Stimulus checks, jobless benefits: 7 things the NC legislature wants to do this week

The state legislature returns to Raleigh Wednesday to spend more than $900 million in federal coronavirus money, with plans to use it for health care and education needs, grants for struggling businesses, stimulus checks for parents, and bonuses to recruit more Election Day poll workers.

Last spring, North Carolina received $3.59 billion from the federal CARES Act, and most of it has been spent. Some of the $903.9 million remaining was initially earmarked for things like transportation funding, but the federal government never addressed states’ requests for more flexibility in how to spend the money, so it’s still sitting in the bank.

Federal rules require CARES Act money to be spent only on coronavirus-related programs and expenses — not to make up for a drop in state revenues.

And while state lawmakers had scheduled this month’s session assuming that Congress would by now have passed another coronavirus relief package, that hasn’t happened. The U.S. House and Senate haven’t agreed on a plan, and if they eventually pass one, state legislators will likely have to hold another session later in the fall to figure out how to spend North Carolina’s share.

The available $903.9 million must be spent by the end of the year under federal rules, so state leaders want to make sure none of it goes to waste. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders have outlined competing plans for how to spend it.

Cooper also wants to use higher-than-expected revenue collections from the end of the last fiscal year to fund teacher bonuses and other priorities. But Republican legislative leaders say that money shouldn’t be spent yet because the state’s revenue picture remains uncertain.

Lawmakers have been working behind the scenes to figure out a budget for the remaining funds from the CARES Act. Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, explained the process during a committee meeting ahead of lawmakers’ return to session. Lambeth said subcommittees met about the requests they had for CARES Act funding.

Here’s what legislators are planning to vote on later this week:

Stimulus for parents

Parents could get a stimulus check to offset child care and virtual schooling-related expenses.

GOP legislators said they want every household with children to get a check for $325. The move would use $440 million in federal coronavirus funding. Anyone who claimed a dependent child on their tax filings would automatically receive the money; the amount will be the same regardless of how many kids one has.

“Parents are facing an unexpected financial burden from school closures,” Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, said in a news release. “Expenses like child care, supplemental learning materials, lost wages, and more are adding up.”

Cooper’s budget proposal didn’t include any stimulus checks, but he wants to provide one-time bonuses for teachers, school support staff and public university and community college employees. Those bonuses aren’t included in the legislature’s budget plan.

Grants for struggling businesses

In an attempt to help businesses avoid layoffs, lawmakers plan to spend $45.5 million on a relatively new Job Retention Grant program, adding to $15 million allocated to the program a few months ago.

Those grants — capped at $250,000 — don’t have to be paid back, unlike a small business loan program that the legislature previously funded that still has tens of millions of unspent dollars. Businesses that received one of those loans or funding from the federal Paycheck Protection Program aren’t eligible to apply.

Grant recipients must prove their economic losses while keeping at least 90% of their pre-coronavirus workforce employed through May 31. The Department of Commerce is currently taking and reviewing applications for the first round of funding, and the additional $45.5 million would help more businesses.

“The government imposed shutdown orders on small businesses, so there’s a role for government to take action to prevent devastating layoffs,” Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, said in a news release Tuesday.

But the grant program won’t help businesses that have had to lay off the majority of their employees, which include many of the bars, gyms and entertainment venues that have been shut down since March under the governor’s coronavirus orders.

Zack Medford, who owns several downtown Raleigh bars, said on Facebook this week that most bars have already spent their federal PPP loan money.

“The state offers some limited loan programs, but after 154 days of being closed, how could bar owners possibly take on more debt with no idea when they might reopen?” he wrote. “We are out of money. We can’t pay rent anymore. Most of us are living off credit cards at this point. We are at the end of our ropes.”

Cooper’s proposal, by contrast, would spend $50 million on Department of Commerce grants that would fund up to four months of rent, mortgage and utility expenses for businesses that were disrupted by COVID-19, particularly in hospitality, tourism and “leisure” industries. A separate $33 million grant program would help what are known as Historically Underutilized Businesses, including minority-owned businesses.

Bonuses for poll workers

Legislative leaders plan to spend $5 million more in federal coronavirus funding on the upcoming election, with the bulk of it to give Election Day poll workers a $100 bonus.

House and Senate leaders announced Monday in a news release that the goal is to “ensure North Carolina counties have sufficient poll officials to keep as many precinct sites available as possible.” Many of the usual poll workers are retirees, some of whom won’t be working this year because they’re at high risk for COVID-19.

Of the funding, $3 million would go toward the bonuses, while another $1 million would fund ads to recruit poll workers, and $1 million would be divided evenly among counties “to ensure safe voting on Election Day.”

“In-person voting is safe and secure, and legislators are committed to providing funding so the Board of Elections can fairly administer the election,” Senate Elections Committee Chairman Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said in the news release. Cooper’s budget proposal, released last week, does not include any election-related funding in its recommendations for spending the remaining federal CARES Act money.

Rural broadband

House and Senate budget writers agreed last week to spend another $30 million in federal coronavirus funding on a rural broadband grant program.

The program, known as GREAT (Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology) has received about $24 million in funding from the legislature so far this year.

“So far, in 2020 more than $12 million in grant funding has been awarded to expand access to 8,017 households and 254 businesses in 11 counties,” a news release from legislative leaders said.

Cooper’s budget seeks to spend even more federal dollars on internet access issues — but not necessarily through the GREAT program. He’s calling for a $50 million “emergency grant program” to fund “projects that bring connectivity to communities most lacking in service, enabling them to promote business development, telework, utilize telemedicine, and learn online in response to COVID-19.”

Part of that funding would go to new internet access programs led by the state’s historically Black colleges and universities and UNC-Pembroke, while another portion would create a new “Broadband Subscription Assistance” for households that can’t afford their internet bills.

The GREAT program, by contrast, provides grants to internet service providers to cover the cost of building infrastucture in underserved areas.

In addition to the grants, legislative budget writers said Thursday that they plan to spend $10 million to buy more portable internet hotspots for K-12 public school students.

Unemployment benefits

A vote is planned this week to use CARES Act funding to increase unemployment assistance.

House Speaker Tim Moore published a news release Friday that said the House and Senate support increasing all unemployment assistance checks by $50 per week.

The increase would mean $200 a month extra for North Carolina’s unemployed through the rest of the year. The legislature’s plan would increase the maximum number of weeks of benefits, which Cooper has called to increase from 12 to 24 weeks.

Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, said at a news conference Tuesday that the goal is to help those who are unemployed, but he’s heard from employers who are “furious that we’re doing this” because they have open jobs without enough applications.

President Donald Trump’s administration has approved North Carolina for a federal boost in unemployment benefits that would grant people out of work because of COVID-19 an additional $300 a week. Workers could get the payments retroactively for the first three weeks of August. The $300 supplemental payment is less than the $600 a week that expired at the end of July after Congress couldn’t reach a deal to extend benefits.

Child care subsidies and grants

Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, said the Republicans’ budget for federal coronavirus-related money includes $35 million for flexible operational grants to child care centers.

“Since child care centers are taking on all this additional responsibility for our schools, we owe it to them to provide additional operational grants so they can sustain,” Perry said at Tuesday’s news conference.

Perry said that child care facilities have been operating at 43% capacity on average. However, Perry added that the child care centers have taken in students who need help with remote learning. The centers have also increased their expenses to comply with COVID-19 guidelines.

The Republicans also want to offer a $20 million grant to allow community-based organizations like the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Clubs to offer parents a safe place to send their children to access remote learning. The legislation would also reduce some regulations governing child care centers.

Perry said Republicans will also offer $8 million in grants to allow working-class parents to take advantage of “these child care opportunities” and offset their child care costs.

Private school vouchers

More families would qualify for the “Opportunity Scholarship” private school voucher program under the budget bill.

Income requirements for the program would be relaxed. Currently, a family’s income must be less than 133% of the income level used for free and reduced school lunch programs.

Legislative Republicans want to change that to 150% of the free and reduced lunch qualification. According to Sen. Deanna Ballard, R-Watauga, that means that a family of four making a household income of $72,000 would be eligible for vouchers.

“This pandemic has only really intensified and magnified the notion that one size does not fit all,” Ballard said at the news conference. She noted that demand for private schools, home school and other options are high this year as parents look for alternatives to public schools’ COVID-19 plans. The legislation would also remove a cap on how many kindergartners and first-graders can participate in the program, she said.

Democrats and Cooper instead want to redirect some of the unspent school voucher funding to other purposes, including bonuses for public school teachers. A news release from House Democrats Tuesday said that the voucher expansion plan “provides more taxpayer dollars for private schools and special interests.”

This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 3:45 PM.