Dear Neighbors:
I hope you found a way to observe Earth Day this past Monday. We began celebrating this holiday in 1970, and its significance only grows with each passing year. In this week’s letter I discuss the Department of Health’s pandemic resiliency program and the Governor’s re-allocation of federal pandemic relief funds.
1. The Department Of Health Budget
This past Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) presented the Governor’s proposed budget. In Slide 19 of its Presentation, the Department noted that it “expects that the COVID-19 variant will continue to evolve and may lead to occasional surges.” In the next slide, the Department listed the State’s vaccination rates for various respiratory diseases, including a 17% rate for the 2023-24 COVID vaccine. (In contrast, the flu vaccine rate for individuals 65 and over was 55%). I asked the DOH officials if they could do more to increase our vaccination rate and/or implement other programs to increase our pandemic resiliency. They acknowledged more could be done, but the DOH budget failed to utilize $20 million of available funds it had received through the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA).
2. Redirection Of ARPA Funds
We learned last week of the Governor’s plans to reallocate ARPA funds. In Budget Amendment 11, he proposes (1) reducing Department of Health’s ARPA budget by $20 million, (2) canceling a $35 million marina project in East Providence (which did not raise sufficient outside matching funds) and (3) redirecting $5 million previously designated for housing programs. In Budget Amendment 12, the Governor proposes repurposing this roughly $60 million on homelessness initiatives ($16 million), replenishing the unemployment insurance trust fund ($24 million) and construction of the replacement Washington Bridge ($20 million).
The Senate Finance Committee will review these proposals at its meeting next Tuesday, April 30. I will seek answers to these questions:
- The primary purpose of the ARPA funds was to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. Before we remove $20 million from the DOH budget, are we sure we have done our best to build resilience against future respiratory pandemics?
- Before we allocate additional money to the unemployment insurance trust fund, shouldn’t we first close the $8 million hole in the RIPTA budget first noted in my January 21 letter?
- Is it premature to allocate $20 million to the Washington Bridge project when we haven’t yet defined its scope, received bids, know its cost, know what federal funding is available, and propose the allocation of federal funds that must be “obligated” by the end of this year?
My January 21 letter noted that the initial allocation of $10 million in ARPA funds to RIPTA to partially fill an $18 million gap in next year’s budget was problematic because it used one-time federal money to address a structural deficit in future years. With that said, even that allocation leaves a further $8 million gap which will create a crisis next year if it is not closed with additional state or federal funds. I need to hear an explanation why it would be better to redirect additional ARPA funds to the unemployment insurance trust fund rather than close the remaining $8 million hole in RIPTA’s 2024-25 budget.