Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Public Comments Several commenters suggested that debt service and reserve replenishment should qualify as the provision of a government service and be an eligible use of funds, up to the amount of revenue loss due to the pandemic. Many commenters indicated that they had been forced to borrow money or dip into reserve funds to continue providing government services during the public health emergency and that using SLFRF funds for resulting debt service or reserve replenishment costs should therefore be considered a government service. Many comments from Tribal governments noted that their governments depend on revenue from Tribal enterprises to pay government debts and provide services. The comments suggest that it should be an eligible use of SLFRF to replace lost revenue from these enterprises that would typically be used to pay debt service costs. Other commenters argued that paying the interest or principal on debt should in some cases be considered provision of government services and an eligible use of funds as such expenditures facilitate the provision of government services. Some commenters argued that debt costs or reserve drawdowns during the public health emergency constitute a negative economic impact to recipient governments, and thus debt service or reserve replenishment should be an eligible use to respond to that negative economic impact. For example, several commenters suggested that there should be a specific carve -out allowing the use of SLFRF funds for debt service on debt incurred for government services after January 27, 2020, the start of the public health emergency, or short-term debt incurred for this purpose. Others suggested that recipient governments should be able to service debt, up to the amount of debt incurred in direct response to the pandemic. These commenters generally 342