CARES Act money mishandled across Southern Minnesota
NEW RICHLAND Editor
Of nearly $7.5 million distributed to eleven southern Minnesota cities to support struggling persons and businesses, roughly 17.5 percent ($1.3 million) was awarded to local businesses according to federal guidelines. The remaining funds appear to have been used to pad city checkbooks.
Many southern Minnesota cities have used a loophole to allow the use of money from the Federal CARES Act program according to their own discretion. Cities are taking these funds and using them for previously budgeted safety salaries. Doing this allows these cities to take the funds previously allocated for public employee salaries and deposit them, as one director remarked, “Right into the bank account.”