Rep Dan Johnson(file photo)
STATE GOVERNMENT — On Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Utah lawmakers convened in a Special session called by Governor Spencer Cox to decide how to spend nearly 2.8 billion dollars of COVID-19 relief funds coming from the federal government through the American Rescue Act.
On KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday, representative Dan Johnson (R – Logan) said it was amazing because of the work that had to be accomplished from the time this was first announced.
“There was a lot of work done by senators and representatives over the last few days. But was incredible the amount of work that the legal teams and the financial officers had to do in order to get it all received properly, and then make some decisions about where it was going to go,” Johnson explained.
Half of the money will come this year and half next year with the goal being investing the funds into long-term projects to help boost the economy.
“So we received this money and it’s December 2024 (that’s) sort of the deadline by when it gets spent. So we actually have 3 ½ years to spread this out.”
Johnson said the two things that received a lot of attention and got quite a bit of money put towards it is water and mental health. He said that’s important for residents to know because of the long-term drought and also the mental health and anxiety issues that have affected many, from young people to adults, over the last year.
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