WASHINGTON — Indiana Senator Mike Braun (R) is calling for taxpayer funds to be repaid after an Associated Press report cited scores of projects that state and local governments across the United States are funding with federal coronavirus relief money, despite having little to do with combating the pandemic.
In the report, the AP listed three projects specifically that used COVID-19 relief funds on projects with seemingly no ties to problems created by the pandemic.
Officials in Broward County, Florida, recently broke ground on a high-end hotel that will have views of the Atlantic Ocean and an 11,000-square-foot spa thanks to a sudden $140 million cash infusion.
In New York, Dutchess County pledged $12 million for renovations of a minor league baseball stadium to meet requirements the New York Yankees set for their farm teams.
And in Massachusetts, lawmakers delivered $5 million to pay off debts of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston, a nonprofit established to honor the late senator that has struggled financially.
Each had little to do with combating the pandemic, a review by The Associated Press found.
After the AP report, Sen. Braun blasted President Biden and Democrats who passed the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill.
“Last year I said Biden & Democrats’ ‘COVID relief’ bill was less than 10% related to COVID and jammed with wasteful spending and liberal pet projects," Braun said in a statement released Wednesday evening. "Now as you pay for record inflation at the grocery store and the gas pump, we see what your money is really being wasted on: Luxury hotels, ballparks, and ski slopes.”
The expenditures in the AP report are a fraction of the $350 billion made available through last year's American Rescue Plan to help state and local governments weather the crisis. But they are examples of uses of the aid that are inconsistent with the rationale that Democrats offered for the record $1.9 trillion bill: The cash was desperately needed to save jobs, help those in distress, open schools and increase vaccinations.
In addition to Braun, other Republicans are balking at additional money for pandemic relief that President Joe Biden has requested, and programs that seem far removed from ones that directly combat the virus will probably add to the resistance in the GOP.
“They need to give us an accounting,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who tried unsuccessfully to amend the Democrats’ bill last year to add more limits on how the money could be spent. “Show us how you’ve already spent the money Congress gave you," he said, adding, “It’s hard to imagine how a four-star hotel is helping to solve the pain of COVID."
Under permissive Treasury Department rules governing how the pandemic money can be spent, state and local governments face few limitations. New Jersey allocated $15 million for upgrades to sweeten the state's bid to host the 2026 World Cup. In Woonsocket, Rhode Island, officials allocated $53,000 for a remodeling of City Hall.
“Outrageous” and “just nuts” is how Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., described some of the expenditures, which she said were an affront to responsible local governments. “Our hospitals were overwhelmed because of the pandemic and somebody now has a hotel somewhere?” she added.
“I’m calling on these state and local governments spending COVID aid money on these projects to repay those taxpayer funds to the federal government so we can put it toward paying down our $30 trillion national debt,” Braun said.
Included among the projects and expenditures identified by the AP:
- $400 million to build new prisons in Alabama, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the total aid the state will receive through the program.
- tens of millions of dollars for tourism marketing campaigns in Puerto Rico ($70 million), Washington, D.C. ($8 million) and Tucson, Arizona ($2 million). The city of Alexandria, Virginia, also announced it would spend $120,000 to give its tourism website a makeover.
- $6.6 million to replace irrigation systems at two golf courses in Colorado Springs.
- $5 million approved by Birmingham, Alabama, to support the 2022 World Games. The event features niche sporting contests such as DanceSport, korfball and flying disc.
- $2.5 million to hire new parking enforcement officers in Washington, D.C.
- $2 million to help Pottawattamie County, Iowa, purchase a privately owned ski area.
- $1 million to pay off overdue child support in St. Louis. A city memo states that owing child support stops some people from looking for work because the overdue payments are garnished from paychecks; the program would “empower individuals” by paying down a portion.
- $300,000 to establish a museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, honoring Major Taylor, a famed Black bicycle rider from the turn of the 20th century known as the “Worcester Whirlwind” who died in 1932.
Liz Bourgeois, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, called the program a success that allowed state and local governments to “recover from financial distress” and “achieve their own strategies for restoring jobs and industries hit by the pandemic.”
"Ultimately local governments are accountable to their communities on their decisions on how best to use their funds,” Bourgeois said in a statement.
Despite Braun's request for repayment, finding and recovering misspent funds could be a daunting task.
Even in cases where local and state officials may have violated the federal spending rules, the sheer volume of money pumped out presents a challenge for government oversight offices that are often understaffed and poorly funded.
“The amount of money that went out was so massive and so far beyond anything that has ever been spent in our country before, that our capacity to audit every dollar spent is clearly stretched," Romney said.
Rich Delmar, the deputy inspector general for the Treasury Department, declined to say whether the office had any active investigations into uses of the state and local pot of money.
“All projects are potentially subject to audit and investigation,” Delmar said in an email, adding that “we are actively engaging in oversight.”
Biden, meanwhile, has said his administration urgently needs more money to pay for things that are directly related to the pandemic.
Without it, the White House says, the administration won't be able to replenish depleted stockpiles of vaccines and therapeutics. Republicans say winning their support will hinge on it being paid for with money that was already appropriated.
