The Anchorage Assembly chairman issued a press release on Wednesday afternoon, dubbed a “call to action to federal partners.”
It was a request for more federal stimulus funds.
Assembly Chair Felix Rivera and Vice Chair John Weddleton’s press release pleaded with the federal delegation — naming Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young — to find the money needed to help businesses and individuals in Anchorage.
The press release came hours after Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson shut down the Anchorage economy once again with a lockdown she calls a “modified hunker down” order. The lockdown is in effect for the entire month of December.
“Without additional federal stimulus, businesses and individuals within the Municipality of Anchorage will be left in limbo. We’re close to running out of money for rental and mortgage relief. We will be releasing the final round of small business grants soon. The well is running dry and people’s livelihoods are on the line.” – Felix Rivera
This fall the Assembly liberal majority passed a $22 million ordinance, AO66, to use CARES Act funds to purchase hotels and other buildings for vagrant services, and spent $3 million of its $156 million in CARES Act funds on trail building, ostensibly as a job training program. Those jobs are now gone and many of the workers have departed the state.
“I know that Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Young are fully aware of the challenges we are facing,” said Assembly Vice Chair John Weddleton. “I have full faith in Alaska’s Congressional Delegation to get the job done and to work with all of their colleagues to keep Alaska’s economy strong.”
In August, Rivera said that the allocation of the CARES Act funds was probably going to fall short of the need:
“While it isn’t enough to help everyone and meet all of the need, it is going to help keep people in their homes, keep people employed, alleviate the burden of some parents by helping out with child care, allow better distribution of food to those in need and more,” he said in August.
The allocation for the CARES Act funds received this summer, which must be spent by Dec. 31, include:
- Small Business Stabilization (Hospitality and Tourism): $14,000,000
- Small Business and Non-profit Grants: $6,000,000
- Outdoor Public Lands program: $3,000,000
- Child Care Assistance Program: $10,000,000
- Child Care Assistance Program for Parents/Guardians: $5,000,000
- Rental and Mortgage Assistance Program: $3,000,000
- Rental and Mortgage Assistance and Support: $20,000,000
- Administration Flexibility Fund: $1,500,000
- FEMA 25% Match: $12,000,000
- Anchorage Health Department: $2,300,000
- Library: $260,000
- First Responder Payroll Reserve: $21,000,000
- Mental Health Clinicians (ASD): $1,000,000
- Mental Health First Responders: $3,000,000
- Pre-K Funding: $250,000
- RuralCap Job Program Weatherization and Mobile home Repair: $2,500,000
- Girdwood Health Clinic: $5,000,000
- Visit Anchorage Remarketing Convention Facilities: $2,000,000
- Contingency Fund: $15,000,000
