MAMMOTH – The Pinal County Board of Supervisors have dropped their litigation against the Federal Government after the State announces the distribution of the CARES Act funding. Pinal County has been allocated $27,170,006, while Pinal County towns and cities will receive individual funding.
“Had it not been for the Pinal County Board of Supervisor taking action to bring a lawsuit against the US Treasury, I believe that the Governor would not have moved on the distribution of the $1.8 billion dollars of CARES Act funds,” said Supervisor Pete Rios. “Even though this is a good start for Pinal County and our cities/towns, there is still additional funding that the Governor needs to distribute to rural counties and small cities/town.”
Cities and towns in Pinal County will receive the following: Pinal County $27,170,006; *Apache Junction $4,887,430; Casa Grande $6,731,338; Coolidge $1,507,410; Eloy $2,253,079; Florence $3,148,226; Kearny $248,901; Mammoth $193,679; Maricopa $5,984,522; Superior $364,855; *Winkelman $40,297; *Hayden $72,443.
*City/town boundaries are in two (2) counties, total allocation combined
Local governments may use their allocation to cover regular payroll costs of public health and public safety personnel, freeing up existing local budget capacity to be deployed elsewhere. The fund is designed to provide maximum flexibility, while minimizing red tape, so municipalities can determine how best to use the funds to meet their needs.
In an effort to benefit all Pinal residents, the Board of Supervisor will have to discuss and vote on how to disperse this funding to unincorporated areas of Pinal County. The focus for these areas will be services like rental assistance, utility payments, food banks, social services, businesses, job training and more.
Supervisor Rios is grateful to the Governor for making an effort to treat rural areas on a more equitable basis and will continue to advocate for Pinal County.
Editor’s note: The Pinal County Board of Supervisors held its regular meeting today, June 3. On the agenda was an item addressing the CARES Act funds and how best to allocate them throughout the county. The agenda item reads:
“Discussion/approval/disapproval to direct staff to prepare an expedited Pinal CARES initiative process targeting coronavirus-related needs mainly throughout unincorporated Pinal County but to coordinate with municipalities within Pinal County so as to not duplicate programs or assistance, unless necessary, so that programs and assistance can be quickly implemented meeting the greatest number of needs of residents, non-profits and local businesses. (Louis Andersen)”
Copper Area News will continue to follow this issue and inform our readers of the outcome.