$57M Funneled To Howard County From CARES Act

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Howard County has been given nearly $57 million ($56,830,393) through the CARES Act. Half of the county’s share of grant funding, $28,415,197, was given to the Howard County Health Department, while the remaining half was transmitted directly to Howard County government. The county government has access to at least $9 million in funds granted to the Howard County Health Department to cover county health-related expenses during the pandemic.

“Howard County was required to go through a more rigorous process to receive federal relief funding. Now that we have received this critical funding, we can focus on quickly distributing funds to those who need it the most,” said Howard County Executive Calvin Ball in a statement. “We plan to provide more than $5.7 million in business assistance funding to support our local businesses in response and recovery to COVID-19."

Howard County has spent more than $9.3 million in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts to date and is anticipating a revenue loss of nearly $35 million, officials stated. Howard County government is projecting more than $22 million in health-related expenses stemming from the pandemic.

Funding from the CARES Act supports the following types of health-related expenses:

• Salaries for emergency management and services dedicated to mitigating and responding to the pandemic;
• Acquisition and distribution of supplies;
• Expenses for public safety measures;
• Communications and enforcement;
• Disinfection of public areas.

Additionally, Howard County is projecting more than $9 million in non-health related expenses stemming from the pandemic. The following are non-health related expenses that will be supported by CARES Act funding:

• Hazard pay for employees performing essential work during the pandemic;
• Technology expenses to improve telework capabilities;
• Care for homeless populations;
• Food delivery to residents;
• Rental assistance support.

Howard County also is providing more than $5.7 million in business assistance funding as part of its HoCo RISE effort to help businesses with the response and recovery from the pandemic. Since more than 80 percent of Howard County’s businesses have fewer than 20 employees, officials are putting the limited resources in targeted sectors to help those most impacted.

The business assistance efforts include:

• A Storefront Retail Assistance Program, which provides $2.7 million to locally owned small retailers who have been forced to close because of the governor’s non-essential business order.

• An Agriculture Assistance Program, which provides $800,000 in total grant assistance to support local, full-time farms affected by the decreased demand by local restaurants as well as a drastic decline in commodity prices.

• A Restaurant Assistance Program, which provides $2 million to locally-owned restaurants for support for accommodations required to reopen and customer access.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was signed into law March 27.