There's a deal. Here's what we know about the plan to begin spending COVID relief in RI
PROVIDENCE — Gov. Dan McKee's plan for spending the first $119 million of the state's latest $1.1-billion federal windfall is headed for votes by the legislature's finance committees next week.
If all goes according to plan, the package could sail through the full House and Senate within days, if not hours, of the start of the 2022 legislative session in January.
McKee, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio announced their agreement on this timeline at a State House news conference Monday.
Some of the biggest chunks are earmarked for affordable housing, and $2,000 retention bonuses for an estimated 8,200 full- and part-time child-care providers, including the army of home-based providers affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.
There are also unspecified bonuses for employees of other privately run social-service agencies that have rung alarm bells over worker shortages.
There is also another round of aid to small businesses.
If the lawmakers stick closely to McKee's original plan, $12.5 million would go out in general help for any business hurt by the pandemic (with 20% of those funds set aside for minority-owned companies); $8 million would be set aside for grants to the tourism industry; and $7.5 million would go toward a new round of "Take It Outside" payments to help businesses operate outdoors.
The state's plan for providing both housing – and emergency shelter – for people without homes is not yet fully clear.
The McKee administration has already steered millions in federal dollars toward rent relief, emergency hotel accommodations and existing shelters.
The governor told those gathered for Monday's news conference that more money is on the way and he is committed to "over-building" capacity so Rhode Island does not have to deal with the same problems year after year of not enough homeless-shelter beds.
"We are not going to go through this bed issue ... again because we are going to over-build the capacity for the shelters so that we can get to the real work, which is to find [a] permanent type of homes for individuals that need it and want it,'' McKee said.
Despite that pledge, Democratic candidate for governor Matt Brown- and Cynthia Mendes, the Senator running for lieutenant governor alongside him, said the spending plan does not go far enough.
"Not only is their plan inadequate to solve the houselessness crisis, but, because of the government’s appalling delays, it will leave hundreds of Rhode Islanders behind through the winter,'' they said. "If Governor McKee actually cared about the hundreds of Rhode Islanders on the streets tonight,'' they suggested he place people in hotels "starting immediately."
(McKee spokesman Matt Sheaff said the administration on November 1 "contracted to expand the [existing] hotel shelter program through the winter months using nearly... $4M of FEMA funds for the purpose. This expansion provides approximately 150 beds for the hotel shelter program."
After months of hearings, the spending agreement announced Monday is expected to include most, if not all, of the proposals McKee unveiled in early October for the first 10% of Rhode Island's American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
On Monday, McKee announced several million more federal dollars than he previously proposed for providers of services for infants and toddlers withdevelopmental disabilities, and others facing employee shortages.
The problems in early intervention are part of a broader child-care and health-care provider staffing crisis that McKee has sought to try to alleviate with a burst of cash from the state's share of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Here's what is going on in your town: RI communities have yet to spend millions in COVID-relief money. Here's how to weigh-in
In total, the spending package has grown from about $113 million initially to roughly $119 million.
But the governor disclosed his intent to steer another $57.4 million in federal medical assistance dollars to about 4,500 "direct care workers'' in privately run "home and community based service" agencies, from home health agencies to adult day-care centers to substance-abuse treatment programs.
The money would go to what he and the lawmakers describe as "hiring bonuses, increased hourly wages, enhanced benefits, shift differentials, wrap around benefits and training."
It is unclear how high the wage and benefit increases could go, and how the state would be able to pay for them after this mid-pandemic surge of federal relief dollars runs out.
But Ana Novais, the assistant secretary of the state's Executive Office of Health and Human Services, told The Journal: "It has been made clear to the [providers] that this is temporary."
Where did all the homes go?: RI faces a crisis in housing
“Today, we are making a crucial investment in Rhode Island’s recovery,” McKee said Monday.
Shekarchi, in turn, said the House, after months of hearings to ensure the state's federal dollars are "spent wisely" and "invested in a long-term sustainable manner," is now poised to vote on the package.
"After listening closely to the members of our House Democratic Caucus,'' he said, "we successfully urged the Governor to immediately invest $3 million" from yet another pool of federal money, known as CARES Act dollars, to support early intervention services.
Added Ruggerio: "Child care is a top priority for the Senate, and the revised ARPA plan will add $6 million on top of the $12.7 million the governor had proposed. ...The industry is in crisis, and we can’t get people back to work if they can’t get child care.”
Asked what took state leaders this long to commit to spending the first $100 million-plus of the state's share of the ARPA windfall, Shekarchi said: "It hasn't taken long. We've had a $100-million request. We did it in less than 60 days.
"This is public money. ... You don't just back up to the State House and we hand the money out to you. It's an open, transparent process."
Rhode Island is awash in so much federal relief money, it is not easy to keep up with how much has already gone out to targeted industries.
Just last week, for example, McKee announced that Rhode Island had identified $24.5 million in federal cash at the bottom of the state's coronavirus-relief pot and planned to spend part of it on a new round of grants to nonprofits.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI COVID relief spending package by Gov. Dan McKee goes to legislature
