With COVID-19 cases increasing, why isn’t Missouri spending millions in relief funds?
During the last two weeks, COVID-19 has hammered Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The community has averaged nearly six new cases each day per 10,000 residents, among the 20 worst COVID-19 rates in the nation.
Cape Girardeau County, near the Missouri Bootheel, reported more than 500 active coronavirus cases on Thursday. That’s the highest daily number since the crisis began in March.
Do we need any more reminders that COVID-19 still poses an imminent danger? Missouri is in the red zone for cases, the White House said in late September. Gov. Mike Parson and his wife both contracted the virus. More than 2,100 Missourians have died from it.
So it’s stunning to learn that nearly half of Missouri’s federal COVID-19 response funds remain unspent. In the latest accounting on her website, Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway said the state had spent just $1.6 billion of its $2.9 billion federal allotment for coronavirus mitigation and response.
The state received $2.1 billion from the CARES Act, Washington’s primary COVID-19 response fund.
Some of the money is undoubtedly in the spending pipeline. “We believe we are on track with appropriate levels of spending of the CARES Act funding,” Parson’s office said in a statement.
It’s clear, though, that Missouri has yet to spend millions in federal funds it has available to fight the coronavirus.
Where has Missouri spent its COVID-19 dollars so far? Masks. Equipment and supplies. Aid for school districts, as well as colleges and universities. Public safety.
At more than $500 million, direct aid to Missouri counties is the biggest single expenditure. That spending is appropriate and has helped in the fight against COVID-19.
Yet more must be done.
No one should support spending tax money just to spend it. And the law is clear: Federal coronavirus relief funds must be spent to respond to COVID-19, not to pay for other expenses or fix revenue shortfalls.
But it’s also clear that the state has the resources to do more to improve testing, tracing and COVID-19 prevention in the state.
In an interview on “4Star Politics,” the weekly program produced by The Star and WDAF-TV, Galloway, who is running for governor, criticized the slow pace of Parson’s COVID-19 spending.
“He’s just not acting with urgency,” she said. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars in CARES Act money stuck at the state, and not being utilized for our economic recovery and to fight this virus.”
The calendar will increase pressure on Missouri to improve its COVID-19 response. In general, federal cash left unspent by the end of the year must be returned to Washington. Missouri must do all it can to spend the money it has available to fight the coronavirus.
On Friday, Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts of Kansas introduced a bill extending the deadline. Congress should pass it.
On Wednesday, Parson hinted at a possible special session before Election Day to deal with COVID-19 spending. Democrats worry the session would be used to hamstring the governor’s spending authority in case Galloway wins her race against Parson.
That would be unacceptable in the extreme. Missouri must stop playing politics with the coronavirus. The state needs a coordinated, aggressive, full-on assault against COVID-19 wherever it is: schools, nursing homes, workplaces, shops and restaurants.
Missouri has plenty of money for that effort. The governor should lead it — once he recovers from COVID-19.