Cooper proposes more grants for parents, and other uses for NC’s $5.7B in COVID relief
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper laid out Wednesday how he wants the state to spend the latest round of federal coronavirus relief money.
State government is getting $5.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. That is on top of the billions North Carolina received and spent in 2020.
Cooper called the latest money a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” that he wants to use to build a bridge from coronavirus response to recovery. North Carolina is set to receive $5.44 billion in state fiscal relief as well as $277 million for critical capital projects.
The 2020 relief spending included $335 checks to parents called Extra Credit Grants. Cooper is proposing “Extra Credit Grants 2.0.”
His proposal would spend $250 million on new grants, this time for low- and middle-income families with children to “help alleviate widespread financial hardship across the state,” the proposal says.
The grants would give $500 to lower-income families and $250 to middle-income families. The $500 grants would go to families with adjusted gross incomes of $15,000 to $30,000, with $250 grants going to those making $30,000 to $60,000 in 2019.
Cooper’s administration estimated that 320,000 families would receive $500 payments and 340,000 would get $250 payments.
The governor credited the legislature with the “good idea” of grants last year. He said that while his proposal is “structured a little bit differently” than the Republican plan to give the grants to almost all parents, he is willing to work with lawmakers on something they can all agree on.
Cooper said his proposal including an income limit for the grants because there are a lot of people doing well as they emerge from the pandemic.
“But there are a lot of people on the edge, too,” he said.
Broadband, housing money
The Biden administration released guidance for how to spend American Rescue Plan funds last week. It is flexible and includes several categories like public health; “economic harms” to workers, households and small businesses; essential workers’ pay and infrastructure.
Broadband expansion is one issue that has bipartisan support.
“We cannot lose this chance to close the digital divide,” Cooper said Wednesday at a news conference.
The spending plan includes $1.2 billion for broadband internet expansion. The money would fund statewide access for high-speed internet.
Cooper said the pandemic showed the need for better internet access for education, work and business.
He said his “most ambitious recommendation is to connect everyone in this state and the world with high-speed internet.”
Here are other highlights of Cooper’s spending plan:
▪ $575 million for affordable housing. The money would go to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency for new and rehabilitated housing, the Workforce Housing Loan Program and down-payment assistance for people buying homes.
▪ $800 million for water, sewer and stormwater. The funds would go to the Department of Environmental Quality to distribute $440 million to projects for “distressed and at-risk water and wastewater units” and the rest available for all projects statewide.
▪ $160 million for public schools and child care care centers to use for lead and asbestos testing and abatement.
▪ $150 million for workforce technology training in areas including science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), health care, construction and public safety as well as education technology needs. The money would be divided into $75 million for the community college system, $45 million for the UNC system, and $30 million to North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities.
Republican spending plan
The Republican-majority General Assembly will start working on the next COVID-19 spending bill this week. Both the House and Senate would need to pass it and the Democratic governor would need to sign it before it becomes law.
The House Appropriations Committee will meet Thursday morning, with Senate Bill 172, “Additional COVID-19 Response & Relief,” on its agenda. Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, has indicated that the Senate supports giving parents more money, but with no details yet on how much or how that would work.
Rep. Jon Hardister, House majority whip and a Whitsett Republican, is the lead sponsor of a bill that would spend as much as $170 million in American Rescue Plan funds to address learning loss and families. The bill proposes $1,000 for each elementary, middle and high school student — with a maximum of $3,000 per household — to be spent directly on things like summer enrichment programs, tutoring, textbooks, therapies for students with disabilities and fees for assessments and exams.
“I think it’s a great concept. I think the intent is very clear. A lot of children, with some exceptions, have had a tough time during the pandemic,” Hardister told The News & Observer last week. He said the intent is to get money directly to families, and prioritizing some so it can “make a real difference for a working-class family.”
In the Senate, lead budget writer Sen. Brent Jackson, a Sampson County Republican, offered this statement:
“As with most budget issues, some of Gov. Cooper’s proposals will have support and some will not. We appreciate the Governor for engaging with us on his recommendations over the past week as we continue our work to appropriate state and federal funds.”
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This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Cooper proposes more grants for parents, and other uses for NC’s $5.7B in COVID relief."