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Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration is seeking to immediately deploy nearly half of the $168 million it has received in federal coronavirus relief funds to help residents and businesses that have been affected by the pandemic and subsequent shutdowns.
The administration will introduce the plan to spend $76 million—in the form of fiscal ordinances—to the Indianapolis City-County Council at a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday night.
The proposal includes $20 million for contact tracing and virus testing and $15 million for rental assistance to needy residents. It would also pay for masks for people who need them, provide personal protection equipment and grants for small businesses; and grants for not-for-profits that need PPE.
The plan also includes spending on technology and government expenses related to the virus.
At this point, however, the city is holding back a larger portion of the federal funding, in hopes Congress will allow cities to use some of the money to shore up budgets that will be hit hard by the pandemic in the next year or two.
“I’ll admit that sounds like a lot of money, and it is,” Hogsett said in a media briefing on the proposal Monday morning. “It is clear these dollars will be helpful but not sufficient.”
Hogsett said his administration continues to talk with Indiana’s congressional delegation about needs the city will have in future years because of hits the budget will take to a variety of funds.
Here’s how the Hogsett administration’s spending proposal breaks down:
| Coronavirus Relief Fund | FEMA Funding | |
| Public Health Investments | ||
| Contact Tracing and Testing | $20,000,000 | |
| Purchase and Distribution of Cloth Face Masks | $3,000,000 | |
| Face Covering Public Awareness Campaign (Partnership with Arts Council) | $20,000 | |
| Social Service Investments | ||
| Rental Assistance | $15,000,000 | |
| Meal Deliveries for Homeless Neighbors | $49,725 | |
| Support to Food Agencies | $1,826,000 | |
| Food Home Delivery project | $450,000 | $750,000 |
| Hotel Housing for Shelter Social Distancing | $1,800,000 | |
| At-Risk Homeless Hotel Housing | $398,275 | |
| Nonprofit PPE Grants | $2,000,000 | |
| Economic and Small Business Recovery | ||
| Rapid Re-Employment Hub | $1,050,000 | |
| Adult Basic Education | $1,500,000 | |
| RESTART Grants | $5,000,000 | |
| Music Cities Strategy Recovery Program | $125,000 | |
| Street Modifications for Expanded Outdoor Seating | $350,000 | |
| Participation in State Small Business Program | $5,000,000 | |
| Technology and Government Expenses | ||
| Public Safety Overtime | $3,200,000 | |
| Local Units Coronavirus Relief Allocations | $2,000,000 | |
| Technology – Desktop Replacement | $3,600,000 | |
| Technology – Remote Collaboration Tools | $550,000 | |
| Cloud Hosted Phone System & Cloud Call Center Implementation | $5,550,000 | |
| Technology – Modernize 311 | $536,363 | |
| Technology – Implement Grants Management Solution | $350,000 | |
| Technology – Remote Court Solution | $150,000 | |
| PPE for the Continuation of the Construction of the CJC | $2,000,000 | |
| Reopening Local Government Offices | $664,000 | $2,050,000 |
| Court Streaming Solution | $100,000 | |
| Ability to Collect Revenue Anywhere | $250,000 | |
| TOTAL | $76,071,363 | $3,248,000 |
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Let the quibbling begin!
What about all the riot damage the mayor did not protect?
That should cover the damage to the downtown businesses, that Hogsett was complicit in destroying with his stellar leadership.
$3.6mm for new desktop computers. Never let a crisis go to waste…
$5.5mm for a cloud-based phone system. Anyone at the IBJ challenging these items being “virus-related”?
Andrew …You are so correct….About time these over killer s of the cities who act like Tyrants stand on their own merits…I want none of my tax dollars to bailout any city who did not protect businesses…
They are for remote working capability
Any details on the “RESTART Grants”? Who qualifies? Application process?
The 20K for face cover awareness campaign is being recategorized as the false sense of security training program!
$ 350,000 for street modifications for Expanded Outdoor Seating, with the lawlessness we saw in downtown Joe getting people inside the restaurants is going to be a challenge. Ask Prime 47 when the next time they will have outdoor seating, my guess never ever again. No sense in providing projectiles to throw through the windows for the Marxist thugs. Hogsett is got to be the dumbest and most unlucky Mayor. The day you open up outdoor seating is the day you tell your Police force to stand down, that’s leadership at it’s finest.
You have to fund ANTIFA and BLM somehow. Taxpayer must pay for our own destruction.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/16/black-lives-matter-cashes-100-million-liberal-foun/
https://www.response.indychamber.com/restart-grant
The mayor is making a serious run at the Worst Leadership Award. If he keeps this up he will end up in the US Congress.
Maybe he should divert some of the funds to fix his grill.
For all you naysayers, take it up with your Congressional representatives. The funds have many strings and must be related to coronavirus responses and effects.
How about something for all the arts organizations that have been affected by this overblown crisis? 20 million for contact tracing and testing?
Holcomb and Hogsett need to pay all the business owners DT they did not protect from the vandalism and looting. The State has the surplus money they took from other departments where they cut funding. IDNR, specifically, IDOF budget is so low apparently, they resort to logging viable trees in all Indiana Forests to supplement their budget. This isn’t harvesting, forest management as they claim. These are acres and acres of good viable trees cut down because IDOF apparently doesn’t have enough money.
Why do you think in Gov. Holcomb’s January 14, 2020 State of the State Address speech he mentions DNR planting 1
million trees over the next 5 years? Is he trying to makeup for the millions of trees he has allowed DOF to cut down for money? It took many, many years for those viable trees to grow. Holcomb thinks his little saplings which will take one’s lifeline to grow, will replace the ones removed for profit.
This is only one area that infuriates me. There were many programs where funding was cut to get the surplus.
The State owes all the business owners compensation for all their losses. These businesses are what makes Downtown Indy great, and the State failed to protect them.