A10
OREGON
East Oregonian
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
State’s fuzzy federal aid picture
By HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
SALEM — Two months
ago, Congress passed a $900
billion COVID relief package
to boost unemployment bene-
fi ts, deliver another round of
stimulus payments to house-
holds, aid businesses and
schools, and support the roll-
out of vaccines.
With attention focused on
Democrats’ new $1.9 trillion
relief plan, the December
2020 relief law might seem
like a distant memory.
But the money Congress
approved on Dec. 21, 2020,
has been fl owing into Oregon
in huge buckets. The Orego-
nian found that state and local
governments in Oregon —
particularly school districts
— will collectively receive
nearly $1.8 billion to spend
on public services or distrib-
ute to struggling Oregonians.
Even experts on govern-
ment spending, however,
can’t say for sure how much
in total Oregon’s state agen-
cies and other governments
will receive, The Orego-
nian concluded after days of
reporting aimed at pinning
that down.
In February, lawmakers
and state analysts said they
were still fi guring out how
much the federal funding
might help fi ll an estimated
$1.6 billion state budget short-
fall caused by slower than
usual tax and lottery reve-
nue growth, and signifi cant
state spending on pandemic
and wildfi re response. The
Legislative Fiscal Offi ce had
yet to pin down the number as
of Tuesday, Feb. 23.
FUNDING STREAMS
Here are the other December 2020 relief package funding
streams identifi ed by contacting various government agen-
cies and other sources:
• $281 million for rental assistance through the state and
six counties.
• $280.8 million in public health funding for COVID-19
testing, vaccine distribution and contact tracing work, some
of which will go to local governments.
• $232.8 million awarded directly to community colleges
and public and private universities, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Education.
• $225 million for transit agencies, including $190 million
for the Portland area, smaller allotments for other urban
centers and just $2.5 million for rural transit providers,
according to the Oregon Department of Transportation.
• $124 million in relief funds for highway infrastructure
program, according to ODOT.
• $103 million in child care and development block grants,
administered by the Early Learning Division.
• $41.8 million in education funding to be spent largely at
the governor’s discretion, including $27.6 million specifi cal-
ly for private schools.
• There is also a nationwide pot of $50 million to support
school-based mental health programs, but it’s unclear how
much Oregon will receive.
Gov. Kate Brown’s admin-
istration was also unable to
sum up how much the state
expects to receive. “There are
21 different funding streams
in the December federal relief
package, which are distrib-
uted directly both to state
agencies and to local entities,
including counties, cities,
behavioral health clinics,
and higher education institu-
tions,” Deputy Communica-
tions Director Charles Boyle
wrote in an email. “We don’t
yet have a total breakdown
of the funds coming to state
and local entities through
those funding streams, as the
state hasn’t received all the
dollars.”
The Oregonian contacted
staffers for all seven members
of the state’s congressio-
nal delegation, starting with
Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen.
Jeff Merkley the fi rst week
of February. Merkley’s
offi ce was able to point to
what appears to be the larg-
est tranche of funding for
Oregon governments, $499
million for K-12 schools. Five
senators’ and representatives’
staffers responded with vary-
ing amounts of information
about the relief funding.
The fuzzy picture of how
much federal aid Oregon is
receiving points to the size
and complexity of these
federal relief bills — $2.2
trillion in CARES Act funds
are still being paid out 11
months after it passed. It
sent at least $2.45 billion to
Oregon governments, plus
stimulus payments paid
directly to individuals, aid to
businesses through tax cuts
and the Paycheck Protec-
tion Program, and an array
of other policies. Sara Hott-
man, state communications
director for Merkley, wrote
in an email that “funds are
largely distributed based on
grant applications, and right
now CARES Act grants are
still being awarded to appli-
cants. So I’m guessing it’ll
be some time before we have
state totals of the December
bill.”
Although state and local
officials appreciate the
last two rounds of federal
aid, they have pushed for
large additional injections
of federal funds that state
and local governments
could use to backfill their
budgets. Nearly a year ago
when Oregon was newly in
a COVID lockdown and the
effects on the state’s tax reve-
nues were not yet clear, the
governor said that not being
able to replace lost revenue
with CARES Act federal
funds was a frustration
“shared by governors around
the country.”
In practice, the state was
able to apply $56 million
from the CARES Act to the
state police budget and a
number of city, county and
special district governments
used federal funds to help
cover payroll and employee
paid leave costs, state audi-
tors found.
Austin Smith Jr./Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, File
Researchers have been monitoring the wolf dubbed OR-
93 via his tracking collar and said the animal departed Or-
egon earlier this year, likely in search of a new territory,
the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Oregon wolf tracked
near Yosemite park
Associated Press
BRIDGEPORT, Calif.
— A young male wolf has
been spotted near Yosem-
ite National Park, the
farthest south a wolf has
been tracked in California
in more than a century, offi -
cials said.
Researchers have been
monitoring the wolf dubbed
OR-93 via his tracking collar
and said the animal departed
Oregon earlier this year,
likely in search of a new
territory, the San Francisco
Chronicle reported.
The wolf dispersed from
the White River Pack south-
east of Mount Hood. He was
collared in June 2020 by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Confeder-
ated Tribes of Warm Springs
in Oregon, according to the
California Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
OR-93 was tracked
through Modoc County,
California, and crossing
state highways 4 and 208. It
recently moved into Mono
County, just east of Yosem-
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ite, the newspaper said.
“Given the time of year,
we assume OR-93 has trav-
eled such a long way in
search of a mate,” Center
for Biological Diversity wolf
advocate Amaroq Weiss
said in a statement. “I hope
he can fi nd one.”
This is the 16th gray wolf
to have shown up in Califor-
nia, according to the depart-
ment. Most have been from
Oregon.
Previously, the farthest
south a gray wolf was spot-
ted in recent decades was
the Lake Tahoe Basin. That
wolf, OR-54, eventually
headed back north.
Earlier this month,
another male wolf, OR-85,
was tracked to California’s
Siskiyou County, just south
of the Oregon state line.
Gray wolves were erad-
icated in California early
in the last century because
of their threat to livestock.
Their reappearance in the
state has riled ranchers, who
say wolves have preyed on
their livestock on public or
private land.
UPCOMING GARAGE OR
ESTATE SALE?
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