katz said, “which we know will have a disproportionately positive effect on people of color.”

One big unknown is how much of the money allocated to the county will be available to offset revenue lost due to the pandemic. Another is how much of the $26 billion allocated to the state will be shared with counties.

Eilerman said that because the state has a projected $15 billion budget surplus and revenues appear to be coming in fairly well, he expects Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised state budget in May to contain some major changes.

“So for us at the local level that leaves something of a moving target,” Eilerman said.

Marin officials will hold three days of budget planning sessions starting Monday to receive comments from the public and supervisors about department work plans, emerging issues and potential one-time budget allocations. The county faces a $6.7 million shortfall in the next fiscal year due in large part to COVID-19 economic impacts.

“With a projected longterm structural budget shortfall and the ongoing COVID response, we need to make prudent and wellinformed decisions about our one-time funding allocations,” said Bret Uppendahl, the county budget manager.

Eilerman said the American Rescue Plan Act gives counties and municipalities until the end of 2024 to spend the money being allocated to them. He said the money received through the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, passed in March 2020, had to be spent more quickly.

Speaking about the new federal package, Eilerman said, “There are some broad guidelines in terms of usage of those funds, including COVID response and infrastructure. What we need to wait on is some pending U.S. Treasury guidelines to get a better sense of the extent of revenue backfill that also might include.

The American Rescue Plan Act contains $92 billion for improving public health and responding to COVID-19. That includes $47.8 billion for COVID-19 testing, $14 billion to speed administration of vaccines and $7.6 billion for state and local public health departments to expand and sustain their workforces.

Regarding the $7.6 billion allocation, Supervisor Katie Rice said, “That doesn’t sound to me like a one-time investment. We should be hoping it is seed money to support something that has a much longer trajectory.”

Eilerman said he would have to do more research on that point. He added, however: “Over the past year we have expanded our public health workforce. We need to find a way to maintain that investment so we can continue to be prepared for additional pandemics and other public health needs.”

Marin County Administrator Matthew Hymel said, “It is important for us to think long-term. There is a lot of money being allocated categorically right now, but over the next two years that money will be going away.”

The American Rescue Plan Act provides substantial amounts of money to two groups hit hard by the pandemic: renters and restaurant owners.

The package contains an additional $21.5 million for rental assistance while also extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums through September. It also creates a $25 billion restaurant revitalization fund to provide grants equal to pandemic-related revenue losses up to $10 million per entity, or $5 million per location.

And it allocates $15 billion for economic injury disaster loans and an additional $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), without extending the March 31 deadline for PPP applications.

There is even $1.25 billion for live venue operators, movie theaters, museums and zoos that have been shuttered due to the pandemic.

The single largest slice of funding, however, is reserved for a third round of direct payments to people. Those with incomes up to $75,000 per year will receive $1,400, and joint filers earning up to $150,000 will receive $2,800.

The legislation continues $300-per-week unemployment insurance benefits through Sept. 6 and expands the child tax credit to $3,000 per child.

Eilerman’s written report on the plan contained even more details without being exhaustive.

“It’s really, really difficult,” he said, “to summarize a package of this size in two pages.”