By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Even with the news that Bowling Green’s finances remain healthy, with income tax revenue up 10% last year, troubling questions were nagging at City Council President Mark Hollenbaugh at the conclusion of a financial update to council.
“Last week there was a bit of a ‘kerfuffle’ about a memo sent out over federal spending,” Hollenbaugh said Monday evening. That kerfuffle could have yanked $2.8 million in already approved funding for infrastructure projects in the city.
City Finance Director Dana Pinkett explained that the funding split for most federally assisted infrastructure projects is 90-10, with the federal government paying the big chunk.
When the memo was sent out by the White House last week, governmental agencies and non-profit organizations across the country began calculations to find out how much they were at risk of losing.
In Bowling Green, it could have been $2.1 million for the South Main Street project, and another $400,000 for the tree canopy program.
Pinkert recalled getting a concerned phone call from the city’s urban forester, asking, “Do I need to hold up what I’m doing?”
But there was something else that Hollenbaugh found unsettling. During his 30 years of teaching American government, he knew about presidential resolutions and executive orders.
“But I’ve never heard about a memo” that could result in the loss of trillions of dollars already approved by Congress, he said.
While the memo was rescinded a couple days after it was issued, Hollenbaugh has his doubts that the threat is dead.
“I don’t think the fact that it’s rescinded means that it’s done. It will probably come back,” he predicted.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, it’s going to come back,” Hollenbaugh said after the council meeting.
While the city could handle a short-term pause on federal grant funding, anything more would be detrimental to projects, Pinkert said.
“It would stall our projects,” she said.
“We plan projects sometimes years in advance,” Hollenbaugh said, listing examples such as the Main Street project and the multi-use trail for the Cogan’s Crossing neighborhood.
“If all the funding stopped arbitrarily, we’d be on the hook for all of that money,” he said.
The order from the White House last week threatened to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans and sparked mass confusion across the country. The Trump administration had insisted that direct payments to Americans were not at risk. But the list of programs at risk named many that aid millions of individual Americans, like Medicaid and Head Start.
The programs on the chopping block had been identified by Trump’s Office of Management and Budget for examination to ensure they do not “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and Green New Deal social engineering policies.”
In Wood County, the programs at risk deliver meals to seniors in their homes, provide early education to children, and help low income residents make home repairs.
Last week, Bowling Green Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter said city staff had been gathering information on the possible impact of the proposed federal cuts to city services.
City programs getting federal grant funding include BG Transit ($258,000), Community Development Block Grants ($282,000), BG Housing Authority rental subsidies ($471,000), and the Arbor Day Canopy Program ($400,000).
“There may be more, we just don’t know just yet,” Tretter said, explaining that some other funding threads may be connected to federal funds. “The lack of information was very challenging.”
“We never got any notification from HUD or ODOT,” Bowling Green Community Development Administrator Martha Woelke said during Monday’s City Council meeting. “At this point, we’re operating as usual.”
City officials aren’t alone in their concerns about funding already approved by Congress being withdrawn by the new administration.
At the Northwestern Water and Sewer District, headquartered north of Bowling Green, Executive Director Jerry Greiner said he was pretty nervous when he heard about the freeze.
Funding has been approved for water and sanitary sewer projects in Wood County, “but are the funds going to come?” Greiner wondered.
District officials are also concerned about American Rescue Plan Act funds that were approved by the Wood County Commissioners but involved federal funds.
“You worry about anything that has a federal tie to it,” Greiner said.
Messaging from the White House last week left questions about the looming threats about funds being frozen.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, emailed the following statement after the retraction of the funding memo:
“In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage. The executive orders issued by the president on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments. This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the president’s orders on controlling federal spending. In the coming weeks and months, more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding.”
