Cook County Board Approves $51M Allocation to Suburbs for COVID-19 Expenses

Cook County Board of Commissioners
Special Meeting on July 16, 2020

The Board 

• Approved the proposed allocation among the 130 plus suburban municipalities in Cook County of $51 Million to offset COVID-19 expenses (Agenda Item 20-3228); 
• Referred to the Finance Committee a resolution allocating an additional $72 million for economic development (Agenda Item 20-3229); and  
• Referred to the Finance Committee the item pertaining to the Preliminary Budget Forecast for 2021 (Agenda Item 20-3165).  Immediately following this Board meeting, the Finance Committee met and adopted a schedule of meetings starting on July 20 with the Cook County departments to explore this preliminary budget forecast further.

Following are more details regarding each of these items:

Agenda Item 20-3165: Preliminary Budget Forecast
  FY2020 Forecast:  Total operating budget shortfall of $280.3 million, composed of

• $219.7 million in General Fund +
• $  60.6 million in Health Fund

  FY2021 Preliminary Forecast:  Total operating budget shortfall of $409.6 million composed of

• $222.2 million in General Fund +
• $187.4 million in Health Fund

Agenda Item 20-3228:  Resolution Allocating Cook County Coronavirus Relief Funds to Suburban Municipalities and other Units of Local Government. 

• These are funds from the Federal Government that Cook County received under the CARES Act to cover only those costs incurred due to COVID-19 from March 1, 2020 thru Dec. 30, 2020. 
• County worked with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to determine an equitable method of funding to share a portion ($51 million) of the County’s funds with other local governments in Cook County, including the Forest Preserve District.  

The goal is to give those areas hardest hit by COVID-19 the largest shares of the money.  So the County is not simply allocating by population.  One-third of the allocation is equal to $5.90 per person in the municipality and the remaining 2/3s of the allocation is based on a calculation composed of 4 weighted factors:

• Percentage of the population in disinvested areas (40%)
• Median income (30%)
• COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 (20%)
• Tax base per capita (10%)

The County will enter into intergovernmental agreements with each municipality, which will have to submit documentation demonstrating that the expenses it incurred and is seeking reimbursement for (up to the allocation amount) qualify under the CARES Act.

The County received a total of $429 million under the CARES Act, most of which is being used to cover the County’s costs.  Chicago is not included under this allocation because it directly received its own allocation under the CARES Act of $470 million.

Agenda Item 20-3229:  Resolution allocating a portion of the $429M in CARES Funds the County received for economic development.  Resolution states that $133 M allocated to address impact of COVID on communities:  $51 M to communities (what the Agenda Item 20-3228 above is allocating) and $82M distributed by the Bureau of Economic Development ($10M, of which has already been provided in loans).  Under this Resolution the following allocations are made:

• $15 M to a Cook County COVID-19 Small Business Recovery Grant and Technical Assistance Program:  $12.6 M for grants + $2 M for free advising and educational services + $400,000 for administering.
• $1 M to implement the Southland Development Technical Assistance Network to provide technical assistance to small businesses in the South Suburbs.
• $4 M to implement the Back to Work Cook County program to provide retraining and employment services to dislocated suburban residents.
• $500,000 to implement the Cook County Manufacturing Cares Package
• $20 M to implement the Cook County Rental Assistance Program (with payments going directly to the landlord).
• $20 M to implement the Cook County Mortgage Assistance Program (with payments going directly to the servicer).
• $11.4 M to implement the Cook County Critical Social Service Programs:  services to the homeless ($ 5 M), housing assistance ($1.1 M), utility assistance ($2.1 M), food assistance ($1.1 M), and direct financial assistance ($2.1 M); all to assist those directly impacted by COVID-19.

The Commissioners will be given more detailed information about this proposal in the coming weeks prior to the vote.

Priscilla Mims, League observer