Rome, Floyd to get $30M from stimulus

♦ City and county leaders are amassing a wish list, including broadband infrastructure. Cloudy with some rain, high near 63.

Rome, Floyd County and Cave Spring are expected to receive a $30 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The allocation is part of a stimulus package, similar to the CARES Act passed in March 2020, but with some significant changes. The first stimulus package only sent funds directly to some of Georgia’s most populous areas while others were distributed through the state.

In this case even municipalities with under 50,000 in population — for instance, Cave Spring — have been awarded funding.

In addition, this iteration of the stimulus gives recipients more flexibility, including the replacement of lost revenue stemming from the pandemic, according to an analysis by the National Association of Counties. If correct, that flexibility could give recipients more choices as to how they allocate those funds.

The Georgia Municipal Association “is working closely with the National League of Cities, the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and the U.S. Treasury Department as work continues toward development of detailed guidance as to how cities may use funds and the mechanism that will be used for cities to draw down funds,” a GMA report states.

President Joe Biden signed the measure into law last week. It contains comprehensive relief totaling $1.9 trillion, with $65.1 billion in aid for local governments throughout the U.S.

“Last year, smaller cities like Augusta and Savannah and Rome, they had to beg the governor for help,” Sen. Jon Ossoff said during a weekend press conference. “Now we are sending the help directly to the smaller cities and the counties and the towns in rural Georgia.”

Allocations according to estimates prepared by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee:

Floyd County: $19,104,081 Rome: $10,934,318

Cave Spring: $337,119 At this point there are a few caveats to those funds. One, these are estimated allocations and are subject to change. Two, cities with fewer than 50,000 people may only get up to 75% of their yearly general fund amount.

There’s also the issue of how to spend those funds.

One bit that particularly stood out, Rome City Manager Sammy Rich said, was the funds could potentially be used for infrastructure investments. Think investments into water, sewer or broadband access.

If providing broadband access to underserved portions of the county is a feasible use of the funds, County Manager Jamie Mccord said it’s high on his list.

“I would love to be able to put some of this into broadband, or the infrastructure for broadband,” Mccord said. “We don’t particularly want to be in the broadband business, but with the pandemic we saw very quickly you can’t shelter in place without broadband.”

At this point, Rich said, he’s informed the city commissioners these funds will be available but they’ve not had a discussion on how to use the money. Both the city and county are also waiting on the GMA to release guidance on how the allocation can be used.

At least initially it appears local governments can recoup lost revenue resulting from the pandemic. For instance, from canceled activities at the Parks and Recreation Department or the Forum River Center, which is currently being used as a courthouse annex.

“We don’t make money on those, but we certainly lost revenue,” Mccord said.