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Stimulus bill includes millions for local counties

A $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill poised to pass in the House and be signed by President Joe Biden would include $7.2 million for Essex County and $9.7 million for Franklin County.

The American Rescue Plan was approved by the Senate on Saturday. Around $4 million of Essex County’s stimulus would go to its 18 towns and $5 million of Franklin County’s stimulus would go to its 19 towns. A breakdown of how much each town would receive is included with this article.

If approved by the Democratic-majority House the American Rescue Plan would be the first stand-alone COVID relief stimulus bill Congress will have passed since the HEROES Act in May 2020. The omnibus spending bill for the 2021 fiscal year, passed in December 2020, also included $900 trillion for COVID relief.

The House already approved the ARP bill last week, with no Republicans voting for it. The Senate made several changes to the bill, however — removing a provision to gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, lowering the highest annual earnings at which stimulus checks phase out, removing a provision to make student loan debt forgiven tax-free and extending unemployment insurance for a few more weeks, at $100 less a week. Because of these changes, the bill will go back to the House for another vote on the alterations.

North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, did not respond to an email asking how she intends to vote when the ARP bill returns to the House. She voted against the bill last week, calling it “partisan.”

The bill was proposed by Biden, so he is likely to sign it.

In a press release touting the bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it includes $3.9 billion in total for New York counties.

“After fighting this pandemic on the frontlines, New York’s counties and municipalities were loud and clear: they needed help and they needed it now to keep frontline workers on the job and prevent brutal service cuts,” Schumer said in a press release. “Help is on the way.”

Schumer said economic recovery is closely tied to state and local government recovery.

“The American Rescue Plan delivers comprehensive and robust relief to New York families,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in a press release.

How money can be used

Funding may be used by state and local governments to cover costs associated to COVID-19, to cover revenue losses caused by the pandemic or to make investments in infrastructure such as water, sewer or broadband. Costs associated to COVID-19 can mean a variety of things, including assistance to households, small businesses and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel and hospitality.

It can also be used to support essential workers with premium pay or grants to employers.

Franklin County

“It’d be very helpful, for sure,” said Franklin County Board of Legislators Chairman Donald Dabiew, D-Bombay. “It would get us back to where we were and maybe a little better.”

Dabiew said the county has spent all its CARES Act money by now, first on making sure people here could get tested, then on making sure people get vaccinated. He also said daily operations — county buses, sanitizing offices, paying people to work from home — have become more expensive, too.

The county laid off some employees early on, he said, which allowed it to make it through financially.

“Franklin County is not a rich county,” Dabiew said. “We have to look at every dollar.”

He was not certain if the county would use new money to rehire for some of those positions. He said the county is getting by but would need to evaluate how overstressed employees are.

One area he said needs relief is the county Public Health department, which has a small staff of specialized professionals who have been in high demand this past year.

“Our Public Health are stressed right to the limit. It’s unbelievable,” Dabiew said. “Everyone’s doing a little bit extra. We can’t expect them to do a little bit extra forever. … Some of these people have been working seven days a week. It hasn’t been easy.”

Money coming into the county has been slower this year, but not as bad as expected early on in the pandemic.

Dabiew said the county has not received any money through its contract with the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort since the third quarter of 2019, as the casino shut down for a period of time when the pandemic began.

“They said they had to use it to keep their operations afloat,” Dabiew said.

Sales tax dropping was a big concern at first, but he said it has been fine recently since the county gets a portion of sales either local or online.

He also said hotel taxes took a hit last year but have rebounded recently.

COVID aid by the town

¯ Essex County: $7.15 million ($4 million to towns)

¯ Franklin County: $9.7 million ($5 million to towns)

¯ All dollar amounts are proposals

Essex County by town:

¯ Chesterfield: $260,000

¯ Crown Point: $210,000

¯ Elizabethtown: $120,000

¯ Essex: $70,000

¯ Jay: $260,000

¯ Keene: $120,000

¯ Lewis: $140,000

¯ Minerva: $80,000

¯ Moriah: $490,000

¯ Newcomb: $40,000

¯ North Elba: $880,000

¯ North Hudson: $30,000

¯ Schroon: $170,000

¯ St. Armand: $160,000

¯ Ticonderoga: $520,000

¯ Westport: $140,000

¯ Willsboro: $220,000

¯ Wilmington: $140,000

Franklin County by town:

¯ Bangor: $250,000

¯ Bellmont: $150,000

¯ Bombay: $140,000

¯ Brandon: $60,000

¯ Brighton: $160,000

¯ Burke: $160,000

¯ Chateaugay: $210,000

¯ Constable: $170,000

¯ Dickinson: $90,000

¯ Duane: $20,000

¯ Fort Covington: $180,000

¯ Franklin: $120,000

¯ Harrietstown: $600,000

¯ Malone: $1,540,000

¯ Moira: $300,000

¯ Santa Clara: $40,000

¯ Tupper Lake: $630,000

¯ Waverly: $110,000

¯ Westville: $200,000

2019 Census data was used to decide the dollar amounts per town.

This data does not include money intended for villages, because a process has not been put in place to “divvy up funds between overlapping governments.” The Department of Treasury will decide how this will be implemented.

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