GovWin SLED Coronavirus Recon

General

• Nebraska Governor Says Local Governments Won't Receive Coronavirus Funding If They Require Masks
  • Gov. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska has reportedly informed local governments that they will not receive any of the possible $100 million in federal Covid-19 money if their "customers" are required to wear masks in courthouses and other local administrative offices.
• Virginia launches digital tools to aid communities' COVID-19 response
  • To support communities hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced he’s expanding two statewide data analysis platforms dedicated to helping people find jobs and helping municipalities understand where to allocate medical resources to slow the spread of COVID-19.
• Iowa’s governor ends COVID-19 briefings
  • The news conference Governor Kim Reynolds held Thursday is the last to be televised statewide as part of state government’s response to the pandemic.
• Government agencies now tracking phone apps to fight against COVID-19
  • Government agencies are turning to companies that are collecting your smartphone location, with apps you use every day.
• Cuomo ‘considering’ two-week quarantine for people coming to NY from Florida
  • Florida has had a mandatory quarantine in place since May directing anyone coming to Florida from “areas with substantial community spread” to self-isolate for 14 days specifically naming the New York tri-state area, which includes New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo says he could enact mandatory quarantines for Floridians as coronavirus cases are on the rise.

Funding & Economic Impact

• (Michigan) $880M Mich. COVID-19 bill includes hazard pay, public safety funding
  • The Michigan Legislature adopted a supplemental funding bill unanimously that would infuse state departments with an additional $880 million.
  • Using federal Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars, the House supplemental bill would push $100 million for first responder hazard pay premiums, $2.5 million for $500 grants to laid-off hospitality workers, $1.4 million for the state to conduct infection control surveys at nursing homes and $120 million to increase the pay of state direct care workers.
• (Ohio) Obhof announces bill with COVID-19 relief funds headed to governor's office
  • Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) announced  both chambers of the legislature recently approved Senate amendments to House Bill 481.
  • An amendment the Ohio Senate added to H.B. 481 authorizes the distribution of $350 million of federal CARES Act funding to counties, municipalities and townships across Ohio for COVID-19 pandemic-related expenses.
• (Florida) County awaits COVID-19 relief funding
  • Miami County officials are waiting to hear what the county will receive in coronavirus (COVID-19) relief funding. Millions of dollars in relief aid will be divided among the state's 105 counties for disbursement.
• (Illinois) Pritzker Announces Rent Support and Business Relief Fund
  • Illinoisans struggling to pay mortgages and rent and small businesses, all impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, will have access to $900 million in grants, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced.
  • According to state officials, $150 million of the funds, to be administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, will be available for emergency rental assistance, with the same amount for mortgage assistance, beginning in August
• In early morning adjournment, the Tennessee legislature passes budget, completes business for the year
  • The legislature passed a $39.5 billion budget that cut $1 billion from plans Gov. Bill Lee had put forth in early February.
  • State officials project a $500 million revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year and a loss of $1 billion in 2020-21.
• Many Alaska small businesses on shaky footing despite coronavirus funding help
  • Across Alaska, many small business owners are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic despite loans and grants that are meant to assist them.
• Cassidy announces $225 Million in COVID-19 response funding for Louisiana
  • FEMA is awarding Louisiana $225 million in funding to assist in the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• (Kentucky) Beshear calls for more funding for Ky. unemployment system
  • Governor Andy Beshear said he wants to see better funding, more employees and more offices open to assist Kentuckians with pandemic and unenemployment assistance going forward.
• Maine cities, towns in financial straits await decision from Gov. Mills on COVID-19 funding distribution
  • Maine has received $1.25 billion through the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act, for expenses related to the coronavirus. Gov. Janet Mills said that $13 million of it would be sent to municipalities to cover pandemic-response costs.
  • Mills has also said more guidance is needed from the federal government on how the money can be used.
• (Tennessee) Legislature strikes budget deal
  • The $39.43 billion budget plan cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget passed in March as the General Assembly sought to close due to the pandemic. That plan was itself a major reduction from the budget originally proposed by Gov. Bill Lee before the coronavirus reached Tennessee and shut down many of its businesses.
• (Utah) Legislature plugs $850 million pandemic budget gap in daylong session
  • The Utah Legislature took action Thursday to plug an estimated $850 million state revenue shortfall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but still found more money for education and social services programs before lawmakers wrapped up their fifth special session so far this year.
• (North Carolina) State Gives $35 Million to Local Health Departments for COVID-19 Response
  • The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $35 million in federal funding to local health departments across the state to support their COVID-19 responses
• (Maryland) BPW questions $30M emergency contract for prison health care provider amid coronavirus
  • The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services told members of the spending board that Corizon Correctional Healthcare had to be hired amid the coronavirus pandemic and a staffing shortage.
• Idaho Receives $342K in Grants to Train Health Care Workers in Rural, Underserved Communities
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new grants worth $342,000 to help train health care workers in rural and underserved communities in Idaho.
• Rhode Island lawmakers pass $11.8B supplemental budget
  • The new proposal closes a $250 million funding gap for the fiscal year by tapping $120 million from the state’s rainy day fund
• Empty hotels create $17 billion budget hole for local governments
  • A sharp decline in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic will cost governments roughly $17 billion in revenue from taxes on hotel occupancy, corporate profits and other levies, with an especially large impact in California, Florida, New York and Nevada
• Ohio lawmakers approve $350 million in federal coronavirus aid to local governments
  • About $800,000 of that is earmarked to go to Lawrence County to help reimburse coronavirus response spending.
• South Carolina May Invest Federal COVID Aid in Broadband
  • South Carolina legislators return next week to decide how to spend $1.9 billion in federal aid for the state’s response to the coronavirus, which has infected at least 20,000 people there and killed more than 600.
• (Utah) Lawmakers slash millions from the state budget, but increase education funding slightly
  • Despite a hefty revenue shortfall, lawmakers said they were actually able to increase education funding marginally. That included a 1.8 percent increase in the WPU, which is about $54 million. They also appropriated $50 million for the expected growth in student population and put another $125 million in federal coronavirus relief money toward education needs, such as infrastructure and information technology.

Higher Education

• University finances and COVID-19: Different schools, different risks
  • COVID-19 puts higher-ed finances at risk. For some universities, revenue shortfalls are going to be a pain—for other universities the shortfall may be a disaster. Public universities face three major sources of revenue risk: hospital revenues, tuition (both from overall enrollment and with special attention to enrollment of out-of-state students), and state funding.
• (South Carolina) Educators Consider COVID's Effects on Higher Education
  • Clemson has not only spoken with the University of South Carolina, but has met with all the deans of education at the Atlantic Coast Conference schools.
  • USC Associate Professor of Higher Education Christian Anderson said COVID's effects could differ between public and private colleges, and could even vary greatly between private institutions.
• (New Jersey) Expert warns reopened colleges could trigger fall COVID spike
  • The Department of Higher Education is issuing detailed standards for ten different categories from housing and transportation, to testing, dining and classroom instruction.
  • Behavioral science expert Laurence Steinberg warns opening prematurely will cause a COVID spike at colleges across the nation because most students are at an impulsive age.

K-12 Education

• Education funding at risk as New Mexico Legislature meets
  • High-stakes initiatives to improve lagging public schools are on the financial chopping block in New Mexico as economic turmoil from the coronavirus undermines the state's most significant commodity — petroleum.
• (Pennsylvania) State coronavirus safety grants available for schools
  • Pennsylvania has made $157.5 million in grants available to schools across the commonwealth to help address health and safety needs related to COVID-19.
• Minnesota Promises Late July Decision On K-12 Schools
  • Depending on a district’s unique COVID-19 situation, each one could possibly blend in all three approaches (virtual, in class, and hybrid) to help reduce overall populations of students and staff.
• As COVID-19 Strains School Budgets, Texas’ Historic Education Cuts Give Lessons
  • In Texas, many school leaders are scraping by as they approve budgets for the next school year. But they’re worried about what comes next, and some remember lessons from 2011, the last time Texas schools found themselves in the crosshairs of a recession.
• (Mississippi) K-12 Schools to Receive $150M for Distance Learning Under Senate Proposal
  • The Mississippi Senate voted to dedicate $150 million from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to K-12 education needs amid COVID-19.  The goal is equipping every Mississippi student with a laptop or tablet and improving connectivity for distance learning.

Health Care

• North Carolina testing all prison system offenders for coronavirus, spending $3.3M, over next 2 months
  • The North Carolina commissioner of prisons announced the state will spend about $3.3 million to test all of the offenders – 31,200 of them – in the prison system over the next two months for coronavirus.
• (Florida) 'Painful' health care vetoes predicted
  • Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vow to make deep cuts in the new state budget has health-care advocates and lawmakers on edge, as the Legislature tucked nearly $100 million in so-called “special projects” into the health and human-services portion of the more than $93 billion spending plan.
• Cyberattacks on Health-Care Industry on the Rise, Official Says
  • Hackers are targeting the industry to steal research on coronavirus vaccines and treatments, according to a Justice Department official.
• HEALTH CARE BRIEFING: Cancer Deaths Expected to Rise With COVID
  • Almost 10,000 more people will die from breast and colorectal cancer over the next decade because of disruption in care caused by Covid-19, undoing decades of progress, according to projections released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Social Services 

• Ohio to start denying unemployment to those who don’t meet COVID-19 exceptions
  • New guidance signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Tuesday details what is considered a “good cause” reason to remain on unemployment even if your employer asks you to return to the office.
•  Delaware Added to SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot Program
  • Beginning in July, households will be able to use the food benefits on their SNAP EBT cards to order groceries online through three USDA authorized retailers – Amazon, ShopRite, and Walmart

Justice/Public Safety

• COVID-19 pandemic leads to lower funding for police training in South Carolina
  • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the academy responsible for training every officer in South Carolina says they could be losing out on some funding.