How Much Money Is Coming to Nebraska?
It is a question many have been asking since Congress passed the historic CARES Act at the end of March. Since then there have been two other relief packages for a total cost of more than $2 trillion.
But just exactly how much is being sent to Nebraska? Well, that is an important question on several fronts. For starters, we have no idea how many Nebraskans got the $1,200 check or how many people are getting the additional $600 per week in unemployment.
We know a little more about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan that is aimed at helping small businesses keep their workforce employed during the pandemic. The initial $350 billion was spent and Congress approved another package for $320 billion in late April. We have some idea where the initial PPP money went thanks to a report issued by the SBA. According to the report, Nebraska had 23,477 loans approved for $2,988,890,489, or just shy of $3 billion.
Other disbursements to Nebraska include:
- Education Stabilization Funds[1] sent to:
- K-12 schools – $65,085,000
- Higher Education– $213,783,000
- Governor’s emergency education grants – $16,380,000
- Transit Infrastructure Grants[2] sent to:
- Lincoln – $9,845,106
- Omaha (NE portion) – $21,884,422
- Grand Island – $2,187,878
- Sioux City (IA/NE/SD) – $748,172
- Airport Improvement funds[3] sent to 72 Nebraska airports amounting to $64,602,994
But that’s not all. Well, it’s all I could find on money sent specifically to Nebraska. That doesn’t include the disaster relief fund, community development grants, homeless assistance grants, economic development, preparedness grants, or the Stafford act declaration.
I’m sure in the days to come we will learn more about the money that has been sent to Nebraska from the federal government – until then, we will continue to learn about how this money is being spent as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
[1] https://www.politico.com/states/f/?id=00000171-31b8-da0d-a17b-fffb32a90000
[2] https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/apportionments/table-2-fy-2020-cares-act-section-5307-urbanized-area-apportionments