Hey guys, it's Ginny Silver.
I have an update for those of you in the State of California
collecting pandemic related unemployment benefits.
Who are wondering if the State of California will be able
to extend PEUC and PUA beyond the September 4 end date?
Last week, on August 19, the Secretary of treasury and Secretary
of labor issued a statement confirming that States can use
their allocations of the $350,000,000,000 in American Rescue
Plan state and local funds to provide assistance to unemployed
workers. This means that if a state has remaining funds in
this allocation and if the state chooses to utilize it for
funding additional weeks of unemployed benefits, that they
may opt to continue PEUC and Pua for additional weeks in the
State of California.
Our number one question is, does the State of California
have remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan at state
and local fiscal relief funds?
Of the $350,000,000,000 allocated to the States for the American
Rescue Plan Act, California received $26 billion in fiscal
relief funding to the state and 16 billion in fiscal relief
funding to local governments.
Today.
On August 24, the Legislative Analyst Office put out the
2021 through 2022 budget overview of the spending plan.
Included in this overview of the spending plan is a section
specifically talking about the ARP Fiscal Relief Fund.
The State of California was allocated $27 billion and the
state has until December 31 2024 to use the funds.
It includes a breakdown of how the budget package allocates
these $27 billion in American Rescue Plan fiscal relief fund.
The breakdown does show that each dollar for the $27 billion
in American Rescue Plan funds is earmarked for a specific
use. Now it's clear to see from this breakdown that all of
California is $27 billion in American Rescue Plan funds are
already allocated and earmarked for other purposes.
So does the State of California have remaining funds in the
American Rescue Plan Act?
State local fund?
The answer here is that as it lies right now, no, all of
the funds seem to be allocated an earmark for other programs.
So does this mean that the State of California will be unable
to provide additional weeks since all funds from the American
Rescue Plan Act or allocated in the budget, does the budget
have potential to be changed and reallocated to include additional
weeks of pandemic related unemployment?
We will need to hear a statement from the Office of the Governor
as well as the California State Legislature if there are
any potential plans or possibilities that the State of California
could change the budget at this point and reallocate funds
that are already earmarked for other programs.
Alright, you guys, I know I don't have a definitive answer
here for you, but I did find the number that I said I would
try to locate in terms of exactly how things are being spent
from that American Rescue Plan Act, state and local funds.
I wanted to share the update with you so that you are as
informed as possible.