Washington state to distribute federal funding to local govts

Washington, Sep 1 Washington Governor Jay Inslee has announced that about $190 million from the US state's federal stimulus funding will be distributed to local governments that did not receive direct distributions under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The new funding includes nearly $126 million that will be distributed to cities and counties and about $62 million to local health jurisdictions, Xinhua news agency quoted Inslee as saying on Monday.

The Governor's budget office approved the distributions, in consultation with legislative leaders.

"Our local public health jurisdictions, cities and counties have worked tirelessly since the first confirmed case of Covid-19 appeared in Washington to protect their communities," Inslee said.

"This much-needed infusion of funds will help sustain their efforts to stop the spread of this virus."

The new funding for cities and counties came on top of nearly $300 million that was distributed last spring to cities and counties with populations under 500,000 that were ineligible to receive direct funding from the federal government under the CARES Act.

The state's Department of Health will distribute funding for local health jurisdictions.

Specific allocations to cities and counties will be released by the Department of Commerce in the coming days.

Each county will receive a minimum distribution of $300,000 and each city will receive a minimum distribution of $30,000 from the state.

( With inputs from IANS )