About $50 million of the latest pandemic relief package passed by Congress and signed Thursday by President Joe Biden will flow to Johnson County and its cities and towns.
Part of the massive $1.9 trillion relief package allocated $350 billion to states and local governments to assist with revenue shortfalls related to the pandemic. Indiana is expected to receive $5.87 billion of that.
The county alone is expected to get $30.7 million, more than three times the $8.6 million it got from the original $2 trillion CARES Act relief package passed last year, according to data provided by Rep. Trey Hollingsworth’s office.
Cities and towns are also expected to receive significantly more federal dollars than from past pandemic relief packages. Greenwood will get the most at nearly $9 million, as it is considered a “metro city,” based on population. Franklin will get $5.3 million, while smaller towns such as Edinburgh and Whiteland are expected to get nearly $1 million each.
Per the bill, local governments can use the money for a number of expenses, including revenue shortfalls; responding to negative impacts caused by the pandemic on housing, small businesses or nonprofits; paying salaries of essential workers; or to pay for necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
The Brookings Institute estimated last September that state and local government revenues in the United States will decline $155 billion in 2020, $167 billion in 2021 and $145 billion in 2022, which are well-below the $350 billion coming from the new relief packages.
Local government officials across the county will work with financial advisers to decide how to spend the money. A local government can decide not to use all the federal funds it is given, and that money will return to the U.S. Treasury.
Unlike past COVID-19 relief packages, this one passed along party lines in Congress, with all Republicans voting against it, calling the package bloated.
Hollingsworth, who represents Indiana’s Ninth Congressional District in the House of Representatives, joined his Republican colleagues in voting against the package.
He recognizes Congress’s job in providing relief from the pandemic is not done, but this package put too much money into the wrong places, he said. Hollingsworth said he would instead like to see money allocated to getting back to normalcy, by focusing on creating new jobs, or sending kids back to school in person.
“Our work is not done in making sure we get the end of this pandemic,” Hollingsworth said. “We should be spending money on things that generate the outcomes I hear Hoosiers talking about every single day: ‘I want to get back to work, I want to send my kids to school, I want to start that small business.'”
Another large part of the bill is the $1,400 stimulus payments to most Americans and an extension of emergency unemployment benefits of $300 per week, into early September. Also in the bill is more than $200 billion for education and childcare programs, renter and homeowner assistance funds, and tax breaks for families with and without children.
The Indianapolis Business Journal contributed to this report.
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Here is a look at what Johnson County and its cities and towns are expected to receive from the latest COVID-19 relief package:
Johnson County: $30.7 million
Greenwood: $9 million
Franklin: $5.3 million
Bargersville: $1.7 million
New Whiteland: 1.3 million
Edinburgh: $960,000
Whiteland: $940,000
Trafalgar: $280,000
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