Oklahoma County gets $47M from CARES Act

The federal government deposited $47 million into Oklahoma County's bank account on Monday t o address COVID-19 costs.

The money, which i s part of the federal CARES Act, will be reimbursement for funds already spent to address the pandemic and to cover future costs associated with the virus up until the end of this year, Treasurer Butch Freeman said.

With a lack of detailed guidance on how governments should disperse the money, the county's next step is determining exactly what counts as a reimbursable expense.

Documents show that $20,000 was recently spent to increase cleaning of the county courthouse and transition employees to work-at-home status.

Those expenses easily qualify, Freeman said, but some will require more intense discussion by committees and the county's budget board.

“We're hoping for strong guidance to be set up to keep us from spending the dollars right now only to later find out we shouldn't have spent them,” Freeman said, noting that his office has already reached out to the state auditor for detailed instructions.

“Hopefully it won't take too long.”

Late l ast week, Tulsa County got $113 million from the federal government. Oklahoma City has received $114 million.

The state government is slated to receive over $1 billion, which would be used to cover expenses from state agencies and also be dispersed to other city and county governments throughout the state.

Oklahoma and Tulsa counties and Oklahoma City received their own direct appropriations because they each have populations of over 500,000, a federal requirement to get a direct deposit rather than wait for money from the state.