MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When President Joe Biden signs the American Rescue Plan it will send about $4 billion to the state.
For West Virginia the funding is broken down as follows:
$1.25 billion for the state
$348 million split between 55 counties
$176 million for larger metropolitan cities
$153 million for smaller cities
On WAJR’s Talk of the Town, Mon County Commission president Sean Sikora said the figure they’ll receive is about $20.5 million.
“This is an incredible opportunity in front of us, but to spend those dollars where we’re going to get the long-term impact as possible,” Sikora said,” We’ll really have to take a close look and see what we want to approach with these dollars going forward.”
For the last three years, the county has lowered the property tax levy rate and cut spending by about 3 percent. Office budgets have also been trimmed by as much as 20 percent in some cases.
All this despite the pandemic.
“If you know anything about the county commission, we’re not going to just fly off the handle and make assumptions,” Sikora said,” We’re going to do our due diligence and research exactly what we can use it for.”
The county has also increased the budget line item for health and sanitation from $500,000 to $1.48 million. Additionally, the county incurred significant costs for PPE, cleaning, disinfecting and specialized shields in offices.
“It may be used to cover expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic, lost revenue related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sikora said,” And necessary investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.”
By the end of the month, commissioners expect to designate a consultant that will craft a plan to expand broadband to all areas of the county. Sikora says that plan will enable the commission to efficiently identify and complete broadband projects.
“It appears there will be plenty of dollars once we get to that point,” Sikora said,” We’ll be very far ahead in the process given that we have our plan to decide how to spend those dollars.”