Ketchikan Borough & City CARES Act Funding $22 MillionPosted & Edited By MARY KAUFFMAN
June 15, 2020
The City of Ketchikan's share from the state is $12,281,651 which the City will also receive in three installments:
As with the Borough, the second and third installments of funding for the City is contingent upon spending 80% of the first installment. On Monday, June 8, 2020, the Ketchikan Borough Assembly met in a special meeting to approve programs which would disburse CARES Act funding to the community as a relief to the effects of COVID-19 on individuals and businesses. On Thursday, June 11, 2020, the Ketchikan City Council met (agenda-video) to approve CARES Act program funding for the community. City staff suggested programs to the Ketchikan City Council for funding from the first installment of funds in a report. (Click here)
On June 12, 2020, Borough and City officials met to collaborate on how to administer the programs. The following is an overview of the programs approved by the municipalities and how each program would be administered.
The Ketchikan Borough and City of Ketchikan will continue to work together to develop program details. At this time no further information is available. Additional information for the programs will be provided as it is developed. In March 2020, the $1.8 trillion CARES Act was pass by the U.S. Congress and signed into law on March 27, 2020. Included in the Act was the $150 billion CARES funding for distribution by the state to local and tribal governments statewide. Guidance on allowable uses of the funds continues to evolve. Initial guidance was provided by the US Treasury on April 22. An FAQ document was published on May 4, and has since been updated on May 28. CARES Act funding disbursement proposed by Ketchikan Borough staff falls in two broad categories: one to aid individuals and one to aid businesses to include non-profit agencies. Time is very limited for application of first round of funding due to delay in state authority to disburse, litigation over legislative appropriation, and May 28th issuance of more detailed guidance on permissible use. The initial CARES Act guidance of April 22 was general and non-instructive in nature, advising that allowable expenditures “are Disease 2019 (COVID–19).” With that guidance, Governor Dunleavy announced on May 1, 2020 a plan to distribute $562.5 million of the state’s Cares Act funding of $1.25 billion in aid to local governments, of which over $10 million was slated for the Ketchikan Borough. The City of Ketchikan was also slated over $12 million. The state Legislative Budget and Audit (LB&A) committee approved the Governor’s plan on May 11. Following, on May 13, a lawsuit challenging distribution of aid was filed. The full legislature reconvened and by May 20, the Alaska House and Senate had both voted to approved the distribution plan. On May 28, 2020 the U.S. Department of Treasury provided additional detailed guidance on allowable uses of CARES Act funds by municipalities. That most recent guidance, provided in an FAQ format, provides incomplete but sufficient guidance for staff to bring proposals forward for discussion. The Ketchikan Borough Assembly held a public hearing this evening on Ordinance 1918 Appropriating $10,400,979 in CARES Act Funds from the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development.
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