$1.9 T COVID Bill Gives Counties Money to Burn!, 3552

Good morning, I’m still reporting on BIG spending by Congress.
One of our roving reporters, John Hammer, lives in and has covered local government in Greensboro, NC and Guilford County.
His take on the consequences of the massive $1.9 trillion Covid Relief bill just passed out of Congress is very revealing.
One truth about a $1.9 trillion bill, is that it is nearly impossible to follow where all the money is supposed to go. Several articles that purported to be a comprehensive look at the bill only included where about $700 billion to $1 trillion was going which still leaves about $1 trillion unaccounted for. Even in the federal government $1 trillion is more than pocket change.
Greensboro is a town of 300,000 in north central North Carolina. It is receiving a direct allocation of $56 million supposedly to cover its losses during the pandemic restrictions.
What are those losses? Greensboro has a budget of right at $600 million a year so an unexpected $50 million expense would put a considerable hole in the budget. But due to the pandemic, Greensboro did not cut a single employee in any department. Even though Parks and Recreation was essentially closed for months, everyone in the department continued to get a pay check. However, that department did save a lot of money because with youth sports all but canceled they didn’t have to pay for all the expenses of holding sporting events.
Greensboro doesn’t have a health department so it didn’t have increased costs there. The only increased cost it may have incurred was buying masks and hand sanitizer for employees and additional cleaning, although since most of the buildings were closed for months it also saved money on regular cleaning. There is no need to empty trash cans or vacuum floors every day in an empty building.