A review by The Associated Press has found 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.
“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.”
“Our hospitals were overwhelmed because of the pandemic and somebody now has a hotel somewhere?” she added.—$400 million to build new prisons in Alabama, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the total aid the state will receive through the program. 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.”
County Administrator Monica Cepero insisted “no federal funds will be used to pay any of the cost of developing the Hotel Project.” The Edward Kennedy Institute did not respond to messages seeking comment on the $5 million in coronavirus aid received from Massachusetts. The institute operated at a $27 million loss between 2015 and 2019, according to tax filings from those years, the most recent that are publicly available.
“Counties should be able to determine what’s best for them,” said Mark Ritacco, director of government affairs for the National Association of Counties. “Their residents will decide whether that was appropriate or not at the ballot box.”