Tough choices ahead for commissioners

Apr. 19—The requests, 28 and counting, are abundant while the dollars, even at $34.2 million, are limited.

Soon the Johnson County Commissioners Court must undertake the unenviable task of deciding how best to distribute the funds amongst more than 30 applicants or at least a portion of those applicants.

"We've only got so much money," Commissioner Kenny Howell said. "But we have so many organizations applying for what's there."

Commissioners held two marathon called sessions last week to hear presentations from the majority of applicants and plan to hear from another four to six this week.

"What makes this so hard is that all of the people we've heard from so far, everyone of them had a truly great presentation and everyone of their organizations address truly wonderful, great and needed causes," Howell said. "What's giving us heartburn now though is that, while we support all of those organizations, we're not going to be able to grant all their requests. We just don't have the money."

The $34.2 million is the amount the federal government allocated to the county in American Rescue Plan Act Funding of which Johnson County has already received about $14 million with the rest expected by May.

ARPA funds are meant to mitigate and/or make up for losses caused by COVID-19. The county has until 2024 to obligate the funds and until 2026 to spend them.

Commissioners, by applying federal guideline calculations, set $12 million of the funds aside as lost revenue. Commissioners also plan to build a new 911 call center and tackle other projects.

Of the rest, commissioners plan to distribute funds among nonprofits, cities and businesses submitting requests and meeting federal guidelines.

Commissioners to those ends hired GrantWorks, a consulting firm, to vet applicants and ensure that the county follows federal compliance and other guidelines in distributing and spending the funds.

Although commissioners have yet to make any official decisions on expenditures, all said it was clear following April 12th's presentation by the first 10 applicants that requests for grants had already outstripped the available pool of funds.

"I know you all are being overwhelmed with applications and don't envy your positions," Children's Advocacy Center of Johnson County Executive Director Tammy King said, echoing similar sentiments voiced by other applicants between both days of presentations.

Such is, unfortunately, the case commissioners said.

"We have more requests than we have money," County Judge Roger Harmon said.

Commissioner Rick Bailey agreed.

"The common sense goal at this point I think is for us to try to help everybody in need that we possibly can to the extent that we can," Bailey said.

That said, commissioners add that some of the 30 plus applicants are simply going to have to be turned down.

Applicant requests ranged from relatively small — vehicle and/or equipment requests — to $1 million plus building construction projects.

Commissioners called the larger project requests worthwhile, but said they're unsure how many, if any, they'll be able to approve.

"I don't know if we can approve any of those bigger building projects for the full amount," Howell said. "There's some of those organizations that if we partially funded a building for them they could raise the rest. But then there are some that if we gave them part of the money they're not ever going to be able to come up with the rest. And that's the thing, We don't want to award money that's just going to sit there and never go toward what it was meant for.

"So my goal is to use the money we do have to do as much as we can for as many as possible because all these organizations are helping the entire county."

Tough decision lie ahead, Harmon admitted.

"But it's a privilege and blessing too," Harmon said. "We're not going to be able to help everybody, we just don't have the money. But we're still going to be able to distribute a lot of money to several of these organizations and that money is going to make a positive difference to them and the people in our county as a whole."

Harmon said he plans to call a called meeting probably this week to hear from the remaining applicants after which additional meetings will be called during which commissioners will undertake the decisions of who gets what.