CHARLOTTE, Mich. — The Eaton County board of commissioners expects the County to receive about $21 million in stimulus money.
"My understanding that the money will be forthcoming 60 days after President Biden signed the stimulus bill. So theoretically, we're talking about probably the end of April," said the chairman of the Eaton County Board of Commissioners Jeremy Whittum.
Whittum is unsure how the money will be spent. He says the federal government did not send any administrative rules.
"The National Association of Counties is trying to determine what we can and can't do. We know that we're limited on what we can. We can't spend it for pensions," Whittum said.
When it's time to figure out how to allocate the money, it will be a negotiation between elected officials.
"We have 15 county commissioners, and it takes eight votes to pass anything legislatively in Eaton County," said Whittum. "And we will see. We will see what happens with negotiations between the 15 commissioners depending on the confines that may be coming with the federal administrative rules."
A meeting date for the board to discuss how to spend the stimulus money has not been set at this time.
Townships and cities should receive stimulus money directly.
Charlotte Mayor Michael Armitage says the city expects to receive money from the stimulus package. But he's unsure how much they will exactly get. Armitage says he has seen estimates of around $900,000.
"There are opportunities that city council will look at. You know there are many road projects if that's an allowable expense. You know we will probably look at that," Armitage said. "We have a lot of aging infrastructure. So, there's a lot of projects that definitely need some funding and some attention."
Armitage says they will be very strategic about how they invest this money.
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