EDITORIAL:

Look to North Las Vegas for guide on spending pandemic relief money

Mon, Aug 3, 2020 (2 a.m.)

When the city of North Las Vegas was shut out of federal coronavirus relief funding intended for municipalities and counties, city officials did the right thing for residents by fighting for a share of the money.

Then, when it obtained a $23.8 million allotment, the city kept doing the right thing for residents in deciding how to use it.

The city has allocated 83% of its CARES Act money into providing grants for small businesses, rent and mortgage assistance to households, residential and commercial utility assistance, child care assistance, broadband deployment and nonprofit grants.

That’s commendable. The city’s focus is exactly where it should be — on helping residents and businesses survive the crisis. It’s a refreshing departure from some cities that have used large portions of their federal funding to fund government payrolls and operations while devoting relatively little to providing aid for communities.

Speaking to city council members recently, North Las Vegas City Manager Ryann Juden said the city’s strategy was to “shore up our tax base, protect our most vulnerable, and keep our residents in their homes.”

“Investing these dollars in our community today, in many ways, stabilizes future revenues,” Juden told the council.

Good call. While it’s fine for cities to put some federal funding into essential government services, North Las Vegas has the right idea in spreading most of its CARES Act money into the community.

With Southern Nevada hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic and facing a long road to recovery, residents and businesses need all the support they can get to weather the crisis. That’s especially the case now, with Nevadans facing the phased-out expiration of eviction moratoriums beginning in September, and the end of federal $600 weekly unemployment supplements that have helped keep many families afloat during the pandemic.

For an idea of the situation in North Las Vegas, consider the findings of a recent survey of 200 businesses by city officials. The count showed that 86 had closed temporarily, and almost all had laid off staff or reduced employees’ hours. These businesses employed a combined 1,600 people, and many did not receive Paycheck Protection Program funds.

North Las Vegas initially was denied CARES Act funding, for reasons in dispute.

The distribution of the funding was somewhat complicated. Cities and counties with a population of more than 500,000 received funding directly from the U.S. Treasury, meaning that Las Vegas and Clark County got allotments directly from the federal government.

The rest was sent to the state government to distribute to the remainder of cities and counties, which is where the complication set in. The state argued that the other four cities in Clark County — North Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City — were covered by the county’s share it had received from the federal government and therefore weren’t entitled to a separate allotment. Those cities became the only municipalities in Nevada that didn’t receive a pass-through portion of the state’s $835.3 million in funding.

The cities protested that the state was misapplying the rules, but to no avail.

Clark County, to its credit, saved the day by distributing some of its funding to the Southern Nevada cities, which is where North Las Vegas got its $23.8 million in aid.

But city officials say they deserve more, and they’re still pressing for it with the state.

North Las Vegas made a compelling argument against the state.

In an impassioned guest column in the Sun last month, City Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown called it “breathtakingly unfair” that North Las Vegas had been shut out while counties without a single confirmed case of COVID-19 had received funding.

“Behind only the city of Las Vegas, which received $119 million in direct CARES Act funding, North Las Vegas has had the highest incidence rate of COVID-19 infection in Nevada,” she wrote. “As councilwoman for one of the largest minority-majority cities in the country, it is unjust and truly outrageous to exclude our state’s largest community of color from receiving this federal relief.”

Thank goodness Clark County stepped up, but here’s hoping North Las Vegas and the other Clark County cities prevail in their attempts to obtain more funding from the state. North Las Vegas believes it’s due another $20 million.

As the city has shown, it’s trustworthy to deliver the money responsibly. Actually, the city’s approach on distribution of the funding reflects years of reforms at North Las Vegas City Hall to make the government more user friendly and responsive to residents and businesses, such as streamlining and fast-tracking licensing processes. Meanwhile, efforts by the city to reduce wasteful spending at city hall and expand the tax base via an aggressive business recruitment program helped steer the city away from insolvency after the recession and put it on solid ground entering the pandemic.

Now, with its strategy on CARES Act funding, North Las Vegas again shows its eye is on the right ball — serving the best interests of the community, its residents and its businesses.

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