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city dope
“Thanks to Georgians, the nation can
finally see the light at the end of this dark
Moneybags Biden Makes It Rain
PLUS, GOVID KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND MORE LOCAL NEWS
By Blake Aued and Jessica Luton news@flagpole.com
tunnel,’
Aued]
Sen. Raphael Warnock said. [Blake
Hundreds of millions of dollars will flow
from Washington, D.C. into Athens from
the recently passed American Rescue Plan.
The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief pack
age includes $65 billion for cities and $65
billion for counties. As a consolidated
government, ACC is eligible for both, and
its share is an estimated $60,034,155,
according to the National Association
of Counties.
Much of that funding comes with
strings attached, according to Mayor
Kelly Girtz. “It’s not unrestricted
money,” he said. “You can’t spend it
on anything at any time.” The funding
can be used for things like hazard
pay for essential workers; assistance
to households, small businesses and
nonprofits; aid to affected industries
like tourism and hospitality; and
water, sewer and broadband internet
projects.
Local governments will receive half
their share of funds within 60 days of
President Joe Biden signing the bill on
Mar. 11, and the other half within 12
months. Governments will have until
the end of 2024 to spend the money.
Girtz said he plans to spend part of
ACC’s funding on immediate relief for
residents and businesses, and some
on “foundational changes that will be
felt decades from now.” For example,
he said, he wants to buy a motel or
apartment building and convert it into
housing for the homeless as ACC pursues a
“housing first” policy, because landlords are
often reluctant to rent to the homeless.
Some of the funding can be used to back
fill holes in the county budget. The Athens
Downtown Development Authority recently
reported that parking revenue is down
$800,000 in fiscal 2021. ACC has also lost
revenue from court fees and a tax on hotel
and motel rooms as tourism dropped off
and conventions virtually ceased during the
pandemic.
The $60 million figure doesn’t include
personal benefits like $1,400 checks to
most individuals (which started hitting
bank accounts last weekend), $300 weekly
unemployment supplements, the expanded
child tax credit and earned income tax
credit, or additional subsidies for peo
ple buying health insurance through the
Affordable Care Act. Those benefits will
pump tens of millions of dollars into the
local economy.
Nor does it include the estimated $5
billion that will go to the state government,
some of which will trickle down to Athens.
Gov. Brian Kemp has slammed the plan,
saying Georgia isn’t getting its fair share.
State Republicans have also floated the idea
of using the windfall to cut taxes, but that’s
prohibited by the legislation.
According to the Democratic Party of
Georgia, the plan includes $5.1 billion
for the state government, $3.6 billion for
Georgia’s local governments and $4.3 bil
lion for Georgia schools. More than 9 mil
lion Georgians will receive $1,400 checks.
The expansion of the child tax credit from
$2,000 to $3,600 applies to 2.3 million
Georgia children. And a 60-year-old couple
earning $75,000 a year will save $1,406 on
their health insurance premiums.
The plan includes separate pots of money
for mortgages, rent and utility assistance;
for businesses like bars, restaurants and
music venues; and for transit and other
Vaccinations Expand as Athens
Teachers Get First Shots
The light at the end of the tunnel is shin
ing a little brighter this week as an increase
of vaccinations in Clarke County, alongside
a stable rate of new cases and a decrease
in hospitalizations, provides some hope of
progress in combating this pandemic.
Further, Gov. Brian Kemp announced
last week that adults 55 and older and
adults with specific health conditions—
Mti
Benjamin Nail, a Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School teacher, receives his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a Clarke
County School District mass vaccination event Mar. 10.
areas. Girtz said ACC will set up a dash
board to help individuals and businesses
navigate the process of accessing those
funds.
The transit funding should be enough to
keep Athens buses fare-free “for quite some
time,” Girtz said. And if voters extend a 1%
sales tax for transportation in 2022, com
missioners have agreed to devote a portion
of it to covering farebox revenue. “It could
be that the last quarter has been dropped
into an Athens Transit farebox,” Girtz said.
The Clarke County School District should
be able to expect about the same amount
of funding as ACC—$60 million—Girtz
said, but school officials said last week that
they didn’t know yet how much is allocated
to CCSD. Previous funding from the 2020
CARES Act allowed CCSD to avoid laying
off employees and paid for expenses related
to meals, distance learning, facilities and
equipment, supplemental learning and
at-risk students. The American Rescue
Plan contains $122 billion for K-12 public
schools—almost 10 times as much as the
CARES Act.
It’s unclear how much money will flow
to UGA, but the American Rescue Plan set
aside $40 billion for higher education to off
set state-level cuts ($318 million in Georgia
last year).
Of course, none of this would have
happened had Georgia voters not put two
Democrats in the U.S. Senate in January,
giving the party a one-vote majority that
allowed the Senate to pass the bill through
the reconciliation process and avoid a
Republican filibuster.
such as diabetes, obesity and congenital
heart disease—will be added to the list of
those who can be vaccinated. Kemp also
announced that all adults would be eligible
to get the vaccine in Georgia starting at the
beginning of April.
Last week, more than 1,400 Clarke
County School District teachers and staff
were administered the first dose of the
Pfizer vaccine at mass vaccination events
at Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals high
schools. The mood at the event among
those getting vaccinated was positive, and
the event was run with great efficiency, as
the Department of Public Health and med
ical students from the Augusta University/
UGA Medical Partnership worked together
to administer vaccinations in an assem
bly-line fashion.
Aimee Morgan, an early interven
tion program teacher at Timothy Road
Elementary, was able to get vaccinated
within 15 minutes. She said she was excited
to get the vaccine, and the event also pro
vided an opportunity for her to see cowork
ers that she hadn’t seen all year.
Andrew Broadmann, a medical
student administering vaccines at
the event, said the students under
went training in advance of the event
through CDC and DPH mobile clinic
modules. “This is the second vaccina
tion event in Athens I’ve worked,” he
said. “It’s cool to support the commu
nity and see the comradery here. It
does give me hope that we’re moving
in the right direction, and to see such
broad support for the vaccine.”
In Clarke County last week, 6,723
doses were administered, for a total of
42,284 vaccinations so far. Compared
to the previous week, doses adminis
tered were up about 2,000. With addi
tional eligibility added to Georgia’s
vaccination requirements, so long as
supply continues to increase, public
health experts are hopeful that vacci
nation rates will continue to rise.
In looking at local case numbers,
the news continues to be positive. The
seven-day running average of new
cases was back down to 14.6 as of Mar.
11. There were 113 new confirmed
cases added to the total last week, for a
total of 12,233 confirmed cases. An addi
tional 2,132 cases have been reported via
rapid antigen tests. The cumulative number
of cases in Clarke County stood at 14,365.
Wastewater data from Erin Lipp’s lab
at the Center for the Ecology of Infectious
Diseases at UGA shows that the viral load
THIS V«ILI
A.X. TEACHING INTERFACE ACTI
VATED! GOOD MORNING, CHILDREN!
IT'S TIME TO RESUME OUR STUDY
OF THE PIVOTAL INFLECTION-POINT
DECADE OF THE 1010‘S'.
rwi
PLEASE EXCUSE
ANY TECHNICAL
DIFFICULTIES —
MY c.p.u. HAS
BEEN HIJACKED
TO MINE BIT-
COIN AGAIN.
YOUR a I ST CENTURY ANCESTORS
FACED A UNIQUE CHALLENGE—
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS CON
SUMED WITH CONSPIRATORIAL MAD
NESS and Actively trying to
KILL THEM.'
by TOM TOMORROW
FOR INSTANCE, REPUBLICANS REFUSED
TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE REALITY OF
CLIMATE CHANGE-until humanity
WAS FORCED TO MOVE UNDER
GROUND TO SURVIVE THE CONTI
NENTAL HELLSTORMS!
AND THERE'S NO WAY TO KNOW
HOW MANY VICTIMS OF THE TRUMP
PANDEMIC MIGHT HAVE SURVIVED,
IF REPUBLICANS HADN'T TURNED
BASIC HEALTH MEASURES INTO A
CULTURE WAR FLASHPOINT!
Bli'IWI
THE BEHAVIOR OF
ORGANIC BEINGS
IS FREQUENTLY
UNFATHOMABLE
TO ARTIFICIAL-
AMERICANS SUCH
AS MYSELF.
THIS IS WHY YOUR PARENTS MUST
SURVIVE THE BRUTAL ELIMINA
TION GAMES BEFORE THEY ARE
ALLOWED TO VOTE—AS MANDATED
BY PRESIDENT TUCKER CARLSON'S
ELECTION REFORM LAW OF 1036!
REPUBLICANS LARGELY RETAINED
POWER THROUGH VOTER SUPPRESSION
AND OBSTRUCTIONIST TACTICS.' DEM
OCRATS HAD A BRIEF WINDOW OF
OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS THIS IN
2021 —
—BUT WERE UNABLE TO DO SO,
DUE TO MODERATES IN THEIR OWN
PARTY WHO REFUSED TO CONSIDER
THE ELIMINATION OF AN ARCHAIC
LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE KNOWN
AS THE FILIBUSTER!
THAT'S ALL THE BANDWIDTH WE'VE
BEEN ALLOCATED FOR TODAY'S
LESSON! REMEMBER TO MONITOR
YOUR DOSIMETERS AND CHECK YOUR
CARBON DIOXIDE SCRUBBERS —
I'LL SEE YOU CHILDREN TOMOR
ROW—AT LEAST, THOSE OF YOU
WHO LIVE THAT LONG!
— Yarriii
—AND BE SURE
TO WATCH OUT FOR
POLICE KILLBOTS,
WHICH ARE CURRENTLY
RAMPAGING OUT OF
CONTROL DUE TO A
SOFTWARE GLITCH!
FLAGPOLE.COM | MARCH 17, 2021
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