After a slow start, coronavirus relief payments to local Oklahoma governments are flying out of the governor’s office at a rate of many millions of dollars a day.
Through Friday, $233.1 million of the $250 million in CARES Act funds set aside for counties and municipalities had been dispersed, according to a state web site.
In all, more than three-fourths of Oklahoma’s $1.2 billion allocation has been paid.
Federal law mandates the disbursements end on Dec. 31.
Despite some early bumps, Gene Wallace of the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma and Mike Fina of the Oklahoma Municipal League said Friday the process has worked pretty well.
“The governor’s office did a fantastic job to set up and run a completely new program like this,” said Fina.
Signed in late March, the CARES Act included $150 billion to reimburse state and local governments for COVID-related expenses. The money was allocated by population.
Requests were fairly slow at first as counties and municipalities tried to figure out the application procedures and what could be claimed as an allowable expense.
During the summer, the governor’s office calculated allocations based on population for each of the state’s 586 municipalities and 77 counties.
The county allocations were based on the number of residents not living in one of the municipalities. Each county was allocated at least $100,000.
At about the same time, it was determined that public safety payrolls — police, fire and in some cases emergency medical services — qualified for reimbursement. That made the process a whole lot easier for most municipalities.