Locals brace for budget impact
Millions in development, housing and infrastructure funds at risk
Airport improvements, police equipment, sidewalks and jobs programs are among the local initiatives at risk under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget.
The Rome City Commission is expected to sign off Monday on letters to Georgia’s two senators and U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, asking them to protect local funding sources such as Community Development Block Grants and the HOME Investments Partnership Program.
Rome Floyd Chamber President Al Hodge and Pete McDonald, president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College, also are speaking out about the importance of the Appalachian Regional Commission to area economic development. Slated for elimination in the president’s budget, the ARC has invested over $40 million in public infrastructure and human resource projects in Northwest Georgia over 20 years.
Allocations in the last two years include nearly $650,000 to GNTC for chemical lab equipment and its new die maintenance technician program, and $407,350 for the Northwest Georgia automotive workforce development initiative.
Floyd County Manager Jamie McCord said a 2008 ARC grant of $300,000 helped fund water, sewer, stormwater retention and road improvements at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport that attracted new corporate users to the public facility.
Community investment
“I know our commission is nonpartisan,” Rome Community Development Director Bekki Fox said in sounding the alarm last week. “I understand there’s a lot of waste (in federal spending). But I also know how critical it is for local governments to address these needs.”
Fox spent the week putting together a fact sheet on how CDBG and HOME funds have improved the quality of life in Rome in the past five years:
Nearly $1 million went directly into public facilities, to include street and sidewalk improvements.
Economic development projects in the city got $164,000 worth of assistance. Small business owners benefited from the Local Revolving Loan Fund, which also led to the creation of seven new jobs.
CDBG funds totaling $100,000 were used to boost code enforcement activities aimed at cleaning up blighted and dangerous areas.
Elderly and disabled owners of 102 houses were able to bring their homes up to code with small awards totaling $440,912 through the minor repair program.
Another 19 homes for low-income seniors or people with disabilities were rehabilitated through the HOME moderate repair program. The $612,000 also provided jobs for local contractors and their crews.
Seventeen families got down payment assistance and financial education to buy their own homes using $147,900 in grant funds. Fox said the spending, which improved the viability of the neighborhoods overall, helped encourage more than $1.5 million in public and private investment.
And $384,720 from the HOMEBuild program, which is currently replacing dilapidated buildings on Wilson Avenue with affordable housing, has leveraged another $246,000 in public and private investment.
“There’s not another way for us to do these things,” Rome City Commissioner Wendy Davis said.
Looking ahead
While Floyd County makes less use of its CDBG options, McCord noted that it was able to secure a $500,000 grant in 2010 for Mercy Care.
The nonprofit provides adult day health services for seniors, caregiver support and senior employment services. The money helped them move out of cramped space on West Third Street and into the renovated former Riverside Elementary School on Chatillon Road.
The county failed last year in its bid for $800,000 to start a comprehensive revitalization of the Lindale community, but there are plans to review the application’s shortcomings and possibly compete again for the annual award.
“It certainly could hurt us in the future if that money is not available,” McCord said, but he emphasized that “we don’t
want to overreact until we know what’s going to happen.”
The county does count on an annual Justice Assistance Grant of about $20,000 to buy law enforcement equipment such as protective vests, weapons and in-car camera systems. Rome gets a comparable amount.
McCord said much of county’s federal funds come in the form of “passthrough” grants from the state and it’s un- clear how different agencies would be affected. Cuts to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could hamper local drainage projects and a shift of homeland security money to border communities could be a concern.
The biggest issue, he said, would likely be Federal Aviation Administration money, which funds projects at the airport with just a 5-percent local match. It was used to resurface the runways and start on security fencing around the perimeter.
“We’ve been pretty lean with grant money in the last five years, other than FAA. We can put a little money in for a lot of return there,” McCord said. “For now, I’m still in a wait-and-see mode.”
That’s also the case at the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, which gets funding for its rent subsidies and new construction from two pools of money that are at risk. Executive Director Sandra Hudson said she told her board last week that it’s too soon to calculate the fallout.
“It will definitely affect what we do,” she said. “I’m just hoping it’s not all going to happen.”
The state budget — and what it sends down to local communities — also would have to be significantly revamped if Trump’s spending plan is adopted. But state Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said the Legislature didn’t factor it into the state document.
“President Trump’s budget is a start, just like we start with the governor’s budget,” she said.
Groups that are affected by the proposed federal cuts are starting to contact their representatives, she said, and she expects the final budget to look different.
“It may take Congress until we come back next year (in January) to pass their budget,” Dempsey said. “For now, we just focused on passing a good budget for Georgia.”