The Boone County Commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance Aug. 24 that allows the county to seek reimbursement for COVID-19 expenditures, which a commissioner said could total approximately $1 million.
The ordinance establishes procedures county officials will follow to seek reimbursements for COVID-19 expenditures through state and federal grants and other forms of financial assistance, including the CARES Act.
“Some of them have more immediate reimbursement and others are going to be more long-term,” commissioner Tom Santelli said.
Santelli said county preliminary estimates for COVID-19 reimbursements total approximately $1 million. The reimbursements will be for items such as personal protective equipment, infrastructure, coroner expenditures, supplies and other atypical expenditures incurred by the county due to the pandemic.
As outlined by the ordinance, the county auditor will establish a designated fund for each source of reimbursement, in accordance with directives from the Indiana State Board of Accounts. Each disbursement from a county department or office will be allocated to the applicable fund.
Reimbursements will not result in the county or any county agency financially profiting from the pandemic, the commissioners said.
“These are strictly reimbursements for expenditures directly related to COVID,” Santelli said. “There are lots of rumors that people get reimbursed so much for each COVID case, and that is not at all accurate. This is just for expenditures. In no shape or form does any form of government benefit from this.”