Time is running out to distribute COVID-19 relief funds. Buchanan, Manatee ask for an extension
Without an extension approved by Congress, Manatee County may have to return up to $30 million in CARES Act relief funds that haven’t been distributed yet.
In a letter sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, requested an extension to allocate and distribute that money to struggling businesses and families in the Bradenton area. The Dec. 30 date is an “arbitrary deadline,” he said.
“Our communities still need the money, but they encountered obstacles in allocating the funds to meet the deadline,” Buchanan said in a prepared statement. “As the virus continues to spread, it’s critical that our communities have the resources they need. We can’t cut off funding in the middle of a public health crisis.”
The CARES Act provided up to $70 million for county officials to spread throughout the community. As of Friday, county officials said they’ve approved the spending of about $30 million, but they’ve only distributed a fraction of that money. About $8.5 million has been distributed, according to the county’s dashboard.
Manatee is “dedicated” to reviewing every application and sending out relief funds as quickly as possible, according to Deputy County Administrator Karen Stewart. There are still hundreds of applications pending, which could be worth millions of dollars in economic recovery funds.
“We’re getting down to the wire on the review time. We have about five weeks left to review the applications that are pending and get them over to the clerk’s office for payment during the middle to the end of December,” Stewart said at a recent meeting, noting that the county has hired temporary employees and approved overtime to “double their output.”
Even working overtime and on the weekends, county staff are running up against a rapidly approaching deadline. If the money isn’t disbursed by Dec. 30, it has to be sent back to the federal government.
“...While they have worked responsibly to use these funds since they first became available to them in July, Manatee County, located in my Congressional district, is extremely concerned about their ability to exhaust all of the funding by year’s end and could lose as much as $30 million that they desperately need and deserve,” Buchanan wrote in his letter to congressional leaders.
The Board of County Commissioners made a similar request when Commissioner Betsy Benac wrote an Oct. 22 letter to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asking for an extension.
“Our county government’s goal remains fixed on distributing all CARES Act funding in an expeditious and responsible way; however, we believe an extension of the disbursement deadline will enable those individuals and businesses in need to apply for assistance for a longer period of time as the economic recovery continues into the new year,” Benac wrote in her letter, which asked for an extension through Dec. 31, 2021.
Without additional time to hand out the funds, Manatee would be forced to return money that could be used to support nonprofits, local businesses and educational programs and pay for personal protective equipment.
To learn more about how to apply for COVID-19 relief funds in Manatee, visit www.MyManatee.org/ManateeCares.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 2:56 PM.
