Stimulus funds to give local governments fiscal breathing room
All the unpaid debts, delayed capital projects and tight purse strings that local governments in Pennsylvania have had to carefully maneuver since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic may soon be alleviated by hundreds of millions of dollars in direct federal aid.
In the Southwestern Pennsylvania counties surrounding Allegheny, more than $500 million will pour into the region over the next year from the federal stimulus package, allocated to help local governments recover economically from a pandemic that has strained their treasuries.
But even though the funds won’t come with as many restrictions as last year’s stimulus and won’t have to trickle down from the state, officials in the counties, townships and boroughs said they want to make smart decisions with the money and build for the future.
“With this, I think that if you plan for the future, the people of Butler County will reap the benefits for 10, 20 years from these dollars,” Commissioner Kevin Boozel said of the stimulus. “Filling a hole is not my plan.”
Like other county commissioners, Butler’s chairwoman, Leslie Osche, said the board still has to assess how they’re permitted to spend their haul, which is estimated at about $36 million, and look at its budget forecast five to 10 years out.
While the board’s chair named water, sewer, broadband infrastructure and the cost of the vaccine as potential focal points, Mr. Boozel said — in a philosophical sense of good governance — that he’d like to see the money build a solid foundation for an accessible, modern county government.
In Butler’s largest municipality, Cranberry, the board of supervisors is mulling what to do with the $3.1 million they’ll be receiving directly. During the CARES Act cycle, the township was able to file about $1 million of expenses, Supervisor Dick Hadley said.
Although the township has been fiscally conservative and had built reserves for rainy days, they didn’t plan for a “rainy year,” Mr. Hadley said. Tax revenue has taken a hit, the extent of which — in some cases — is still unknown, he noted.
Mr. Hadley said the all-Republican board of supervisors will sit down to discuss where the money should go.
“We don’t have a full picture of what the requirements are yet, but certainly, we deferred some capital projects, some buying of equipment, police cars, trucks. We just pushed it all back,” Mr. Hadley said. “This may give us an opportunity to bring them back online.”
Wait and see
Westmoreland County’s commissioners haven’t begun to discuss how they’ll spend their $107 million allotment and are waiting to see if there will be as many restrictions as the CARES Act stimulus, Commissioner Gina Cerilli said.
The new money could lend a hand to businesses in the hospitality industry, Ms. Cerilli said, which the county has tried to help recently with funds from a separate grant program. That grant — totaling $3.9 million — can make only a dent in supporting the 1,200 businesses in question, shenoted.
Although she said some of the money could go toward county expenses, Ms. Cerilli recommended the board prioritize getting the money to smallbusinesses and nonprofits again — as they did with thefirst round of stimulus.
The county also could invest in the infrastructure for broadband, a pursuit they couldn’t undertake during the last stimulus because there
was a strict deadline for the spending,Ms. Cerilli said.
Also citing the need for more broadband were commissioners in Washington County, which should get about $98 million from the package. In some of the more rural areas, school parking lots have become popular spots for students to connect to WiFi, Commissioner Larry Maggisaid.
Fayette County used $5 millionof the first stimulus to installa “pretty big footprint” of hot spots for broadband, Commissioner Dave Lohr said, so parents could work from home and children could learn virtually.
If they have a relatively clean slate to work from with their $25 million share, Mr. Lohr said Fayette County officials could improve broadband, help municipalities with infrastructure projects, extend the airport runway, and work on water and sewage lines.
It helps that the county’s budget is in good shape, Mr. Lohrsaid.
“Does that take us out of the mix as far as looking at the budget and making sure we stay safe? No, we will do that,”Mr. Lohr said.
Butler County’s budget isn’t lagging, Mr. Boozel said, because the commissioners took steps in recent years to prepare for an uncertain future. The last stimulus helped,too, he added.
Thecounty’s haul from the first round of stimulus last year was $16.8 million, and the commissioners decided to give about half of it to local municipalities so it could get one bureaucratic step closer tothe people, Mr. Boozel said.
The Democrat on the GOPmajoritycouncil, talking a bit candidly about his priorities and what he’d like to see from the stimulus, said he hopes there will be a focus on alleviating some of the deferred costs the county has taken on, noting that every county has bonds out and different ongoing capital projects.
“I’ll be honest: I don’t think the $36 million is going to help me in my administration,” Mr. Boozel said, referring to the present-day county government. “It’s not for today. It’s for years — 10 years— out.”
“We are most interested in maintaining stability for our taxpayers now and into the future,” Ms. Osche added. “As such, we will need to adopt a strategythat provides that stability amidst the actions by leadersat state and federal levels that will have much longer-term negative effects on ourtaxpayers.”
Seeking input
There is consensus on the board that public input is necessary. That could include some type of public hearing, Ms. Osche said.
“Public input is crucial to the public taxpayers having a say in where these dollars are to be directed and invested countywide and for what purposes,” Butler Commissioner Kim Geyer said. “These are their dollars and their future, and taxpayers should have a say in how those dollars are spent.”
In Washington County, the board likely will seek input from industry, health care providers and educators to help determine where aid is needed most, Commissioner DianaIrey Vaughan said.
Washington’s commissioners stressed their desire to help hospitals — notably, the Monongahela Valley Hospital and Washington Health System — which have “gone to great expense and great financial loss to administer the COVID vaccine,” Ms. Irey Vaughansaid.
Hospitals that were already struggling from the effects of having to suspend elective surgeries had to then administer the vaccine at a cost greater than what they receive per shot, and as a result, they are losing millions, the Washington County commissioner said.
“I would hope that we can compensate them for that loss,”Ms. Irey Vaughan said.
Either way, they all agree that pork-barrel spending and pet projects will have no place in their expenditures. The county is in decent financial shape because the board’s careful spending over the years put them “in a good position to weather the storm,” Mr.Maggi said.
“We will not be needing these tax dollars to do any county bail-out program,” CommissionerNick Sherman said,noting that revenue from the Meadows Racetrack and Casino and from natural gas royalties have helped keep theirfinances steady.
“Hopefully, we get the kids back to school, the parents back to work, and use this as a platform or springboard to get our economy going,” Mr. Sherman added.