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5 <br /> <br />21. May recipients create a “payroll support program” for public employees? <br />Use of payments from the Fund to cover payroll or benefits expenses of public employees are limited <br />to those employees whose work duties are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the <br />COVID-19 public health emergency. <br />22. May recipients use Fund payments to cover employment and training programs for employees that <br />have been furloughed due to the public health emergency? <br />Yes, this would be an eligible expense if the government determined that the costs of such <br />employment and training programs would be necessary due to the public health emergency. <br />23. May recipients use Fund payments to provide emergency financial assistance to individuals and <br />families directly impacted by a loss of income due to the COVID-19 public health emergency? <br />Yes, if a government determines such assistance to be a necessary expenditure. Such assistance could <br />include, for example, a program to assist individuals with payment of overdue rent or mortgage <br />payments to avoid eviction or foreclosure or unforeseen financial costs for funerals and other <br />emergency individual needs. Such assistance should be structured in a manner to ensure as much as <br />possible, within the realm of what is administratively feasible, that such assistance is necessary. <br />24. The Guidance provides that eligible expenditures may include expenditures related to the provision <br />of grants to small businesses to reimburse the costs of business interruption caused by required <br />closures. What is meant by a “small business,” and is the Guidance intended to refer only to <br />expenditures to cover administrative expenses of such a grant program? <br />Governments have discretion to determine what payments are necessary. A program that is aimed at <br />assisting small businesses with the costs of business interruption caused by required closures should <br />be tailored to assist those businesses in need of such assistance. The amount of a grant to a small <br />business to reimburse the costs of business interruption caused by required closures would also be an <br />eligible expenditure under section 601(d) of the Social Security Act, as outlined in the Guidance. <br />25. The Guidance provides that expenses associated with the provision of economic support in <br />connection with the public health emergency, such as expenditures related to the provision of <br />grants to small businesses to reimburse the costs of business interruption caused by required <br />closures, would constitute eligible expenditures of Fund payments. Would such expenditures be <br />eligible in the absence of a stay-at-home order? <br />Fund payments may be used for economic support in the absence of a stay-at-home order if such <br />expenditures are determined by the government to be necessary. This may include, for example, a <br />grant program to benefit small businesses that close voluntarily to promote social distancing measures <br />or that are affected by decreased customer demand as a result of the COVID-19 public health <br />emergency. <br />26. May Fund payments be used to assist impacted property owners with the payment of their property <br />taxes? <br />Fund payments may not be used for government revenue replacement, including the provision of <br />assistance to meet tax obligations. <br />291 <br />291