Millions in new COVID aid headed to St. Mary

More than $20 million is headed to St. Mary Parish and municipal governments under the recently enacted coronavirus aid legislation, according to figures distributed by the Louisiana Press Association.
Local officials are waiting for official word on how much they’ll get and what rules will govern the way they spend the money.
The assistance to communities hit by COVID-19 is part of the American Rescue Plan Act, which passed Congress on party-line votes and was signed into law by President Joe Biden last week.
While the official word has yet to reach all officials, the National Association of Counties’ figure agrees with the LPA numbers on the amount earmarked for the St. Mary Parish government: about $9.6 million.
“Clearly, whatever we can get is a godsend,” Parish President David Hanagriff said.
But he also wonders: “It just seems too good to be true.”
His doubt comes from what he doesn’t yet know, and that’s if and how the federal government will restrict use of the funds.
“We get to wait and see what it can be spent for,” Hanagriff said.
The funding could be limited to making up for shortfalls resulting from COVID-19. If so, Hanagriff said, the parish’s sales tax collections have been “decent.” The big damage has been sustained by the parish’s royalty road fund, which is supported by a share of fees imposed on offshore oil production, he said.
Travel restrictions and reduced economic activity around the world have reduced demand for oil. Worldwide demand for petroleum dropped about 11% to 91 million barrels a day during the pandemic, according to the International Energy Agency.
If it can be used for other purposes, “I would love to keep it invested in infrastructure — roads, sewers, water, levees,” Hanagriff said.
In Berwick, where the town government would receive about $1.6 million, Mayor Duval Arthur believes the town will have more latitude in where the money goes.
One possible target is Town Hall.
Arthur said the hall needs a walk-up window at which residents could pay bills without coming inside, and improvements to the interior foyer.
The restrooms also need an update in the 1950s-era building, including one that needs to be made handicap-accessible. More space is also needed in the town courtroom, Arthur said.
“Those are some of the things we’ve been kicking around,” the mayor said.
Unrelated to the new COVID aid, the Berwick Town Council recently awarded a $298,000 bid for a new roof with an assist from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Morgan City, the new COVID aid is expected to be more than $3.9 million.
The Rev. Ron Bias, a Morgan City councilman, said he hadn’t received word about the size of the funding or heard any plans for what the city government would do with it.
“I would assume our infrastructure would get a large share,” he said.
That means money for streets, waterlines and equipment to help the Public Works Department do its job.
The money would be a gift to Morgan City. “I would say not a Christmas gift, but a stimulus gift,” Bias said.
The amount of assistance coming into Morgan City also brings home the scale of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the third package of that size enacted since the pandemic.In addition to the $20 million-plus bound for local governments, $1,400 stimulus payments are already showing up in local bank accounts. The child tax credit has been expanded, and a $300 per week federal enhancement of state unemployment benefits has been reauthorized into August.
Billions more are directed at COVID-19 vaccinations, schools and a new round of Paycheck Protection Program loans.
All three of St. Mary’s federal representatives voted against the legislation, joining conservatives who say it’s a liberal wish list that is too big for the economy’s needs. So much spending could trigger inflation, they warn.
Democrats point to the 9.5 million U.S. jobs lost since the pandemic began and say a big aid package is needed to move the economy forward again.

American Rescue
Plan Funding
St. Mary..................$9,570,740
St. Martin..............$10,362,613
Assumption............$4,245,624
St. Mary municipalities
Baldwin.....................$818,203
Berwick..................$1,629,401
Franklin..................$2,473,783
Morgan City...........$3,960,855
Patterson...............$2,135,661
Source: Louisiana Press Association,
National Association of Counties