To date the US Treasury has yet to publish comprehensive data on expenditures from states and local governments who were allocated State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). Treasury has published a "highlight" report but no granular data from the reports that states and local government had to file by January 31st, showing obligations and expenditures by December 31st.
Oregon has 53 SLFRF direct recipients, including the State. In July 2021, the State of Oregon received $2,648,024,988 in SLFRF with another $248,351,580 to allocate to smaller state and county governments.
The 52 local direct SLFRF recipients were allocated another $1,256,173,003 in SLFRF,
So, Oregon's TOTAL SLFRF allocation (without tribal governments) is $4,152,549,571.
The $2.6 billion direct allocation to the State is 64% of that statewide total so I thought it would be instructive to find out how much of that allocation had been obligated and spent and for what.
On March 13th I filed a public record request with the State for copies of the first quarterly reporting documents they submitted to Treasury that covered the period through December 31, 2021.
In early April through April 6th I had several interactions with state staff to insure I fully understood their March 31st and subsequent responses.
State Reporting as of December 31st of Their Direct Allocation of $2.6+ Billion:
Total Obligations:$36,350,500 [$14 of every $1,000 directly allocated to the state].
Total Expenditures:$19,540,600 [$7 of every $1,000 directly allocated to the state].
Obligations and expenditures occurred in only one category, Project Expenditure Category 6-Revenue Replacement.
NO obligations or expenditures were reported in 6 additional categories:
- 1 Expenditure Category: Public Health
- 2 Expenditure Category: Negative Economic Impacts
- 3 Expenditure Category: Services to Disproportionately Impacted Communities
- 4 Expenditure Category: Premium Pay
- 5 Expenditure Category: Infrastructure
- 7 Administrative and Other
There was no reporting in the equity and evidence sections of the report. In response to my request for an explanation state staff said:
"The equity and evidence questions were left blank as the directions for the report directed us that we did not have to submit “subrecipient” data for the Revenue Replacement category. The part of the report that we were required to submit did not have this information in it, so our team didn’t even see that information to enter."
Obligations and expenditures do NOT include any allocations made after December 31st including those made as a result of the 2022 legislative session.
State Data Not Transparent But Could and Should Be:
I (laboriously) converted the single 17 page PDF file state staff sent to me into an Excel file HERE that includes a list of the 44 projects funded by the state in the Revenue Replacement category.
This Excel (OR CSV) format makes it possible to sum expenditures and filter projects by category and subcategory and is far superior to providing a PDF file. This will be increasing important as obligations and spending increase and the number of projects expands.
In the interests of transparency I am hopeful that the state , and ALL other SLFRF grantees, will make their reporting data available in Excel or CSV formats.
Treasury supplies CSV formats to grantees for multiple expenditure categories so it should not require significant additional work for the state and local governments to provide the data in that format.
Who Got Funded and For What?
The state reported that it lost $2,993,693,000 in general revenue as of December 31, 2020 and that it's actual 12 months of general revenue as of that date was $19,251,999,000.
The single largest State SLFRF obligation of $4 Million was to Just Compassion of East Washington County to
"construct a permanent structure on its property to include the following: minimum of 4 stories; transitional housing with individual units comprised of living space with bath/showers; communal and commercial kitchens; year-round overnight congregate shelter area; group and private meeting spaces; office meeting space for partner agencies."
I'm not sure how this project fits into the category of Revenue Replacement; the Portland Tribune has a July 2021 story about the allocation HERE.
A Sample of Some Other Housing Related Items with Funds Obligated from the State of Oregon SLFRF:
Grantee not clear, $280,000: "Recipient shall reduce 20 students' rents by 50%, cover lease-related fees for two years, and provide a part-time Affordable Rents for College Students (ARCS) Coordinator.."
Grantee not clear, but includes only Oregon House District 7, $800,000: "Recipient shall establish a grant process to identify special districts in Oregon House District 7 which are in need and that have qualifying projects or expenses under US Department of Treasury regulations and guidelines/"
Grantee not clear, $400,000; "The Recipient shall provide rental relief grants to residents in low or moderate housing that are behind or unable to pay their rent."
Habitat for Humanity, $740,000; "The Recipient shall purchase a 1.4-acre parcel of land located at 17616 NE Glisan St., Gresham, OR 97030, for the future construction of 20 to 25 permanently affordable, family-sized homes." [Habitat is slated for several additional SLFRF grants].
Grantee not clear, $1,000,000: "The Recipient shall acquire a 1.92-acre property located at the intersection of Boones Ferry Road and Upper Drive."
AT the BOTTOM of this post I have included a picture of a ranked list of ALL of the project names funded, with obligation and expenditure amounts. This same list is included in the Excel file HERE.
Notes/Commentary:
Quarterly reports covering the period through March 31st are due to be sent to Treasury by April 30th, about 3 weeks from now. Presumably these reports will show a substantial increase in obligations and the addition of multiple expenditure categories.
As far as I can tell there is NO central source to find similar reports for the 52 other SLFRF grantees in Oregon, and as I said previously Treasury to date has also not done so.
The state plan for it's direct allocation was published last August, and with no expenditures reported, is HERE.
This first State quarterly report did not show any obligation of funds for expenditure category 7, Administrative costs. It's not clear what limits, if any, exist for those costs.
The average State of Oregon SLFRF grant through December 31st was less than a million dollars. Even if subsequent grants averaged $5 million that could mean several hundred additional grants were yet be obligated.
Monitoring hundreds of grants by the state AND also the pass through grants made by the state to smaller local communities could be time consuming and expensive. Local governments who were directly funded will face similar issues.
Oregon Schools Are Getting Additional Funding from a DIFFERENT $1.1 Billion Funding Source; OPB Has Details.
The Oregon amounts shown for the SLFRF also do NOT include $1.1 billion to be awarded to Oregon from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund III .
Oregon Public Broadcasts (OPB) has a new story about the use of that funding source HERE. Their story includes a spreadsheet showing who received the money HERE.
The OPB story reports that " In Oregon, as of March 24, 5.1% of funds have been claimed by school districts, $51 million dollars out of more than $1 billion."
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