Olmsted County, cities would receive $50 million in COVID-19 relief

Mar. 2—Olmsted County and the municipalities within it would receive nearly $50 million under the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package passed recently by the U.S. House of Representatives, according to data from a House committee and distributed by the Minnesota DFL Party.

County leaders in the region said the money would address a host of needs at a time of declining tax revenues, from hard-hit businesses and nonprofits to families and individuals struggling to pay mortgages and rents.

"There are certainly many, many businesses and nonprofits in our community that are suffering because of COVID, so the board would focus on that again," said Olmsted County administrator Heidi Welsch about the possibility of such dollars becoming available to the county. "There also have been a lot of heavy duty expenses to try to help people to pay their housing costs."

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The dollars could also be used to offset the sizable costs counties have incurred in staffing and setting up vaccination clinics. The wheels of justice might also spin a little faster. The number of untried or unresolved court cases in Olmsted County runs into the hundreds, because physical distancing has created the need for more space, county officials say.

Olmsted County government would receive $31 million under the bill, which is 12 percent of the county's annual budget.

Counties and cities across Southeastern Minnesota would see significant aid. Fillmore County would receive $4 million and its cities $2.1 million; Dodge County $4 million and cities $2.3 million; Freeborn County $6 million and cities $3.6 million; Houston County $4 million and cities $1.9 million; Steele County $7 million and cities $5.4 million.

The bill passed by the House would also provide most Americans with another direct payment — this time $1,400; help fully reopen schools and colleges; and extend unemployment benefits through August.

Officials said their ability to address COVID-related challenges and needs locally will depend on the strings attached to the dollars. Winona County Administrator Ken Fritz said the CARES Act, a relief package passed last year, at the outset of the pandemic attached fewer restrictions on how the dollars could be used, but became more encumbered with conditions as the process unfolded.

Winona County would receive $10 million under the House legislation and cities within it another $7 million.

"It depends on what the federal government puts in the final legislation as to what we can do with it," Fritz said.

The legislation faces hurdles in the Senate, where not a single Republican is expected to vote for the relief package. The Senate is equally divided between Republicans and Democrats and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tie-breaker vote in the event of 50-50 vote.

The breakdown in dollars was distributed by the state DFL Party to highlight 1st District Rep. Jim Hagedorn's opposition to the American Rescue Act.

Altogether, local units of government across the 1st District would receive $231 million in aid. State DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin called Hagedorn's vote against the measure an "insult to the working families, small businesses and local governments struggling to make ends meet."

But Hagedorn said in a statement that the bill was rammed through the Democratic-led House and there was no attempt on the part Democratic leaders to work in a bipartisan fashion. He noted that in the past year, Republicans and Democrats have worked together to pass five COVID-19 relief measures.

"Democrats' bailout package would inflate the already massive federal deficit by nearly $2 trillion, despite $1 trillion in unspent funds remaining from previous bipartisan measures," Hagedorn said. "In fact, they'll only dedicate 9 percent of the new money to combating COVID-19 through public relief efforts."

Welsch described Olmsted County's fiscal situation as healthier than that of many other county and city governments. It has a healthy rainy day fund. The board also declined to raise the local levy on taxpayers for this year, thinking it was better to keep more dollars in residents' pockets to buoy the local economy.

The county's relatively good financial health doesn't mean there aren't areas where federal relief dollars couldn't help.

"(A lot of the money) would pass through to other organizations who are in need, like the nonprofits and in the business community, and to individuals and families," Welsch said. "Those would our two biggest expense areas."