Bacon's Rebellion

How the CARES Funding is Being Allocated

Dick Hall-Sizemore

Design credit: Atlantic Cape Community College

By Dick Hall-Sizemore

Upon Jim Bacon’s suggestion, Jim Sherlock and I have taken on the task of looking closer at the federal COVID money that is coming the Commonwealth’s way and trying to discern how it is being spent.  Unfortunately, this is not an analysis one finds in the general news media.

We have taken different approaches, perhaps reflective of our different backgrounds.  Jim has started with the federal programs and their components and requirements, along with the amounts of funding allocated to Virginia. I am looking at how the federal  pot is being split up among state agencies, as reflected in the state budget.  Later, I hope to examine how some of those agencies are spending the money.

Under the CARES Act, Virginia was entitled to $3.11 billion. With the interest of $11.9 million earned on this amount, there was a total of $3.12 billion available.  After disbursing $1.3 billion to localities, as required by the federal law, the state had about $1.8 billion to spend.

In the Appropriation Act passed by the 2020 Special Session, the General Assembly outlined how that money was to be used. However, the legislature also provided the Governor flexibility to move the money around. In his proposed budget amendments presented in December, the Governor included significant changes and additions to that outline. In his presentation to the House Appropriations Committee in mid- January the Secretary of Finance included an updated list of “approved” uses, which largely reflected the list in the budget bill, although there were some additional changes

At the end of this post, there is a table I have prepared, based on  Secretary Layne’s January presentation, showing total authorizations by agency, along with a breakdown of the specified purposes within each agency. Here are some of the highlights:

The data in this table go only so far in shedding light on the Commonwealth’s use of COVID money. It tells us what agencies received funding, how much they received, and the purposes for which they received it  It does not tell us how it was spent and what results were realized from those expenditures. Here are a few questions that occurred to me immediately as I compiled the data:

In addition to the CARES funding, the Commonwealth will receive funding from the stimulus package passed by Congress in late December. Rather than inundate you with too many numbers in one post, I will cover that revenue in a later post.

 

Distribution of Coronavirus Relief Fund Revenues, by agency

(as of 1/14/2021)

(Dollars in millions)

 

Dept. of Medical Assistance Services– $238.0

Dept. of Emergency Management– $237.4

Dept. of Health– $236.9

K-12– $220.8

Virginia Employment Commission– $210.0

Dept. of Small Business and Supplier Diversity –$120.0

Higher education– $116.3

Dept. of Housing and Community Development — $100.8

State Corporation Commission– $100.0

Statewide– $80.5

Dept. of Social Services– $82.6

Virginia Community College System—$30.0

State Council of Higher Education in Virginia– $22.0

VCU Hospital–$11.3

Dept. of Correction/Dept. of Juvenile Justice–$6.6

 Dept. of General Services–$6.1

Dept. of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services–$4.5

UVa Medical Center–$3.4

Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services–$1.2

Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority–$1.0

State museums and centers of higher education–$0.8

State Senate–$0.2

Dept. of Veterans Services–$.06

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