Name: Iowa has received billions in federal COVID-19 funds: Here’s where it's going, and who's crying foul
Brand: desmoinesregister.com
SKU: desmoinesregister-com-161
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Iowa has received billions in federal COVID-19 funds: Here’s where it's going, and who's crying foul

preview

Des Moines RegisterView CommentsIowa has received billions of dollars from the federal government over the past several months to assist with its battle against the coronavirus, helping&nbsp;pay for needs ranging from&nbsp; to&nbsp; to.As of Friday morning, the federal government has awarded Iowa $4.26 billion and counting, and the state&nbsp;had spent $2.81&nbsp;billion of it. For comparison, the .More than 40% of&nbsp;the funding —&nbsp;approximately $1.84&nbsp;billion&nbsp;— has gone toward covering&nbsp;the federal share of the boosted unemployment assistance paid to Iowans&nbsp;starting in the spring, according to Iowa’s pandemic recovery website.Of the $4.26 billion total to date, Gov. Kim Reynolds has been responsible for dividing up $1.25 billion awarded to Iowa through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief,&nbsp;and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.&nbsp;Iowa’s $1.25 billion federal allocation was&nbsp;the minimum amount&nbsp;a state could receive, based on population.&nbsp;States can use their CARES Act funding for a variety of needs that have arisen as a result of the virus.&nbsp;While Congress has been debating the contents of another potential coronavirus spending package, Iowa Department of Management Director Dave Roederer said state officials are treating Iowa's CARES Act funding, which must be spent by the end of the calendar year, as if there won't be any more coming after it."That was a big factor," he said,&nbsp;"knowing that this is one-time money."&nbsp;While small businesses, farmers and others have applauded the relief sent by the governor, some groups have questioned other&nbsp;coronavirus spending decisions by the governor. Reynolds' approval of a $21 million contract for&nbsp;a new human&nbsp;resources cloud-computing system and her use of 40% of the&nbsp;$1.25 billion to fill the state’s unemployment trust fund to eliminate a tax increase for businesses have specifically drawn criticism.Democrats in the Iowa Legislature&nbsp;have also lamented that legislators, who craft Iowa's budget, have&nbsp;had little say over the&nbsp;allocation&nbsp;of the funding.&nbsp;Sen. Joe&nbsp;Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, criticized the governor’s spending, which she has announced in stages,&nbsp;as “difficult to follow” and criticized&nbsp;the&nbsp;Republican-controlled&nbsp;Legislature&nbsp;for allowing itself to be cut out of the process.“I think that the Legislature should be consulted and should be at the table when we’re talking about spending $1.25 billion&nbsp;in taxpayer money,” he said.&nbsp;“Giving the sole authority to the governor to make those decisions was a mistake.”&nbsp;But&nbsp;Sen. Michael Breitbach, the Strawberry Point Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he's pleased with the way the governor has handled the process."I'm happy with the way things are going," he said. "When (the federal government)&nbsp;made appropriations and allocated money to the state, they said how it should be spent, and as long as the governor is spending it along those guidelines, I don't have a problem with it."In addition to Iowa's $1.25 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund, additional money has gone directly to Iowa state departments from various federal agencies,&nbsp;often for specified&nbsp;uses. Agencies receiving the largest amounts include the&nbsp; Iowa Department of Human Services ($223 million), Iowa Department of Education ($214 million),&nbsp;Iowa Department of&nbsp;Public Health&nbsp;($129 million) and Iowa Department of Transportation ($33 million).As Iowa departments and agencies continue to budget and spend the funding, here are some of the main ways it will be spent:Record unemployment claims due to the virus taxed&nbsp;Iowa’s unemployment trust fund, .To shore up the balance,&nbsp;Reynolds sent $490 million — which represents nearly 40%&nbsp;of Iowa’s total Coronavirus Relief Fund&nbsp;—&nbsp;into&nbsp;the state’s unemployment trust fund&nbsp;in July.&nbsp;She touted how the move would help prevent the state from raising unemployment taxes on Iowa businesses to help replenish the fund.But Peter Fisher, research director for Common Good Iowa, a&nbsp;public policy research group, said the funding could&nbsp;have been better spent elsewhere. Fisher said Iowa had the option to take out a loan from the U.S. Department of Labor that wouldn't have charged interest for two years. By that time, Iowa may&nbsp;have collected enough in its trust fund to avoid raising taxes, he said.“It’s not even clear that (the unemployment tax) would ever have gone up, and it certainly wouldn’t have gone up immediately,&nbsp;anyway,&nbsp;to hinder the recovery if we’d just taken advantage of that interest-free loan from the federal government,” he said. “And that’s the problem we have with it because there are a lot of pressing needs.”&nbsp;&nbsp;Other states, including California, have used the U.S. Department of Labor loans to assist with their trust funds.&nbsp;But Iowa Workforce Development director Beth Townsend .&nbsp;Iowa isn't the only state using its coronavirus relief fund to help pay unemployment benefits.&nbsp;At least seven other states have used a share of their federal coronavirus money to bolster their unemployment trust funds, ."The governor wanted to make sure that there wasn't a tax increase, and so that's why many states are using the money for that purpose," Roederer said.Across Iowa, city and county finances have taken a hit as tourism and retail activity slowed due to the virus. Reynolds on Aug. 4 announced she would designate $125 million of Iowa's CARES Act funding to local governments to help them cover coronavirus-related costs, such as personal protective equipment, ventilators, testing kits, sanitizer, quarantine sites and emergency staffing.Reynolds , while the other $25 million will help cities cover the required local match for funding through the Federal Emergency Management Administration.The deadline for the first round of requests is Sept. 15.In May, the Iowa Department of Education to Iowa school districts and state-level educational efforts.&nbsp;Each of Iowa's 327 school districts received some of the funding to help with coronavirus-related needs such as online learning, technology and mental health services.&nbsp;On Aug. 7, the Iowa Department of Education . Each public and nonpublic school district received a portion of the funding. Iowa colleges and universities also received around $6.9 million of the funding.&nbsp;The state is using another $17.7 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education to Reynolds on Aug. 25 .&nbsp;Of the $100 million, Reynolds allocated $60 million to the Iowa Livestock Producer Relief Fund, which will provide grants&nbsp;up to $10,000 to farmers raising livestock. Another $15.5 million will go to the State Biofuel Grant Program for ethanol and biodiesel producers.As much as $9 million will go to the Iowa Disposal Assistance Program, which assists producers who had to destroy livestock when large meatpacking plants across the state temporarily shut down due to virus outbreaks.&nbsp;As businesses across the state shut down due to the pandemic, Reynolds allocated $94 million to a Small Business Relief Grant program that provided $5,000 to $25,000 awards to Iowa small businesses. That funding has been used up after .&nbsp;But Reynolds specifically to assist the bars she .&nbsp;Reynolds has designated another $5 million in CARES Act funding to assist with the program. Bars, taverns, breweries, distilleries, wineries and other eligible licensed establishments can receive $10,000 grants through the program. Applications open Sept. 10, Reynolds has designated $91 million toward technology upgrades in the state, including $50 million in broadband grants to help the increased number of Iowans relying on broadband for remote work, remote school and telehealth.The other $41 million has gone toward&nbsp;technology upgrades at the state level. The upgrades include a $21 million contract for a new provider regarding&nbsp;the state's budget, accounting and human resources system.&nbsp;The contract is through Workday Inc.&nbsp;A that the state had selected the company without going through the traditional bidding process. The investigation also found Workday's lobbyist was a former chief of staff of Reynolds', but Reynolds' office said he did not play a role in securing the contract.The Legislature did not fund the contract in this fiscal year’s budget, which lawmakers kept mostly at status quo due to the coronavirus' effect on state revenues.&nbsp;Rep. Chris Hall, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said he doesn't believe the contract makes sense as an expense incurred by the pandemic.“I honestly don’t understand how the governor can justify putting a software contract at the (chief information officer's)&nbsp;office when that $21 million could be going to provide teachers with PPE or ensure a higher degree of safety in our universities right now,” said Hall, of Sioux City.But Reynolds&nbsp;spokesperson Pat Garrett that the new system would be "integral" to the state's coronavirus response by helping essential government employees with various needs and by&nbsp;assisting with remote work and budgeting. Garrett did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Des Moines Register.&nbsp;In addition to the Workday contract, the state has also allocated $7.1 million to “develop and enhance citizen digital access for state government services” and $13 million for “design and development of prioritized data streams” to help with analytics in the event of a future pandemic. Reynolds' office did not immediately fulfill a request for&nbsp;additional information on those projects.&nbsp;Reynolds in July &nbsp;mental health&nbsp;resources. Of that funding, $30 million is going to the state's 14 mental health and disability service regions for ongoing services and increased needs. The other $20 million is helping mental health and substance abuse providers deal with increased cost.Another $30 million has been awarded to Medicaid habilitation services providers to help with patient access.&nbsp;In April, Reynolds announced Iowa had called Test Iowa.&nbsp;The $26 million contract&nbsp;includes&nbsp;the Test Iowa website, which asks Iowans screening questions and assists them with setting up an appointment.&nbsp;Garrett said Wednesday that roughly 205,000 of the tests have been completed. Iowa will receive 540,000 total test kits.&nbsp;Reynolds said during a news conference Wednesday that the Iowa Department of Public Health has additional federal money it can use for renewing the contract or purchasing more testing,&nbsp;if needed, once the contract expires.&nbsp;In late May, as she allowed Iowa’s moratorium on most evictions to expire, Reynolds used $22 million of the funding to&nbsp;The criteria had limitations: Iowans could not be receiving the additional $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits and had to show a documented coronavirus-related loss of income.&nbsp;&nbsp;►More: The additional $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits expired at the end of July, opening the program to many who had previously been ineligible.&nbsp;As of Thursday, 3,356 renters and 115 homeowners had received assistance through the program, totaling more than $8.5 million in benefits.Iowa also announced on Thursday that it in federal unemployment benefits, but&nbsp;Iowans who receive that money will not be disqualified from receiving rental or mortgage assistance through the state&nbsp;program, Iowa Finance Authority spokesperson Ashley Jared said in an email.&nbsp;Other major expenditures from money sent to&nbsp;Iowa's departments and from the state's&nbsp;Coronavirus Relief Fund include:&nbsp;Ian Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at , at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at .Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at .View Comments

Des Moines RegisterView CommentsIowa has received billions of dollars from the federal government over the past several months to assist with its battle against the coronavirus, helping&nbsp;pay for needs ranging from&nbsp; to&nbsp; to.As of Friday morning, the federal government has awarded Iowa $4.26 billion and counting, and the state&nbsp;had spent $2.81&nbsp;billion of it. For comparison, the .More than 40% of&nbsp;the funding —&nbsp;approximately $1.84&nbsp;billion&nbsp;— has gone toward covering&nbsp;the federal share of the boosted unemployment assistance paid to...

Iowa has received billions in federal COVID-19 funds: Here’s where it's going, and who's crying foul

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS