Kemp hands out big COVID-19 grants just before primary

Eight days before the GOP primary, Gov. Brian Kemp dished out $415 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to help businesses and nonprofits overcome the economic impact of the pandemic.

Kemp originally had planned to announce the awards in January to distribute a share of the $4.8 billion Georgia is expected to receive as part of a coronavirus stimulus package that congressional Democrats approved in March 2021.

So far, the state has received $2.4 billion of the money through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, legislation some Georgia Republicans opposed, saying the state didn’t need that much money while also criticizing the measure for not giving Georgia a fair share.

For his part, Kemp said the legislation “represents everything that is wrong with Washington.”

Now, with the addition of the past week’s announcement, Kemp has committed or spent about $1.8 billion of the state’s portion.

Kemp, who is running for reelection, has used the powers of incumbency in an attempt to thwart a Republican primary challenge by former U.S. Sen. David Perdue. He’s turned bill-signings into public events, especially for legislation popular with conservatives, such as a rollback of gun restrictions and an effort to direct how race is taught in classrooms. He even went to Perdue’s hometown diner to sign a huge tax cut.

Kemp also has helped spread around a lot of money, with a record $30.2 billion budget that delivers raises to teachers and state employees. That, too, had a strong connection to the massive amount of federal COVID19 relief funding that went directly to Georgia households, as well as state and local governments. That money helped fuel soaring tax collections that resulted in a $3.7 billion state surplus for the past fiscal year.

The federal funds Kemp gave out this past week follow similar grants he issued in February to fund water and sewer and broadband projects.

All those grants were given based on recommendations by committees of lawmakers and state officials that Kemp appointed last year to review applications. In all, the state received about 1,500 applications for spending the COVID-19 money.

The largest chunk of the money handed out this past week was $150 million that will go to the Georgia Hotel & Lodging Association to be distributed to hotel owners who were hit hard by the pandemic.

“This grant is so important to Georgians — every single hotel property in the state has suffered significant loss since March 2020,” said Brad Koeneman, general manager of Hilton Atlanta and chairman of the association.

A pair of sizable grants also were given to nonprofits.

The Georgia Investments in Housing Grant will provide $100 million to support nonprofits that provide affordable housing and aid the homeless.

The Victims Service Provider Grant will use $50 million to help nonprofits that have faced economic hardship during the pandemic.

Other smaller grants were awarded to locally based groups, including roughly $29.6 million to the Atlanta Community Food Bank to address food insecurity issues and $12.7 million to Buckhead Christian Ministries to pay for expansion of its emergency assistance program.