Beshear announced a $300 million award to city and county governments as part of the CARES Act. The funds will be administered by the Department for Local Government, and can be used for reimbursements of expenses used to comply with public health guidelines. 

To apply, local governments with COVID-19 related expenses from March 1 until December 30, 2020, will need to fill out an application with expense documentation, which is available on the DLG website at the link below, beginning Thursday at 8 a.m.

The funding is going to be allocated to the local governments based on approximate poppulation size as recorded in the most recent census.

The U.S. Department of Treasury has outlined specific guidelines and examples of eligible reimbursements below:

1. Are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID–19;
2. Were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020; and
3. Were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on Dec. 30, 2020.

Some of those eligible reimbursements may include the purchase of personal protective equipment for health and safety employees; expenses for communication and enforcement by governments for COVID-19-related public health orders; expenses for food delivery to nursing homes and vulnerable populations; improvements necessary for public employees to telework to comply with public health precautions; expenses for disinfection of public spaces and facilities; and payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care, human services and similar employees who dedicated substantial time to mitigating or responding to the public health emergency.

Additional information can be found at the link below.