Statewide—On Friday, Governor Eric Holcomb announced as part of the Back on Track Indiana plan, that $300 million dollars coming from the State would be distributed to the counties and cities across the state from money received from the Care Act. Chris Johnston, Director of the Office of Management and Budget stated his office is reviewing all the guidelines and frequently asked questions on how the funds can be used to prepare the applications for the localities. The federal government released some of this information on Monday.
The CARES Act requires that the payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund only be used to cover expenses that are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019, were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.
The guidance states that the Fund may support a “broad range of uses” including payroll expenses for several classes of employees whose services are “substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency.” These classes of employees include public safety, public health, health care, human services, and similar employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Payroll and benefit costs associated with public employees who could have been furloughed or otherwise laid off but who were instead repurposed to perform previously unbudgeted functions substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency are also covered. Other eligible expenditures include payroll and benefit costs of educational support staff or faculty responsible for developing online learning capabilities necessary to continue educational instruction in response to COVID-19-related school closures.
The State also plans to use this funding to pay for testing and contact tracing.
