The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on how to spend nearly $650 million in federal COVID relief allocated under the American Rescue Plan Act.
Local leaders have hosted public hearings to get input from several communities on how to best spend the funds, and in April, they voted on a draft plan that includes:
- $307.5 million toward pandemic response, including testing, tracing, treatment and vaccines
- $85 million dedicated to services for homelss San Diegans
- $50 million for struggling small business
- $36 million to give hazard pay to county workers who have been required to show up in person to their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic
Supervisors Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond were opposed to the last recommendation, with Desmond saying in a statement: “These are taxpayer dollars, and they should be given back to the people who were most impacted by the pandemic. I believe the board of supervisors has the most important job of any board prior and that is to help everyone bounce back from the pandemic.”
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The county will receive about half of the nearly $650 million in federal aid this year and the rest in 2022.
