Luverne City Council approves method for disbursing CARES Act funds to businesses

Luverne City Council members took action at their July 14 meeting to allocate $355,983 in state relief money to local small businesses affected by financial hardship due to the pandemic.
They unanimously approved a resolution to disburse the entire amount to 79 local small businesses identified by the Luverne EDA.
These businesses will receive the money in the form of grants that will show up as credit on their utility bills, 25 percent of the calculated amount as follows:
•August 2020 utility bill for July 2020 usage.
•September 2020 utility bill for August 2020 usage.
•October 2020 utility bill for September 2020 usage.
•November 2020 utility bill for October 2020 usage.
A review committee will consider requests or applications from other businesses not originally selected to be eligible to determine if they should qualify for the grant. The review committee will include City Administrator John Call, Mayor Pat Baustian and Finance Director Barb Berghorst.
The formula for disbursing the CARES Act funds is the same as the city of Luverne used earlier this year to provide relief for local small businesses.
The CARES Act — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act is a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law in March in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
In addition to using the money to reimburse for direct COVID-19 expenses, expenditures may be made in the form of grants to small businesses to reimburse the costs of business interruption caused by required closures.
Money was allocated to states based on population, and states in turn dispersed funds to counties and local governments.
In the past several weeks, local governments across the nation have been working to get CARES Act funds in the hands of those who need it most. See the related story about Rock County’s response.
Money received from the state of Minnesota can be used to reimburse necessary expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency that were not accounted for in the current budget and were incurred between March 1 and Dec.30, 2020.
It may not be used by a unit of government for revenue shortfalls.