Little rips $2.8B COVID relief package

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Idaho’s share of federal relief funding doled out in the wake of the economic stimulus package will reach more than $2.8 billion.

In a press conference Thursday, Gov. Brad Little said the Gem State’s cut of $1.9 trillion handed down from the American Rescue Plan needs to go to long-term investments, saying the aid package is ballooning the national debt.

“The plan is being mortgaged on our children’s and grandchildren's future,” Little said. “They will shoulder the burden to pay off this massive debt.”

Little’s press conference was a demonstration in reluctance, as he's been critical of the federal aid package pushed by President Joe Biden since it first came up for debate in Congress.

Little spent the first week of March going onto national platforms such as CNN to chastise what he describes as a disservice to Idaho, a state that relatively flourished economically during the pandemic. It’s a critique Little continued Thursday afternoon.

“Idaho could end up subsidizing poorly-managed states simply because we are using our record budget surplus to pursue historic tax relief for our citizens,” Little said.

But at the end of the day, Little said, he had little choice but to accept the package.

"All that said, rejecting the funds is not the right thing to do for Idaho," he said. "Rejecting the funds would mean California, New York, Illinois and other big states would get to spend Idahoans' tax dollars."

Just under $1.9 billion of the package is going to discretionary funding. Little said he’s allocating $1.188 billion to the state to cover its pandemic costs. Another $126 million will go to fund the state’s capital projects, $347 million will go to Idaho counties, and $229 million will go to Idaho cities.

On top of that, the package faces federal requirements that automatically direct $981 million toward childcare and education-related programs, nonprofit charities and services directed toward the impoverished.

During a Q&A following his statement, Little expressed disappointment that Idaho received among the lowest cuts among the states per capita, saying the state is getting less of a percentage despite managing the virus through a relatively open economy.

“In the last year, we got one of the smallest percentages of all the funding, when you add it all up, of any of the states,” Little said. “[It’s] because of our unemployment rate, because of the fact businesses were open.”

Idaho received $1.25 billion from the pandemic’s first relief package last April — the CARES Act — a package Little accepted, only to draw the ire of legislators who said they felt cut out of the loop.

With that package, the state had less than nine months to spend the funding, prompting a series of executive decisions to allocate the money.

“When the CARES Act funds arrived last year, we were in the throes of a crisis,” Little said. “We were dealing with a new virus and had little knowledge of the extent of its impacts. We had little testing, no treatments, too little PPE for hospitals and workers, and no vaccine. We needed to act quickly in deploying federal resources so we could prepare for the worst.”

But this time around, states have nearly four years to spend most of the funding. Little said he'll work with lawmakers in future sessions to allocate those federal dollars.

Still, not every decision has the luxury to wait. A healthy portion of the funding, primarily from the $981 million predetermined to go to education and childcare, must be spent within the next two months. Little said he has reached out to legislators to get a plan for that targeted spending, and that he's looking forward to working with legislators to direct funding, not only before this session ends but in sessions to come.

“We should not hastily spend the funds we receive,” Little said. “We should wait for guidance from the U.S. Treasury, so we responsibly allocate these resources. We must be thoughtful and deliberative in our approach.”