Columbus has approved appropriations for funds granted to it through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, federal relief money that is given to states, cities and counties for relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Columbus city councilmen have approved the second reading of an ordinance appropriating funds from the Community Development Block Grant COVID fund, the city general COVID fund, the transit COVID fund and the aviation COVID fund.
“This is not appropriating any city reserves,” said city finance director Jamie Brinegar. “This is all money that is coming to us through the CARES Act from the federal government through the state government to us.”
According to the ordinance, these appropriations (by maximum amount) were:
$402,112 from the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) COVID fund
$1,542,474 from the city’s general COVID fund
$900,000 for from the transit COVID fund
$69,000 for from the aviation COVID fund
Brinegar said that the appropriations show the city’s intent to spend money for CARES reimbursements.
“These funds came with guidelines on how we could and what we could use these monies for,” he said. “Some of the monies have been spent, and some we intend to spend before the end of the year.”
He said at a previous city council meeting that, at first, the state said that the CARES allocations did not need to be appropriated because it was “emergency relief money.” However, in early November, the state told the city that it should appropriate the funds after all.
