HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The government of Guam and the rest of the nation is about two weeks past the cutoff date to submit input on interim final rules for the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, established under the American Rescue Plan Act.
Now it is up to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to develop the actual final rules.
Guam is already in possession of $553 million received out of the State and Local Recovery Funds, but the governor has not spent the money, wanting to first wait for the final rules.
Krystal Paco-San Agustin, the governor’s communications director, said the final rules may come sometime this month.
How ARPA money will be spent, and the support it can provide to local agencies and programs, remains a critical question for lawmakers as they begin to determine how the government will be budgeted for the next fiscal year. The final budget bill is due to the governor at the end of this month.
On July 26, Speaker Therese Terlaje requested copies of comments, questions, a plan or draft plan submitted by the governor’s administration regarding the interim final rules.
But the administration did not submit to the federal government comments or plans specific to Guam. Similarly, when The Guam Daily Post requested comments GovGuam submitted on the interim final rules, the Post was told by the governor’s office that no submissions were made.
Rikki Orsini, the governor’s policy director, told the speaker that Guam participated in a coordinated response with national organizations, namely the National Association of State Budget Officers and the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers, because the administration’s concerns mirrored those of state counterparts.
“This interactive process has proven to be more effective than a single submission. It allowed us to contribute to the coordinated response of these highly established and recognized institutions through our collaborative participation in conference calls sponsored by NASACT,” Orsini stated.
The NASACT submission was a series of responses to questions issued by the Treasury on the interim rules, covering eligible uses, premium pay, infrastructure upgrades and other topics.
RISE Act
The Legislature did develop a proposal for the governor on how ARPA funding should be spent, and that includes reserving some money for the implementation of the RISE Act, a local economic relief law, which was turned into the All RISE program by the governor via executive order. The program is capped at $30 million. Applications for All RISE have not been released yet.
At least based on interim rules, direct cash transfers to households is an allowable use of State and Local Recovery funds.
A fact sheet published by the Treasury on July 19 stated that cash transfers must be reasonably proportional to the negative economic impact they are meant to address.
“In particular, when considering appropriate size of permissible cash transfers made in response to the Covid-19 public health emergency, state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments may consider and take guidance from the per person amounts previously provided by the federal government in response to the Covid crisis,” the guidance states.
All RISE would provide a one-time benefit of $800 and $1,600, for single and joint tax filers, respectively. The initial concept, in the RISE Act, excluded government workers and certain retirees, but that was changed when the governor created the All RISE program.
In comparison, the federal economic impact payments ranged from $600 to $1,400 for individuals and between $1,200 and $2,800 for joint filers.
Cases of fruits and vegetables along with other nonperishable goods were given out by staffers from the Barrigada Mayor’s Office to island residents during a food commodities distribution in Tiyan on Friday morning.
